A reader is setting up a tank with some Cryptocoryne and asks which fish would complement the pink colours. Jeremy advises...
Q) I am setting up a new tank in which I want to grow some Cryptocoryne sp. ‘Flamingo’. It will have injected CO2, LED lighting and liquid fertilisers, plus an external filter and a black background. I’m using manzanita wood and Tropica soil. What small fish would complement the pink colours of this crypt?
NHÂN VELDHUIS, VIA EMAIL
A) Jeremy says: ‘Flamingo’ is a pink form of Cryptocoryne wendtii which was cultivated first by nursery owner Dennerle about ten years ago. It’s hardy with regard to pH and temperature, and can be cultivated either in a dim, slow, low-tech set-up without CO2 or a brightly lit high-tech set-up with CO2. It’s meant to stay small at just a few centimetres in height — and that’s the height it was when I was first given some by Dennerle years ago, but C. wendtii can and does grow much larger than people give it credit for if given the space, and I’ve even seen specimens outgrow both the foreground and the midground in some aquascapes.
For fishy partners try Cherry barbs or Glowlight danios, or the original Pygmy rasbora, Boraras maculatus.