Check out my new watermelon echino frags

[paininthewrasse]

Check out my new watermelon echino frags, I picked them up tonight and after a long acclimation I have them in my tank :D

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/paininthewrasse/watermelonchalice.jpg

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/paininthewrasse/watermelonchalice2.jpg

[neyugn0w01]

Sorry, but those are not the true watermelon from those pictures. Hopefully it will color up for you.

[paininthewrasse]

Why do you say that? The pictures are poor quality, I took them w/ the lights off as well, so I was lighting up a dark tank w/ the flash of my camera.

[stevedola]

not pink enough

[jmcmahon66]

Paininthewrasse, turn on the 14KK lights and lets see if they glow. Any pic taken in a dark tank with a flash will look bad. Good luck with them, and lets see some growth pictures.

[Illuminati]

Hope they are the real thing, you've been looking for it long enough :)

[paininthewrasse]

Jmcmahon, I know.. I'll get new pics up maybe this evening.. They look good to me and w/ all of the freebies I got from you the price I paid is like nothing!

Thanks again I'll definatly keep you posted :D

[Fliger]

I think it just looks like a poor pic of a true WM. With these the source pretty much tells the authenticity anyway since so few people own/sell them. Nice pickup, reveal your source! :lol:

[paininthewrasse]

My source is my new buddy jmcmahon66, I'm sure he'll be back on the thread, he can verify where the original came from.

[paininthewrasse]

Thanks Colinadam, I have been searching for some time now. Are you looking for GSP? I've got some for you if you are!

[paininthewrasse]

here are a couple more shots

This one is the 2 new watermelon frags to the left, and a frag I bought that was supposedly watermelon..

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/paininthewrasse/watermelonothers.jpg

Here is another shot of the full rimmed watermelon colony and the frag of the imposter :eek1:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/paininthewrasse/watermelonother.jpg

[Justin74]

Heres a pretty good representation that donovansreef posted on the chalice thread
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b40/donavonsreef/43499ffc.jpg

Apparently there are like 3-4 floating around as a watermellon chalice, from the Tryree LE, to the imposter,to the red to the pink to the ....you get it now. Pretty much Ive summed it up by: is the body pink or red?(Yes?then move on)Is the new growth around the coral a bright green?(Yes?then move on) And lastly most of the ones I see have yellow to greenish-yellow mouths. In your pictures the middle one IMO looks to be a nice lavender color alien eye chalice with its green eyes and green rim, I think we all ruled out the third one, and the first one is the only one that it appears may be one, but too early to visually say"Yup, she's a mellon:D" Unless of course you saw the colony it came from.

-Justin

[Justin74]

Heres another good represenation from Fliger of how distintual this coral is even when it's very small
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l134/dfliger/Elos%20Tank/watermellon_w_dime.jpg

-Justin

[^CelticReefer^]

Here's mine for a reference. Flash on, no touchups.

http://www.celticreefer.com/files/8_05_06_Watermelon_Edited.jpg

That First one looks like it's legit- Just stressed still.

Nice find man, congrats,

Brian

[DarkXerox]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8508083#post8508083 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Justin74
Heres another good represenation from Fliger of how distintual this coral is even when it's very small
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l134/dfliger/Elos%20Tank/watermellon_w_dime.jpg

-Justin

Oh man that picture with the dime scares me! I hope that is out of the water (I just have this fear of a little kid putting a coin in my tank or someone else since people do that with fountains).

[jmcmahon66]

As the "father" of the frags, I decide to post a photo of the mother colony from a couple of months ago. I bought the coral as a frag a while ago from a reputable dealer. IIRC this was before all the variation of watermelons were defined. IMO the mother colony looks a lot more like the red variations floating around. Believe it or not both frags came from that mother. The fully green rimmed one was in an SPS tank way at the bottom under 250W 14KK bulbs for a couple of months. It is more pink and blue/grey veined than the pics show. The newly cut redder frag came from a fragging "accident" and was in a 20g frag tank with 150W 14KK lights. HTH
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/72873watermelon-chalice.jpg

[stevedola]

celticreefers' is the real deal. youre frags are very nice but only resemble (imo) the true melon enchino.

[slojmn]

Here is my real deal Tyree LE watermelon, this is from one of the first frags from Tyree's piece...I think it looks different than jmcmahaon66's mother colony and the mother colony my frag came from definately looks different than jmcmahaon66's colony. Although that middle frag looks like a pretty close real deal watermelon frag.
http://www.slojmnsreef2.homestead.com/watermelon_chalice_9-22-06_sm.jpg

and here is a not so great shot of the LE original watermelon and the new LE red watermelon (First auctioned piece from Steve Tyree)
http://www.slojmnsreef2.homestead.com/red_and_pink_watermelons_11-2-06_sm_op_398x600.jpg

There are some awesome different watermelons floating around as Justin mentioned. www.rarefrags.com has a great lookalike watermelon, just gorgoeous :D.

CelticReef, sweeeeeeeet little piece there :D

[tacocat]

I think the stoplight colored family of echinos are all very good looking. With that in mind, I'd have to say that your echino is going to be good looking, but it is not the "True" Watermelon.

I'm not going to get into the whole lineage argument, but I have seen all of these echinos first hand. I have seen the Rastafari at tubs's house. I saw the Goledn Eye at Aquascene's store, and I saw both the Red and Pink Watermelons in Hugo's house. BTW, Hugo originally purchased the Pink Watermelon from Clint Conway.

The one thing you notice when you see the "true" watermelons is that they fluoresce so brightly that they are almost to hard to look at. Thos pics above aren't Photoshopped. They are really that intense. When you first see them, you can't believe a coral can "glow" that intensely.

I have seen enough nice coral to make reefer's eyes bleed, yet when I saw my first "true" watermelon (a 1/4" frag at tubs's house), I was astonished. He pulled it out of the bottom of the tank and held it out of the water and it was more intense than a highliter pen.

I don't own any of the "true" watermelons, although I wish I did. I do own the other stoplight variants. I passed up a couple of opprotunities because my tank was still recovering from a recent move, but if I wouldn't pass up the opprotunity to buy a frag in person again. It's that nice.

Both Watermelons are intensely colored, perosnally I prefer the red watermelon myself, but the pink one glows more intensely.

[ReefDoctorMicromussas]

Justin... the pic that you posted from Donavan is of his Watermelon cousin.... IT is gorgeous but Donavan will be the first to tell you its similar but not the same
BTW I have a very nice piece of it :)

[neyugn0w01]

Nicely said tacocat. I have also seen both red and pink watermelon in Hugo's tank. The pink is very nice, but the red is just awesome. I have receive the pink version from three person and the one from Clint is so far the loudest of the three. The other two are really nice alone, but once you place them next to Clint's it is obvious. I always believe that Hugo got his piece from ReefTec, but I guess I was wrong. Now I just need to get a new camera to take a picture of the pink and red together in my tank.

[slojmn]

For the record my "original pink watermelon" is from Clint. I would have to agree...the red watermelon is awesome. That picture of the two together was shortly after getting the red and it was still soemwhat stressed. The color is getting more and more brilliant on the red watermelon and it is now fully green around the rim. Just spectacular :D.

[Fliger]

You mean I'm not supposed to store my spare change in the tank? :) That picture is from thecaptivereef.com where I got mine from, its getting close to dime size now. And I agree with Tacocat and the rest. I have a few "LE" echnos (most recently Aquascences from Alicia) and the true WM has no equal that I've ever seen.

[DonavonsReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8511612#post8511612 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by doctor64776
Justin... the pic that you posted from Donavan is of his Watermelon cousin.... IT is gorgeous but Donavan will be the first to tell you its similar but not the same
BTW I have a very nice piece of it :)

True Doc, the one in the pic is a wild caught colony that came in tranship. I have an frag Original frag of Ron Johncola's & it is much brighter. But who knows the closer I put this guy up in my tank the brighter it gets.

[Olliereefer]

If anyone plans to take a visit to London ,England and fancys smuggling a frag over in there pocket let me know!!!:D :D :D :D
(I'm only wishing):lol:
Very nice coral;)
Corals us Brits(If i can say that) dream of :D
Ollie

[ReefDoctorMicromussas]

Donavan I LOVE the frag and it is doing really well nice pinks with a full green rim and I love the Yellow eyes! Lam the frag I got from you is frigging electric Pink! has just grown the green rim with awesome coloring... is it the Tyree? or was it a Rommel?

[tacocat]

BTW, jmcmahon66 and PITW, I'm not criticising your corals. In fact I think they look nice and look like dead ringers to the Golden Eye echino (which I own and really dig). I'm just pointing out that it doesn't appear to be the "true" watermelon form Hugo/Clint.

PITW, continue your hunt for the pink watermelon. Believe me it's worth it. Try contacting Clint directly.

http://www.diamondsinthereef.com/Echinophylia.html

[tacocat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8511729#post8511729 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by neyugn0w01
Nicely said tacocat. I have also seen both red and pink watermelon in Hugo's tank. The pink is very nice, but the red is just awesome. I have receive the pink version from three person and the one from Clint is so far the loudest of the three. The other two are really nice alone, but once you place them next to Clint's it is obvious. I always believe that Hugo got his piece from ReefTec, but I guess I was wrong. Now I just need to get a new camera to take a picture of the pink and red together in my tank.

Oops it was Ron Johncola who originally sold the frag to Hugo and Hugo was responsible for getting it popular (good thing). I keep getting them mixed up. I thought about it for a minute. It didn't make sense because Hugo lives in So Cal and Clint is from Napa.

[slojmn]

tacocat, that sounds right...this lineage stuff does get confusing at times. I also agree that those pictures look awesome. My Aquascene golden eye which I bought directly from James at Aquascene off the orgiginal mother colony is just phenominal in my tank. The colors positively glow and pop. There are so many cool chalices out there. I just love them :). I really do need another tank :D.

Clint's piece of the original watermelon came from Steve Tyree early on. You can go back and check the frag list for the original watermelon on reeffarmers and you will see that Clint got one of the first frags. It grew and he started parting with pieces here and there. BTW, Clint has really nice stuff. I have spent some quality time admiring his stuff in person and his tank is awesome. He has a good eye for unique stuff...lots of cool chalices.

[jmcmahon66]

Clint is also one of my key contacts for chalices. I have a Golden Eye from Atlantis and it is doing great as well, but is not yet fraggable. i take no hard feelings for the comments on my corals. I, like all of you, am well aware that different versions of the watermelon exist. Mine is certainly not as pink as Tyree's, but was not presented that way either. In fact, my mother colony looks more red, and my frags look more like Matt's do on reefready.net...another good place to buy the rare stuff. that being said, it is difficult to compare a small, newly cut frag to a whole colony in terms of color. Chalices can and do react differently in different systems. My frag in my SPS tank was certainly pinker and exhibited more blue veining as seen in the other chalice photos. I was also under the impession that yellow eyes are not an indicator of a "true" watermelon, as they have green eyes.

[slojmn]

I was also under the impession that yellow eyes are not an indicator of a "true" watermelon, as they have green eyes.
You know I have wondered about that for a long time. On the Reeffarmers site in the description of the watermelon it is definately noted that it has green eyes...I have only seen yellowish eyes on all the watermelons (including the "LE Reef Farmers seed fragment" in the picture right below the description). Hugo's included...he recently sent me a picture of a larger piece in his system and it definately had the golden/yellow eyes. Weird huh?? The red watermelon has really pretty yellow eyes with what appear to be a bit of orange around them. Maybe as the pieces grow and get larger the colors of the mouths change. And, as jmcmahon66 noted lighting, flow, and tank params play a role in coloration.

[Fliger]

Hmmm .... the plot thickens :lol: Here is a thread with lots of supposed Watermelons. There are some with yellow and some with green eyes - but they all have the same edge and pink. I think the edge is really striking on them.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=896320&highlight=watermelon

I'll bet the eye can appear either color - actually look at this pic from RandyO -

http://users.adelphia.net/~randyolszewski/images/WatermelonsJuly06.jpg

Just guessing though. They're all nice, thats for sure!

Here's my little guy while he's eating and a few others. The pink in the true watermelon is almost as pink as the RandyO pink echno

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l134/dfliger/Elos%20Tank/IMG_3981.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l134/dfliger/Elos%20Tank/IMG_3985.jpg

[snipersps]

Hello Guys

This is a pict from the real watermelon long time ago belong to Ron Joncola, from this colony is from were i got my pieces long time ago. this colony its not this big because long time ago he cut it all lot.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/snipersps714/IMG_0649.jpg

and this pics is one of my colonys coming from the same colony from the top.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/snipersps714/2-inch-watermelon-11-06.jpg

and this is the red watermelon colony with flash

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/snipersps714/for-sale-water-melon-red.jpg

red watermelon out flash

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/snipersps714/red-watermelon-2-together.jpg

and here you can see some diferents betwen both watwermwlons
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/snipersps714/for-sale-water-melon-1.jpg

and this is the link of the watermelon when the fits time i let everyone know about it on 2/21/2005


check out this extremley rare freckel watermelone alien eye

[racerw]

beautiful.......The red is stunning

[paininthewrasse]

so I guess my search continues for TRUEEEEEEE Watermelon echino. Anyone just want to give your buddy PITW a small frag I've hunted up and down spent all kinds of money and I still dont have the TRUE watermelon.. :D It can be my xmas present.. Sniper you've got a lot of watermelon hook a brother upp!

[ReefDoctorMicromussas]

:) I have a piece directly from that colony he he Hugo to my man Lam 2 me I am sooo lucky

[paininthewrasse]

and how about some for me doctor :D

[ReefDoctorMicromussas]

LOL I can add you to the list But Lam is first up for a reach around

[neyugn0w01]

right on. if you really want a true watermelon paininthe wrasse, i can help you find one. the person is asking about $200.00. if you like, i can send you their info. this person is as good as they come.

[reefez]

Beauties! Got to get a frag someday!

[paininthewrasse]

neyugn0w01 thanks, I'll take the info but right now I really cant afford another $200.00

[oddballs]

this stuff makes me laugh thats not the real watermelon that one came from a wild transshipment ???were does the REAL watermelon come from ?one of those things that make you go hmmm!!all of the corals came from the ocean i m o ?i respect the limited additions deal but it gets really out of control on the pricing and the storys that go with some of these corals!!i got a pokerstar monty in the week of macna that cost me next to nothing and there was one there that was 900.00$ and it was only about 3 times as big as mine??like i said a little out of control!!