Cryptocoryne Affinis

Cryptocoryne Sp. Affinis Aka Cryptocoryne Sp. Haerteliana SUBMERSED Spathe Update

Upon noticing this plant flowering in submersed conditions, I begun taking weekly photo’s and watched the spathe daily to record it’s growth. Roughly speaking; the plant grew 0.75 inches a day (3/4 inch) on the slowest day, and 1.5 inches on it’s fastest day.

Since the plant is in an aquarium that is 22 inches tall, I didn’t imagine the spathe would be able to reach the surface since I’ve never seen another spathe this large throughout my research; however upon doing my daily check up on the aquarium yesterday, I noticed the spathe finally reached the surface. The only downfall is I also noticed the spathe was beginning to partially melt where it had broken the surface, so I decided to immediately cut it down to document the spathe and take some closer pictures.

After measuring the spathe it came in at a whopping 17+ inches !! to understand the sheer scale of the spathe, I took a video with the spathe against my arm, in which it reached from my elbow to wrist; I will post the video in a few days once edited.

Enjoy the pictures below!

Cryptocoryne Cf. Affinis

I originally purchased this plant as Cryptocoryne Cf. Affinis and to my understanding the .Cf is used when the species is undefined/unknown. I’ve had this plant growing in emersed conditions ever since I got it and it’s displayed a wide variety of colours for me in the time I’ve had it as you’ll see in the pictures below.

I hope one day this plant will send up a spathe so I can hopefully ID it but it’s still gorgeous nevertheless

As always here are the conditions in which it’s kept

Lighting- Coralife T5NO Dual Bulb – 6700k and rosette bulb – Lights are on for 10 hours.
PH- 7.5
Substrate- Homemade substrate mix, cow manure, sheep manure, worm castings, natural red clay, and cheap topsoil.

Cryptocoryne Sp. Affinis Aka Cryptocoryne Haerteliana

I first purchased this plant at the Peel Region Aquarium Club auction in November of 2013 and since then I have seen a significant amount of growth with this plant considering I have it in a VERY low-tech aquarium besides the pressurized CO2. I keep this plant in my fathers aquarium to give him some “flavour” besides the Anubias sp. and Bolbitis sp. he likes to keep and it’s been sending runners and growing like a weed in comparison to how I have it growing emersed.

There is no “special” gravel or additional root tabs added to the substrate and it’s not even a “real” substrate as it’s an old-school substrate which is basically just painted pieces of some type of “plastic” material as we could say? Anyone who has been keeping fish tanks for a number of years knows exactly what I am talking about, the gravel itself is not a real rock composition and seems to be manufactured in the masses out of a cheap material.

Although there is no special substrate, the thing that this aquarium has going for it is that it’s collected well over 12 years of fish waste which the plants can feed off of for quite a while. One day this will however run out, which is why I’ve fully stocked the aquarium with a large bio load in order to feed the plants accordingly. My father does not like to keep up with regular maintenance in terms of additional fertilizers so I try to limit this by supplementing a larger bio load to feed the plants which has been doing perfectly fine.

As you can see in the pictures below the Cryptocoryne sp. Affinis is growing absolutely great; it is in a 40 gallon tall aquarium and the plant itself is at least 14-16 inches tall considering the tank itself is 22″ tall. Throughout the year that it’s been planted it has sent over 12 daughter plants/runners and continues to grow strong with the conditions that it’s in. I believe the pressurized CO2 does account for the majority of the growth, although I do have it under a tinted glass lid, AND black screen shade cloth since the Marineland Aquatic Plant LED has given me PAR results of over 140 at a 19″ depth which should be slowing down the growth.

Below are some pictures of the plant and as you can see the daughter plants have yet to develop their bullate leaves like the mother plant.

Overall this is a fairly easy Cryptocoryne to keep although it is not as commonly found in the hobby like it once was. If you do get a chance to purchase this plant, DO SO RIGHT AWAY!

As always here is the conditions I also keep the plant in

PH- 7.4 at night, 6.5 during the day when CO2 is on.
Temperature- 72-74
Lighting- Marineland Aquatic Plant LED with the use of tinted glass cover + blade shade cloth underneath the light.
Filtration- Marineland C220 Canister Filter and Hagen Aquaclear Mini
Substrate- Cheap artificial aquarium gravel
Water Changes- X 1 a week
Dosing- Micro + Macro during every water change once a week

Cryptocoryne Sp. Affinis

This is one of my all time favourite Cryptocoryne’s in terms of appearance, from the deep purple/red colour of the leaves to the bullate part of the leaves, this is a beautiful plant. I’m currently keeping this plant in emersed form and submersed form in which they look completely different from each other. Speaking from experience, this plant does not like any changes in it’s environment, I’ve had the entire plant melt back on me after moving it but as long as it’s roots are in tact the plant will bounce back.

Here is what I’ve been able to tell with the Cryptocoryne Sp. Affinis in which the variety I have I believe is also known as C. Haertliniana

Submersed Form

– Light purple to deep purple or red undertone.
– Green bullate leaves with pink vein coming through the middle
– Can get extremely tall, I’ve had specimens over 22″ in height
– Is said to do best in harder water but my specimen grows extremely well in 6.5 PH+Pressurized CO2+Micro+Macro+Med Light
– Sends multiple runners in a long chain once establishes, propagates very well.

Emersed Form

– DEEP purple,red,pink,brown, and green colours all mixed in a hue. Undertone of leaf is generally very deep purple
– EXTREMELY bullate leaves
– Very “Flat” when grown under high light
– Send’s multiple runners but at a much slower rate than submersed form. Root’s also get bound after a while due to being grown in a pot, this plant does best in a large 4X4 square pot at minimum.
– Doesn’t like the humidity too high, this plant will melt back when humidity exceeds 90% and such high humidity will bring on unwanted mould’s/algae’s.