Cryptocoryne 'Pink Flamingo' on the Surface:

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Pink Flamingo' is a tissue-culture cultivar of Cryptocoryne wendtii, a rosette-forming rooted plant native to the streams and wetlands of Sri Lanka. It grows from a rhizome buried in the substrate, sending up ruffled, lance-shaped leaves that emerge salmon pink and hold that color under stronger light. In the Botanical Method Aquarium, it grows best when rooted into a nutrient-rich substrate beneath a low-tint water column, where it provides ground-level cover and a grazing surface for shrimp, fish, and microfauna.

Essential Details

• Care Level: Easy
• Growth Habit: Growth via rhizomes; melts back and regrows from the rhizome after disturbance or transplant
• Light: Medium
• CO2: Not Necessary
• Propagation: Spreads via runners from the rhizome; plantlets can be separated once rooted
• Tint Tolerance: Low to High
• Habitat Location: Sri Lanka (wild species); 'Pink Flamingo' is a tissue-culture cultivar, not found in the wild
• Optimal For: Shrimp, dwarf cichlids, betta fish, and other species suited to a rooted foreground or midground plant in blackwater and biotope aquariums
• Use with Caution: Rinse before introducing; may carry beneficial hitchhiking snails, snail eggs, or duckweed
• Size Range: Leaves reach roughly 4 inches (10 cm) at maturity
• Quantities: Sold as a potted plant

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Pink Flamingo' for Planted Aquariums & Blackwater Biotopes

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Pink Flamingo' is a heavy root feeder, drawing nutrients through the rhizome rather than from the water column the way stem plants do. In the Botanical Method Aquarium, a layer of aquasoil or root tabs beneath the substrate supplies the nutrients it needs to grow well. Light intensity impacts its leaf coloration the same way it drives Red Tiger Lotus: strong light promotes a deep salmon pink, and as available light drops, the pink fades toward green.

Melting is a normal part of keeping Cryptocorynes: leaves die back and dissolve after shipping, a water change with different chemistry, a temperature swing, or being uprooted and replanted. In the wild, Cryptocoryne wendtii goes through a related dieback each dry season, when falling water levels expose submerged leaves to open air before the plant regrows emersed once the rains return. In the aquarium, that same rhizome response is triggered by disturbance rather than season, and new leaves typically emerge within four to six weeks.

Beneath the Leaves: Cryptocoryne wendtii in the Wild

Cryptocoryne wendtii grows submerged and along the margins of slow-moving streams and seasonally flooded wetlands across Sri Lanka, rooting in sediment where water levels and clarity shift with the rains. It is one of the most variable Cryptocoryne species in cultivation, producing a wide range of leaf color, shape, and texture across populations from different parts of the island, which is part of why it has become the source of so many named cultivars in the aquarium trade. 'Pink Flamingo' is one of those cultivars, stabilized through tissue culture in the early 2010s. Its exact parentage within the species is not fully settled, and unlike the wild forms it descends from, it does not occur in nature; it exists because tissue culture propagation preserved and multiplied a color form that would otherwise be difficult to hold true to type from seed.

Where a botanical contributes as it breaks down, an aquatic plant is living and contributes as it grows. So let them grow. Mother Nature leads the way.

Sustainability Note:

Please select a heat/cold pack if necessary. Check your local weather before ordering to avoid any shipment holds or cancellations. All Plants may contain snails or snail eggs. We keep them in all of our aquariums for the benefits they provide. Our blackwater aquarium plants are provided in cooperation with PNW Bettas in adherence to their Shipping and DOA Policies. Your curated selection will arrive in their packaging separate from your botanical, wood & merch orders.