how to classify a chalice....

[Troylee]

I hear ya kray... I would say that first one with the white stripes is as close to a real water melon as your gonna get....
I have another I would say is a true water melon but I'm prolly wrong??? Ya, no??? Red body green rim but the eyes are yellow and orange...

 

[Troylee]

Okay I guess were not gonna get anywhere with the water melons lol...
How about this I think it's a enchophllia "spelling" correct??

 

[Troylee]

What is this one a oxypora?? Or enchophllia??

 

[Troylee]

Btw. Not looking for names just classification...
The smooth fleshy one is what kind??? My red one the so called water melon lol...
That's a what _____ chalice???

 

[Nicks387]

I would say that last one is a mycedium Lee but I may be wrong.
The purple ones you pictured can be called grape watermelons or purple watermelons and everyone will know what you mean.

 

[Troylee]

cool nick... i will google all 5 you posted and see if i can get a photo to match the name and put a pic with the name to help others in classification... not worried about names... just when i personally here chalice i look and see so many different kinds as in "textures, eyes, growth patterns etc....

 

[coraljunky25]

Well what makes it a alien eye chalice?I thought it was the purple and blue base and green or yellow eyes and rims that makes them elien eye chalices,but still new with chalices i could be wrong.

 

[Nicks387]

Your right about the alien eye chalices. The tubs alien eye is one like that but it seems as though the alien eye name fell off in the watermelon craze and the ones that were called alien eyes became grape watermelons or purple watermelons since watermelons in general became hot. Just my observation. the tubs alien eye is still called an alien eye but it carries the tubs name with it. The rest became purple watermelons.....I dont see the term alien eye as much as I see grape watermelon or purple watermelon these days. Except for the Tubs of course.......

 

[Troylee]

Prolly why I haven't heard that one besides the tubbs that nick mentioned... Lol

 

[Speg]

I can call anything (color) watermelon that has a green rim and whatever said color.. still not a WM, a WM chalice looks like a frickin' watermelon.. everything else is hustlin.

I don't know...when I have a watermelon, the inside is usually a redish color...so I can't really consider a "watermelon chalice" a true watermelon unless the base is red, it has a green rim, and black eyes that I can pull out and spit at people.

Green rim = watermelon...hobby has embraced this.

 

[inactive]

You are sadly misinformed Speg.

 

[myzislow]

You guys debating something so inconsequential is straight dumb. Who cares what defines a "watermelon" chalice, really... If someone wants to call their brown turd with a green rim a watermelon, right on, good for them haha...It's up to you, the buyer, to be as discerning as possible when it comes to these things.

 

[Troylee]

I personally was looking for scientific names for the different species... Watermelon just got thrown in...

 

[condor]

dont forget about echinopora( like the ORA blue chalice):wink:and i think the H. stunner is as well, and are an sps, unlike the others that fall into the lps family

 

[Troylee]

How about eye classification??? Is there any or just another he say she say thing...

 

[condor]

How about eye classification??? Is there any or just another he say she say thing...

please elaborate

 

[Troylee]

What makes a mummy eye, emerald mummy eye, alien eye, open eye, closed eye, why are they called eyes??? There mouths lol!!!!! :xd:

 

[inactive]

Troy you suck at focusing/creating general basis for topic discussion, now I am confused at your actual intentions.. :|

 

[Troylee]

well pretty much i knew one kind of chalice...."scientific name anyways" *echinophyllia* which to me means a tight skin chalice with the eyes raised up to what looks like mini volcano's amongst the body lol.... and a oxypora to me is a smooth tight skin chalice with very small bumps or nipples here and there with the eyes flat on the surface..... i don't know the others...:( out of all my chalices i like the smooth skin, puffy ones that inflate you can hit them with a turkey baster and they move..... then the eye thing came along because some chalies are called by there eyes IE>" emerald mummy eye" what kind of chalice is that referring to??? any chalice with a certain colored eye???

 

[Nanofins]

dont forget about echinopora( like the ORA blue chalice) and i think the H. stunner is as well, and are an sps, unlike the others that fall into the lps family

Oy, this thread is all over the place with good/bad information. Okay, you got that one partially right. The Hollywood Stunner, Fire Echinopora, and the Blue Scroll types are all classified as Echinopora lamellosa. Nick eludes to a Lamellosa; this is the species name, not Genus. The Stunner and all other Echinopora are LPS, just like the other chalices, NOT SPS.

For Genuses, pretty much all of the chalices fall under Echinophylia (the most common), Mycedium (the 2nd most common), Echinopora, and Oxypora. I've never heard the of Pectinia sp. in common usage for a chalice. Now of course you have to keep in mind that within each Genus there may be more than one species, so there can be differences between chalices that are both grouped together as Echinophylia. Since neither the hobbyist community nor the scientific community, for the most part, really have the whole coral classification thing figured out, we don't usually bother trying to classify beyond genus. Even Genus-level can be problematic. If you want more specific classification than Genus, I think you're outta luck. Otherwise, if you can accept that, then you've gotten somewhere.

Now, how to tell the differences between genusus so you know where yours belong, well, it's kind of a moot point, but your best bet is to get a good book like Aquarium Corals by J. Sprung or Corals by Borneman and utilize the Genus descriptions/pictures to help you out. For the most part, Nick had it with the large, pronounced eyes with a sort of ridgy appearance suggesting a Mycedium species. The "Grape" WATERMELONS (K :tongue:) you posted would normally be grouped as an Echinophylia sp. The Mummy Eyes are also usually considered Echinophylia sp. The color patterns are irrelevant, and like I said, there are probably multiple "species" within this genus to which they might be assigned. There is also an Oxypora that Tyree made an LE some time back which is blue with pink eyes, but not all blue/pink chalices are Oxypora (like I said, forget the colors). Oxpora is the most similar to the Echinophylia in growth structure, while Mycedium is pretty easy to spot and is usually the least colorful.

As a part of your original question you were wondering about the differences between the mummy eyes, and based on your more scientific classification question, it's at best a question of species, but we don't know all the species, so they're basically all the same. The difference lies in the quality of color they show. The Original Mummy Eye has a green base and pink/red eyes and under moderately higher light tends to develop a sort of yellowy, mountain dewey color on the top with more emerald green at the rim. The Oregon and Cornbred's Mummy Eyes are usually just solid neon green and are the brightest and will also show both orange and pink eyes. The Emerald Mummy Eye is darker and is more foresty green and not so bright. They are all green bodied though. Mummy Eye has, at this point, been taken to mean anything with pink/orange eyes on a solid colored body, as was stated earlier. There is no right or wrong here, to some degree, when it comes to made up names, so it is what it is.

Another thing you have to keep in mind with Physical differences is whether you received a wild colony (or piece of one) or a captive propagated fragment. I've seen a number of chalices with large, moundy eyes from wild shipments that once in captivity grow in a smoother manner and the new eyes are not so "moundy". This does not include Mycedium so much, but to a degree. I'm sure flow in the wild is different and encourages different growth adaptations, whereas in captivity those conditions change and so do the corals. Also, your reference to spiky (skeletal) looking chalices suggests more to me that you are seeing stressed chalices that are not fully puffed up. I see lots of normally smooth chalices that will show their septa and look spiky when stressed, but once the flesh inflates again, they look smooth. Chalices that refuse to puff up and continue to look spiky usually prove to be fussier and take longer to acclimate and begin growing.

So, that's my $1.00.