Wavy Crypt

Cryptocoryne undulata

A hardy crypt with narrow wavy leaves that shift between green and bronze-red depending on the light. One of the oldest plants in the hobby and still one of the most reliable.

Light: low–high
Difficulty: easy
Height: 15 – 30 cm (5.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 15 – 28 °C (59 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 1 – 18 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, foreground
Propagation: runners, rhizome division +2 runners, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Leaves with strongly wavy edges on long stalks, 15–30 cm tall, often marked with a darker pattern. Colour runs from bright green in a dim tank to bronze-red under strong light.

Keeping

Easy and tolerant of almost any tank: dim or bright light, soft or hard water. It does best in a nutritious substrate, and carbon dioxide speeds it up. Like all crypts it dislikes being moved and may drop its leaves after a change of water or a transplant — the rhizome stays alive and grows new ones within a few weeks.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, in a group. Over time the runners fill the space between plants and the group becomes a thicket.

Propagation

By runners: young plants appear around the parent and are cut off once they have leaves of their own.

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 axelrodii, Cryptocoryne undulata 'Broad Leaves', Cryptocoryne undulata ’Broad Leaf’, Cryptocoryne undulata axelrodii, Cryptocoryne undulata axelrodii Topf, Cryptocoryne undulata Broad Leaves, Cryptocoryne undulata Broad Leaves Topf, Cryptocoryne undulata Green, Cryptocoryne undulata Green Topf, Cryptocoryne undulata Broad Leaves 1 2 GROW, Cryptocoryne Undulatus Red

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cryptocoryne axelrodii Rataj, Cryptocoryne willisii Engler ex Baum (1909), non Reitz (1908), Cryptocoryne axelrodii, Cryptocoryne willisii
Cryptocoryne undulata: Wendt
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: EN

Wavy Crypt

Tank conditions

Care and keeping