Crypt trimming, spacing, nana emersed trimming

[fish_4_all]

I have trimmed Crypt Red Wendtii down to nothing and right now it looks better than it ever has. The question is, I have older looking, like emersed leaves growing algae on my other two crypts, Crypt Becketti and Crypt Lucens. Can I remove all the old growth and be ok like I was with the Wendtii or are these crypts different? The Lucens has 7 new leaves almost full sized and the Becketti have 2 new leaves each. Lucens has well over 12 old leaves and the Becketti only has 2 old per plant. Lucens is a conglomeration of at least 6 plants that I kept together for the effect I want from it. Becketti is very slow growing but the Lucens is a lot faster growing twice if not 10 times as fast as the Becketti and a lot faster than the Wendtii. Same tank but the Wendtii is in a different tank.

One other question about crypts, do the leaves live a long time or do they die off after a time?

Ok, can anyone tell me if I should remove some of the older leaves on my nana to allow for the submerged growth to have a better chance to grow faster?

Ok, no one for that yet so can anyone tell me if I need to or if it would be better if I were to seperate the Lucens a little ways apart so they can form a large mass or should I leave them together?

 

[An t-iasg]

Crypts, in my experience, are unpredictable! Sometimes it seems like a crypt melts for no reason or sometimes you can uproot it and it's fine.

Here's what I would do - I would remove the leaves on the beckettii and lucens that have algae on them. If not removed, these leaves may melt anyway due to lack of light that can get to them, if they are covered in algae that bad. If you are careful not to disburb the roots while you trim, they should not melt. Are all 12 old leaves on the lucens covered in algae? If the lucens in a group is working for you and you like the look, then leave them that way. If you want to separate them, it may make them grow a little faster.

I had a lucens growing up through a narrow-leaf sag. It grew so fast through the sag and didn't seem to mind all the sag leaves around it. When I did separate them, because the crypt was becoming invisible in the sag, the lucens melted two leaves (still had about 5) but then a new leaf appeared in about two weeks. If you do uproot some crypts, trim the roots a little and be sure to put a root tab under them. This seems to help so the melt won't be as bad. Before I moved my lucens, it went for 6 months without a melt.

I had two beckettii once. They did grow slowly, but they got to about 6 inches tall. Their leaves were held a bit more upright than a wendtii. After I moved the beckettii, they never recovered. I eventually threw the tubers out because they never did grow any more leaves and and the tuber was very mushy at that point.

For your Anubias nana, I would also trim off any old leaves with algae. One of my nanas had six leaves and four were covered with algae. I trimmed the four off and I was worried that I would kill it. Within a few weeks, it had four new little tiny leaves! I have read that trimming the algae-covered leaves will usually stimulate some new ones to grow. In my experience, that seems to be true. Even if the leaves aren't too algae-covered (but ususally older leaves do have some algae), trim off the older ones to get some new leaves to grow.

 

[fish_4_all]

Well non of them are "covered" with algae, just a little on the leaves with not much to worry about. They just look like they are converting to submerged growth from emersed growth.

The anubias is growing 7 new leaves all at the same time, it also looks like it is trying to convert back to submerged growth. The largest new leaf is a much lighter green than the others. It is also putting out some roots that don't look anything like the ones it has. I guess it really likes the tanks and is starting to adjust to higher light.

I guess the main thing is the question of emersed growth, does it need to be removed to allow the submerged growth to really get a head start? Will plant companies grow crypts emersed? I know they will anubias and I have little doubt that this one was grown emersed.

Here are pictures of them, maybe someone can tell me for sure if it is converting.

 

[Purrbox]

It's normal for new leaves on an Anubias to be a lighter shade of green. As they mature they will darken back up. No need to remove the old leaves unless they are thoroughly covered with algae or otherwise starting to look pretty bad.

 

[fish_4_all]

Thanks purrbow, I really didn't want to try and trim this thing. Is kinda odd though that most say it grows really slow and I have 7 leaves coming out. Hopefully that doesn't mean I won't get any leaves for 6 months to average things out. 8O