Walker's Crypt

Cryptocoryne walkeri

Sri Lanka

rosette midground foreground Conservation status: EN

Schott

Other scientific names:Cryptocoryne lutea 'Hobbit', Cryptocoryne legroi de Wit, Cryptocoryne lutea Alston, Cryptocoryne legroi, Cryptocoryne lutea, Cryptocoryne lutea minor

A medium-sized water trumpet from Sri Lanka, plain and reliable: it grows in dim light, in almost any water, and asks for nothing once it has settled.

Light: low–high
Difficulty: easy
Height: 10 – 25 cm
Temperature: 15 – 29 °C

Leaf colourgreen, bronze or brown

Plant typerosette

Growth rateslow

Tolerates lightlow – high

pH5 – 8

Carbonate hardness1 – 18 °dKH

General hardness0 – 30 °dGH

Placementmidground, foreground

Propagationrunners, rhizome division +2

Grows emersedyes

Appearance

Oval to lance-shaped leaves 10–25 cm tall on short stalks, from fresh green to olive and bronze depending on light. The rosette stays compact, and a group of them makes a low even thicket.

Keeping

Easy: dim or bright light both work, carbon dioxide is optional, and a nutritious substrate matters more than anything dosed in the water. Like all crypts it dislikes being moved and may drop its leaves after a transplant or a sudden change of water — the rhizome survives and pushes out new leaves within a few weeks. Grown above water it can flower.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, in a group. Over time the runners fill the gaps and the group closes up.

Propagation

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

Water conditions match

The water suits 1004 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

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

Other varieties: Cryptocoryne legroi, Cryptocoryne lutea, Cryptocoryne lutea 'Hobbit', Cryptocoryne walkeri 'Hobbit', Cryptocoryne walkeri "legroi", Cryptocoryne walkeri "lutea", Cryptocoryne walkeri Topf, Cryptocoryne walkeri Hobbit, Cryptocoryne walkeri Hobbit Topf, Cryptocoryne walkeri Hobbit in Vitro XL, Cryptocoryne walkeri Hobbit in Vitro, Cryptocoryne Lutea