Willis's Crypt

Cryptocoryne willisii

A small water trumpet with narrow bright green leaves that spreads into a low thicket. One of the easiest plants for a dim tank.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 10 – 20 cm (3.9 – 7.9 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

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

Appearance

Long narrow leaves 10–20 cm tall on short stalks, plain green, growing in a loose rosette. Older plants stand in a group of rosettes joined by runners.

Keeping

Easy and slow. Dim light suits it, carbon dioxide is optional, and a nutritious substrate is what it really wants. Like all crypts it dislikes being moved and may drop its leaves after a transplant or a sharp change in water — the rhizome stays alive and grows new ones within a few weeks.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, in a group. Given a year it closes into a low green thicket and needs nothing. Fits a nano tank.

Propagation

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

Water conditions match

The water suits 1016 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 lucens, Cryptocoryne × willisii "lucens", Cryptocoryne × willisii "nevillii", Cryptocoryne × willisii "Pigmea", Cryptocoryne x willisii, Cryptocoryne x willisii Pygmi, Cryptocoryne x willisii lucens, Cryptocoryne x willisii lucens Topf, Cryptocoryne x willisii nevillii, Cryptocoryne x willisii nevillii Topf, Cryptocoryne sp Wallisii, Cryptocoryne sp Wallisii Topf, Cryptocoryne x willisii Pygmi in Vitro

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cryptocoryne lucens De Wit, Cryptocoryne ''pigmea'', Cryptocoryne lucens
Family: Araceae

Willis's Crypt

Tank conditions

Care and keeping