Just one week ago, a tiny Cryptocoryne wendtii leaf popped up against the glass, in a dense carpet of Sagittaria subulata. Normally I'd pull a plant growing in an area I've reserved for another species, but it was too small and delicate. Two days later, a second leaf unrolled, and then later a third. So today I decide that the plant is growing very fast and it's time to come out and be relocated.
So I gently pulled...
...and pulled...
...and pulled...
...and finally this popped out.
![Image]()
It was located, just below where the assassin snail is on the glass. It's root went more than 15" towards the Cryptocoryne 'fence'. Perhaps it was a little plantlet that was adrift in the current, and caught in the carpet, which somehow grew an enormous root because it was able to reach deeper than the Sag? Or perhaps the root actually started as an undergravel runner that came from the larger Cryptocoryne wendtii plants, which couldn't poke through the tight weave of the carpeting Sag roots, until it hit the glass. Not sure, but I guess I've got proof a very fertile substrate.
I cut the root, and put the plant into it's species zone, and I put the long root into the fine sand of another tank. Maybe the root has enough energy to sprout a new leaf.
So I gently pulled...
...and pulled...
...and pulled...
...and finally this popped out.
It was located, just below where the assassin snail is on the glass. It's root went more than 15" towards the Cryptocoryne 'fence'. Perhaps it was a little plantlet that was adrift in the current, and caught in the carpet, which somehow grew an enormous root because it was able to reach deeper than the Sag? Or perhaps the root actually started as an undergravel runner that came from the larger Cryptocoryne wendtii plants, which couldn't poke through the tight weave of the carpeting Sag roots, until it hit the glass. Not sure, but I guess I've got proof a very fertile substrate.
I cut the root, and put the plant into it's species zone, and I put the long root into the fine sand of another tank. Maybe the root has enough energy to sprout a new leaf.
