Johor Crypt Hunting Trip

Didn't make any plan on the Medeka(Independence) day weekend and organised a crypt hunting with a friend at the very last minute. Got delayed by usual wardround and leave KL only by 10pm. After 3 hours drive we reached Panti, a small area near infamous Kota Tinggi Johor. We went to a schulzei site which my friend visited years ago. We were glad to find that the site is still well preserved. The water level was low, the crypts were very healthy and it was flowering.

Crypt schulzei at the bank of small creek. Substrate consist of clay, sand and leaf litters.

Typical schulzei flower, yellow limb with red throat. Didn't realise there was a fresh water crab beside the flower until I review the photo at home.

After a quick lunch at a local mamak store(not tasty at all), we move on to search for new location. My friend was looking for blackwater fishes and I was all geared for crypts. God of luck must be on my side as we found a few new crypt sites. Not much luck(or rather not much time) in fish hunting though.

We found a new site with crypts that looks like crypt graffithis. Unfortunately we didn't find any flower to confirm it. We also found some blue color mini shrimps(adult size about 1cm). Unfortunately I didn't take any picture and Ngiam have all of them. I was too excited collecting crypts.

Crypt biotope. Substrate are loose mud mixed with leaf litter. Very dangerous area. a wrong step and you will sink til hip level and possibly deeper. They are as dangerous as quicksand.

? Crypt Graffithi

A smaller plant have leafs that is brown in color and elongate shape. ? Crypt graffithi

This area also have healthy growth of nepenthes ampullaris. They are everywhere. Never seen so much ampullaris before.

Nepenthes ampullaris speckle. The grows in bundle on the grow or hang in a bundle. No wonder ampullaris are nick named "Apple".

Nepenthes ampullaris green or "Green Apple" growing on ground.

We then moved on to Mersing area. This seem to be a crypt day. We spotted crypt population repeatedly. Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most likely crypt schulzei. tiny plant that is at the bank of very fast flower stream. They grow between the roots of bag trees. Mud was the main substrate.

Submerged crypt schulzei in fast stream

Another spot with crypts. If you don;t look carefully, you might pass it on as collection of death leaf as the leafs were reddish brown in color.

Most likely schulzei. But some expert think it could still be nurii or affinis. Affinis has never been found this so far south though.

The crypts are huge, up to 2 feet high. They burrowed themself deep into the substrate composed mainly of sand and leaf litters. It was difficult to collect this specimen as we have to dig deep into the sand.

I planted them into by aquarium and notice that they have very beautiful and rare red marking on the leaf. This is first time I see so intense red on crypt.

Just before dusk. We made another stop and found yet another healthy grow of crypt schulzei. Some were flowering.

Although these photos showed green leaf with red marking. when I brought them back home, the leaf are light brown color with jade green tiger marking.

Schulzei flowers