Why dont we use scientific names for our corals?

[JasonandRay]

I still dont understand why we name our corals so differently when they are a small morph of one another. This seems very misleading, by calling corals by there scientific names it would make things a lot easier when trying to research about the coral. I have never seen anyone in the Fresh water hobby calling there plants "lime green with jagged red plant of magic" I may be missing something but its kid of like USA not using the metric system, is it not (I may be wrong?) It seems the hobby is no long about keeping the fish coral and other creatures, but about bragging rights.

 

[kevinpratt823]

This has been discussed plenty, and there are a lot of opinions. In the end though, it's easier to say "Purple Hornets" than it is to say "Zoanthids that are purple, with a little yellow circle in the middle, and tentacles that alternate between yellow and purple", or "Pink Lemonade" as opposed to "Acropora Nasuta, that is green, but can also be yellow in higher light, with polyps that can be red, but also pinkish white, with one tentacle extending farther than the rest."

 

[delta]

It has been discussed and lets be honest it works, our very own members used it before it was mainstream.
"Bec's Rainbow corals", "Greg Hiller's Blueberry Acro", Liam's cloves and so on. Not everyone named their own corals but the names take on a life of their own.

However the designer coral industry fueled it for marketing purposes and by simply tagging corals for sale with a designer name they drove the market harder. Collector are collector and they want the latest greatest.

In the end too each their own.

My biggest concern with the hobby is the existence of it in the future. The mainstream of Designer names for corals is a newer issue/thing, the part of people in the hobby wanting, hard to obtain or the latest greatest was always there.

Problem with scientific names is you have 100 of corals under the same name, the names differentiate the corals

 

[JasonandRay]

hmm.. intresting. I think Im just getting sick of the "designer names"

 

[delta]

Don't use them then. Just call them the name of the coral and the color of it.

My favorite corals are nothing fancy, but corals I got from friends that got out of the hobby
the significance of the coral has a lot more meaning to me for what it is personally

 

[Cjtabares]

The way I see it the designer name corals are good for the hobby. They may be a premium price, but they put less of a demand on wild corals.

 

[lisa foster]

I could care less about designer names I buy corals becaue I like the way they look. However I would never pay $50 for a polyp or two of a zoanthid for example that is just silly. Especially when you consider that corals that commanded a high price in the past is now not worth that anymore. It is like fashion when its in its in and worth alot of money when it is not the new thing the price drops.

 

[JohnK]

Also keep in mind that a lot of the time we don't know the correct names. For example, it's easy to ID an "acro", but if you get any more specific you are somewhere between educated guessing and outright BS.

IMO there are three topics here. "scientific names", "trade names", and "designer names". Take "chalice coral", this "trade name" actually refers to several different "scientific names", and there are many "chalice corals" that have "designer names".

 

[jimrawr]

Ill tell you why.. $$$$$$$$$

 

[JayM]

1 word....marketing, 1 reason, $

 

[nichols]

1 word....marketing, 1 reason, $

Couldn't have said it better myself. The whole designer coral thing has changed this club IMO. It's become too much about the money and has taken a lot of the fun out of it. Never used to have virtual wars over the linage of a coral. Just do a search for pink lemonade for a prime example. Again this is JMO and everyone is welcome to have their own.

 

[Bruno]

Would you pay $1,000 for a 3/4" of Echinophyllia aspera

 

[JayM]

Couldn't have said it better myself. The whole designer coral thing has changed this club IMO. It's become too much about the money and has taken a lot of the fun out of it. Never used to have virtual wars over the linage of a coral. Just do a search for pink lemonade for a prime example. Again this is JMO and everyone is welcome to have their own.

it's changed the club (and not for the better), and it has also changed the whole industry. When I go over to look at corals to buy at a store or member's house, I ask, "what's the purple one', not what the designer name is. Candidly, I am WAY more concerned about how it is going to look in my tank (eventually ) than what it's name is.

I was never happier with my reef than when the 72g in my kitchen was so full that it had corals growing into each other....and I only knew about half of their names.

 

[kevinpratt823]

It certainly hasn't taken the fun out of it for me, in fact a lot of the fun is in hunting for and collecting certain named pieces which I like. The whole thing has become abused if you're not an educated buyer, as almost all vendors will name every coral they have now and add "LE" to the title just to suck in somebody whose jumping on the bandwagon. In the past year or so I have seen so many new corals that IMO aren't nearly as "stand alone" as the old faithfuls, added to Tyree's site that the name is losing it's recognition for me. ORA is jumping in also, they have had some of my favorite pieces for some time now, but thier past couple "new releases" seem more like an attempt to get people to buy stuff based on the ORA name: The Green Gecko is a green acro, that's it; the ORA Solitaryensis, brown with slightly purple tips; oh and don't forget thier most recent "Ponape Birdsnest", c'mon, that's been around for years.
I personally really appreciate the fact that I can get the Tyree $500 efflo, and know what to expect in terms of coloration etc. under different conditions, and IMO you'd be hard pressed to find any other Acropora Efforescens that even comes close to this one. Especially when I get something to grow out from a frag, if I'm going to put in the time, effort, etc to grow something, you better believe I want it to be something special that I know I like(not to say that it couldn't be a frag of a really cool unamed colony from a friends tank, but even then, it becomes "Nick's Bubblegum Mille", or "buddie's Unknown Sky Blue Acro" which we don't even know the species) Then you have something like "The Tyree Purple Monster" that has been around for years, it's very unique, and if you know what you're looking at, I don't think there is any identical morph of this species that didn't come from Tyree's parent colony, and by the way, as long as it has been around the species/genus of this piece still hasn't been positively identified
"Collecting" has become a very fun part of the hobby for me, but it doesn't have to be for everybody. My friend Steve collects coins, and he enjoys it and is passionate about it, so he's not too impressed when I pull out a pocket full of spare change as a coin collection. To each his own, now where's that famaous McReeferson quote about not liking somebody else's cup of tea................

 

[lisa foster]

I am sure there are people who have been doing this for awhile and something that they paid top dollar is not worth that anymore. For example chalices are really in right now. I don't have a personalproblem with the designer names I just would not pay the money for it. I agree though it is to make money but if you have and want to pend the money that is you perogative. I just don't want my tank to have dozens of mini colonies all over my live rock in a 6 foor tank it looks strange.

 

[kevinpratt823]

I am sure there are people who have been doing this for awhile and something that they paid top dollar is not worth that anymore. For example chalices are really in right now. I don't have a personalproblem with the designer names I just would not pay the money for it. I agree though it is to make money but if you have and want to pend the money that is you perogative. I just don't want my tank to have dozens of mini colonies all over my live rock in a 6 foor tank it looks strange.

I agree to a point, some of this stuff is very similar to a "Pyramid Scheme", but the stuff that is truly unique/exceptional, and doesn't grow like a weed, does hold it's value(Like the Purple Monster). Also, the (IMO Showstopping colony of Red Watermellon Chalice in my tank that to me is priceless, would not be there if Somebody didn't pay good money for that frag some years ago when it was introduced and let it grow out. Some of the most eyecatching pieces in my tanks are the result of an expensive frag, and many of them seperate themselves completely from the "Blue Acro" or "purple and green frogspawn" next to it. I love to grow from frags, just not in my display tank, and it's no coincidence that when somebody comes by to pick out a few frags, upon first glance the ones they ask about first because they are so stunning usually get a response like "Oh, I'm not selling that, that's Jose's Rainbow Mille, that's the only frag I have, I'm growing that out for my display tank". The fact is that(IMO) it is hard enough to find a frag of a coral this beautiful, let alone a colony, so in a couple years it will be well worth it to me.

 

[The Ng Thing]

When I first started I had no idea whether I was getting scammed or not on the price of a coral. After a couple years I've developed my own guidelines for purchasing corals based on the idea that if it looks good and the price is right, I'll buy it.

For example: zoa's = $20 for a golf to tennis ball sized piece or $0.5-$1 per polyp SPS = roughly $15-$35 for 1"-4" Hand sized leathers/softies = $30-$50. Acans/chalices = too much for my blood.

I think if people knew a general price range/size for most corals they wouldn't have to worry about names & thier worth. Sometimes you have to look. You can get a nice 1"-2" "red planet" frag for $30 from a member vs $70 at a store. Obviously they won't be the same thing but my philosophy again is if it looks good and the price is right, why not?

 

[delta]

The biggest thing is has done is killed the stock pile of meat and potato corals the BRS had. Many of the hardy corals we had an abundance of are no longer around. The need to get the latest greatest is instilled in newbies before they even get the whole reefkeeping thing down. Not having a stable base they are easily discouraged and get out sooner than if they had some success first. The turn over rate in the group has at least doubled.

It is too bad although a lot of people had the same corals there were a lot of hardy nice looking corals, that you could get cheap without taking anything from the ocean. Made for an easy restart should you lose everything. It was also common to have friends grow out your favorites to hold for a rainy day.

The biggest thing it has done it turn the group from a closer knit group to more money making. You see less and less tank packed with large colonies and more and more frag tanks as displays.
This is something that members have discussed with me and a lot would like to see more helping each other and having a stronger base to pull from when they get into trouble.

Our charter is to educate people about corals reefs and do so while trying to preserve the reefs. The quest for newer fancier corals in in drastic contrast to that part of the group charter. Granted eventually those coral become stock piles but with the need to get the latest greatest they are not getting stock piled like the used to.

 

[lisa foster]

"The biggest thing it has done it turn the group from a closer knit group to more money making. You see less and less tank packed with large colonies and more and more frag tanks as displays" Delta

Great Point.

 

[Andy V]

I don't really understand the fuss about the designer names. Are we not adults that can make our own decisions about whether or not we are dumb enough to overpay for something? Nobody put a gun to my head to pay for a Tyree whatever...there are tons of corals I see for sale for hundreds of dollars that I would love to have, but I don't buy them.

For the record, I think I have given away 90% of all the frags that have ever come out of my tank, and probably paid for 90% of what was in my tank. Since I have a small tank, I have to frag frequently, and it's easier to give stuff away rather than to try to get money for it and have nobody come to buy it. Despite the fact that I give stuff away, I don't care that other people try to sell stuff. It's my choice to pay for it or not. After all, it's a (somewhat) free country.