Wendt's Water Trumpet

Cryptocoryne wendtii

A rosette plant from the streams of Sri Lanka and one of the few aquarium plants that asks for almost nothing. It settles in dim corners, in hard water and under the shade of taller neighbours, and repays the neglect with a dense clump of wavy leaves.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 5 – 35 cm (2 – 14 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, pink or purple +1 green, pink or purple, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 1 – 18 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, foreground +1 midground, foreground, background
Propagation: runners, rhizome division +2 runners, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Leaves rise from a central rosette on short stalks and vary from fresh green to deep bronze and purple, depending on light and substrate. A clump reaches 5 to 35 cm, so the same plant can serve as a foreground group in a tall tank or as a background thicket in a shallow one.

Keeping

It tolerates soft and hard water alike and grows without added carbon dioxide, though feeding the roots speeds it up noticeably. The one thing it dislikes is being disturbed: after transplanting or a sharp change in water chemistry the old leaves often melt away. Leave the roots alone and new leaves grow back within weeks.

Placement

Plant single rosettes a hand apart in the middle ground; they close the gaps themselves. Because the leaves lie almost flat when nothing shades them, an open spot produces a low carpet, while a crowded one pushes the plant upright.

Propagation

Runners appear from the base and produce daughter rosettes a few centimetres away. Once a daughter has three or four leaves of its own, it can be separated with a piece of rhizome.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1007 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.

Cryptocoryne wendtii ''braun''

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Flamingo'

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Florida Sunset'

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko'

Cryptocoryne wendtii ''grün''

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Mi Oya'

Other varieties: Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica', Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green', Cryptocoryne wendtii Indonesia, Cryptocoryne wendtii Kompakt, Cryptocoryne wendtii Rubella, Cryptocoryne wendtii Rubella Ecoscape, Cryptocoryne wendtii Affinis Rot, Cryptocoryne wendtii Flamingo Pink Panther, Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown, Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown Indo, Cryptocoryne Wendtii Gecko, Cryptocoryne sp. 'Flamingo', Cryptocoryne spec. 'Flamingo', Cryptocoryne sp. ''Sunset'', Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Bronze'

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cryptocoryne wendtii jahnelii, Cryptocoryne wendtii krauteri, Cryptocoryne wendtii nana, Cryptocoryne wendtii rubella
Cryptocoryne wendtii: de Wit
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: NT

Wendt's Water Trumpet

Tank conditions

Care and keeping