Cryptocoryne albida Red

Care at a glance

Overview

A small crypt for the foreground or a nano midground. It survives in low light, but the pink-red colour only really develops under medium or stronger light with decent fertilisation, and retailers disagree about how demanding it is: some rate it easy with CO2 optional, others treat it as a CO2 plant. Plan for the cautious middle: nutrient-rich substrate or root tabs, stable parameters, and CO2 if you want colour and reasonable speed. Expect melt after planting, possibly heavier than the average crypt, and leave it in place to rebuild from the roots. It spreads slowly by runners.

In the wild

A red-pink colour form of Cryptocoryne albida known almost entirely from cultivation, circulating mostly as tissue culture. The parent species grows on sandy stream banks in southern Myanmar and Thailand, emersed in the dry season and submersed when water levels rise.

Good to know

A selection of Cryptocoryne albida (family Araceae, Cryptocoryne crispatula group) picked out for pink to red leaves with dark striping reminiscent of Cryptocoryne nurii. It is one of the smallest crypts in the trade, a low rosette of narrow leaves around 8-13 cm tall. The colour is a cultivation selection, not a separate species or wild variety.

Did you know

Depth of colour tracks light and nutrients so closely that the same clone can sit brownish green in a dim tank and shift toward pink under stronger light, which is why photos of this crypt online rarely look like the same plant.

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