Cryptocoryne crispatula var. flaccidifolia

Cryptocoryne crispatula

A variety from southern Thailand (the Malay Peninsula): long, narrow, limp leaves ranging from smooth to wavy, green to red-brown — hence the name 'limp-leaved'. Underwater leaves are 20–50 cm long and 5–12 mm wide.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 20 – 50 cm (7.9 – 20 in)
Temperature: 8 – 30 °C (46 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 6 – 9
Carbonate hardness: 5 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +2 background, midground, specimen, nano tank
Propagation: runners, rhizome division +2 runners, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Leaves long, narrow, ranging from smooth to wavy, green to red-brown; underwater leaves are 20–50 cm long and 5–12 mm wide. The leaves are limp both above and below water — hence the name 'limp-leaved' (flaccidifolia). The thin rhizomes creep out of the substrate over time. Forms of various colour and waviness exist, growing side by side in the wild. It differs from var. balansae: that one has wider leaves, 15–40 mm, with a hammered texture, while flaccidifolia has a smooth or wavy edge, without hammering.

Keeping

Easy, growth moderate, light from dim to strong, CO₂ 5–40 mg/l, temperature 20–26 °C. In the wild it grows mostly underwater in streams and rivers in dense stands, drying out partly when the water level drops; the inflorescence, with a long, spirally twisted blade, rises above the water as in the other varieties.

Placement

Background and midground, a centrepiece.

Trade names

Often in the trade, but usually not under its own name — instead as 'Cryptocoryne retrospiralis'; the true C. retrospiralis from India is almost absent from cultivation.

Water conditions match

The water suits 990 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Spined Loach Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Will uproot it

These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.

Marble Loach Peacock Eel Forktail Loach Guntea Loach Long-nosed Loach Horseface Loach Pearlscale Black Moor Goldfish Shubunkin Painted Pleco Featherfin Synodontis Reddish Mystus Catfish Blue Acara Aulonocara maylandi Aulonocara multicolor Aulonocara Orchid Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearlscale Cichlid Pearl Cichlid Redbelly Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Chuco godmanni Haplochromis philander Red Chromide Jack Dempsey cichlid

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cryptocoryne balansae Gagnep., Cryptocoryne kwangsiensis H.Li, Cryptocoryne longispatha Merr., Cryptocoryne tonkinensis Gagnep., Cryptocoryne retrospiralis var. tonkinensis (Gagnep.) de Wit, Cryptocoryne retrospiralis crispathula, Cryptocoryne retrospiralis crispatula
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: LC