My first crypt melt... :(

Jbrofish8

Its pretty bad. And it happened over 1-2 days. I came home from work and almost every crypt wendtii i have melted. A few of my undulated crypts are also melting, though not nearly as bad.

I really cant figure out what could cause almost every crypt in my tank to either somewhat melt, or completely melt.

Nothing has changed at all that I can notice, my tank bulb is only 2 months old, so I dont think its gone bad. I did my WWC on sunday, like usual. They melted on Thursday.

Any chance of these guys coming back or should I just pull them out of the tank?

Heres some shots of my wendtii. :(

Attached Images

	melt 007.jpg (66.7 KB, 33 views)
	melt 011.jpg (64.9 KB, 32 views)

Boredomb

My crypt undulated did the same thing. It didn't completely melt just half of it. It was the exact thing wwc on Sunday crypt melt on Wednesday or Thursday. I was told to leave mine alone. Just to siphon out the dead leaves and wait. Mine still hasn't started to grow leaves back.

Jbrofish8

If i siphon out the dead leaves, im afraid im going to disturb the roots since its basically the entire plant that has melted. The profiles for crypts say to be very careful not to disturb the roots, so now Im afraid to touch it! It was looking so pretty in that corner... now its so ugly and sad looking. :(

MinaMinaMina

Aw, they look so sad! They look so dejected, like they're pouting!
I don't have any advice, I just wanted to commiserate. Keep your chin up, your other plants look great!

Jbrofish8

I know! They look like sad little plants.. :( Hopefully they bounce back. *crosses fingers*

Boredomb

You might wanna get them out of there the dying or dead leaves may fowl the water.

aunt kymmie

Instead of siphoning just use your fingers to pinch off and remove the mushy leaves. I've had this happen every once in a while to a crypt and I gently remove the crappy leaves, don't disturb the roots and they do come back. Sometimes it takes quite awhile but nearly all of mine that started melting have returned from the dead. I never did figure out why mine melted, except for one. It was a massive wendtii that I thought I would separate in half in order to have two plants instead of one. Both halves died. Lame move by me.

Byron

Something in your tank changed, and it could be any number of things. It might have been the water change [I've had this occur, when tap water pH changed without my knowing it]. I've almost given up on crypts, between meltdowns and cyanobacteria (only in tanks with crypts).

Siphon the mush out, it will all be loose, leave what isn't. They will or won't come back, usually they do, but it can be days to weeks to several months. Karen Randall had crypts that came back after more than a year when the roots were just left in the substrate.