Dwarf Water Trumpet

Cryptocoryne parva

The smallest of the water trumpets, and the only one that keeps the same narrow, grass-like leaves whatever the conditions. A rosette stays under 10 cm, which makes it one of the few foreground plants that never needs cutting.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 5 – 10 cm (2 – 3.9 in)
Temperature: 15 – 28 °C (59 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: very slow
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 1 – 18 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: nano tank, foreground +1 nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners, rhizome division +2 runners, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Stiff, upright leaves of an even green form a compact tuft 5 to 10 cm tall. Unlike its relatives it barely changes shape or colour with light, so a group planted together stays uniform.

Keeping

The exception to the family rule about shade: this one needs more light than other water trumpets, because underwater its leaf blade almost disappears. Never let taller plants overshadow it. Growth is very slow — a filled-in group takes about half a year, and a nutrient-rich substrate is what shortens the wait.

Placement

A foreground plant for small and medium tanks. Plant individual rosettes two to three centimetres apart and let them join up; planting them tight only makes them compete.

Conservation

The species is listed as endangered in the wild, where it is confined to a handful of Sri Lankan streams. Plants in the trade are propagated in nurseries, so keeping it costs the wild population nothing.

Water conditions match

The water suits 999 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.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Cryptocoryne Parva Mini

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Cryptocoryne parva: de Wit
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: EN

Dwarf Water Trumpet

Tank conditions

Care and keeping