Limited Edition
Watermelon Chalice

This Echinophyllia-like species is primarily bright pink and has some blue background coloration. Corallites are bright green and the edge of the colony has a bright green trim. The green trim can also contain other pigments. That combination of colors gives this coral an overall similarity to a slice of watermelon. This is probably why the initial discoverer of this coral gave the coral the name watermelon.

Its overall distinctive coloration is enough to make this a visually stunning coral. A more detailed examination of the bright green corallites reveals that there are dots of color that appear to have been splashed on the green (see closeup images below). Without a doubt this pigmentation represented a whole new realm of coloration for SPS corals. The early echinophyllia corals with trim coloration and brightly colored corallites were referred to as 'Alien Eye' corals. This began with the Tubs (John Susbilla) Alien Eye Echinophyllia echinoporides. Alien eye refers to the strange eye-like look that the corallites can exhibit when the polyps mouths are open (see images below).

Reeffarmers.com acquired our original fragment from Hugo Zuniga of Orange County California (snipersps). We are very grateful to Hugo for bringing this magnificent coral to the attention of reeffarmers.com . Hugo acquired his seed section from the original captive discoverer of this coral Ron Johncola. Ron ran the Aquarium Service Business Reef Tec Designs in Orange County California. Ron apparently has an incredible eye for the truly rare coral.

Reeffarmers discovered, as many others have, that these chalice corals can be difficult to fragment. Fragments have a decent chance of success, but the main seed colony sometimes will stop growing for months after harvesting a fragment. This caused Reeffarmers to get way behind on the reservation schedule. And we eventually lost our original seed. We have been looking for a true lineage replacement for a couple of years. Finally a true Original Watermelon lineage fragment became available. We acquired this fragment from Fins and Critters during the 2010 Reef-A-Palooza reef event.