Experience of Buying Wendtii Cyrpts from Different Shops

[Ben_RF]

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Typically, I buy most my plants from Aquarium Co Op online because of the quality and customer support.  However, with the recent edition of my 90 gallon aquarium, I thought I would check out other places.  So all together I bought wendtii crypts from 6 stores from youtube, 5 stores from TikTok, and 6 stores from ebay.

Man, y'all, I got to tell you something.  Aquarium Co-Op has it going on.  The quality and size you get from the Co Op for their wendtii crypts dominates hard everybody that I compared them too.  The only ones that came close were those who had TikTok channels selling the crypts out of their own tanks.  Most wendtii crypts I have bought from the Co Op also tend to be more than just one, and usually have one to two babies coming off the main  The baby plants were on average the size of most of the wendtii crypts that I received from everyone.  Also I think it is worth mentioning that nearly all of the youtube stores and all of the ebay stores sent fully uncoverted wendtii crypts. Where as the hobbist from TikTok sold converted wendtii crypts. Something else that made me a bit puzzled with this whole thing is that a lot of these stores from youtube and ebay sent wendtii crypts that looked near identicial in every which way, including the little bags they were packed in.  I almost wonder if they didn't buy it from one place and immediately repackage it for sell. Something else that I have been a bit surprised about is how little melt I get from the wendtii crypts from the Co Op in comparison to everyone else that I bought from.  I can't really explain this one as I have fairly hard water.  

Anyhow, I just wanted to write this post to brag on Aquarium Co Op for a bit.  So yes, I did spend a bit of money to satisify my curiosity in wanting to know how is the Co Op in comparison to others. And I am happy to say the Co Op is amazing and I regret that I didn't buy all my crypts from them.  I would have been much better served if I did. Plus I could have added to my sticker collection 🙂 Anyhow this little mini experiment has for sure helped to solidify my trust in the Co Op.   

So y'all if you are thinking of getting crypts, get them from the Co Op.  Based on my experience they dominate the competition. 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Ben_RF

[Streetwise]

I will occasionally purchase plants locally, but the Co-Op plants are so reliable.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Streetwise

[Ragnarok12]

I am considering buying crypts and this post is extremely helpful 😄 Not that I would ever doubt the Co-op's quality, but still nice to have confirmed that you had the best buying experience from them as opposed to other boutique vendors.

[Cory]

You've done some of the same testing we do 😉 Obviously not calling anyone out. But it is common practice to order plants in and then send them to customers without them ever hitting water. This is why a lot of companies only ship plants on out on certain days... Cause they don't want to house the plants. In my testing this also leads to much more out of stock from them. If you presell plants, and the farm doesn't ship them in, they just refund that money or substitute. We only sell plants we actually have sitting in aquariums in the warehouse. We have someone walk daily and remove any plants unfit for sale etc. To limit the possibility of a poor experience as much as possible. I'd wager we were probably the most expensive for the wendtii. However I'm happy to hear we were near the best for them. That is my goal, being the best, with the least hassle possible for the aquarium industry. We take the brunt of all the problems and try to pass on few as possible in the process.

[Ben_RF]

2 hours ago, Cory said:

You've done some of the same testing we do 😉 Obviously not calling anyone out. But it is common practice to order plants in and then send them to customers without them ever hitting water. This is why a lot of companies only ship plants on out on certain days... Cause they don't want to house the plants. In my testing this also leads to much more out of stock from them. If you presell plants, and the farm doesn't ship them in, they just refund that money or substitute. We only sell plants we actually have sitting in aquariums in the warehouse. We have someone walk daily and remove any plants unfit for sale etc. To limit the possibility of a poor experience as much as possible. I'd wager we were probably the most expensive for the wendtii. However I'm happy to hear we were near the best for them. That is my goal, being the best, with the least hassle possible for the aquarium industry. We take the brunt of all the problems and try to pass on few as possible in the process.

@Cory , by itself yes the coop was the most expensive; however, when considering you often get two or three wendtii crypts from your pots, the actual cost comes into being about the same as the other vendors I used or less.  And for sure the quality you offered far surpassed the competition.