I think most people realize this but since so many people post on the forum daily asking for coral IDs meaning the trade name, i thought it was worth posting for newbies and others who aren't aware (i was even guilty of this at one point myself although i was just curious what ridiculous name some people referred to the coral as). Anyway, all those cute goofy names mean absolutely nothing in 99% of corals. Beyond the scientific name, they're just color variations that the shop made up a name for to sound cool or was a name previously made up by a more famous shop that your LFS wants to charge a premium for. Yeah, genetics are important but the names don't come from any genetic code... they're literally made up to sound cool so people will buy them. I understand if a coral was intentionally crossed with another coral of the same species you want it to sound special and we need to refer to them as something in the store to differentiate between them but after you buy a coral, the name is pointless. There is no point in trying to identify your zoa or acro by the marketed name. I actually worked for a shop a while back and they brainstormed and chose the most ridiculous name they could come up with to call the coral by. It's the same with mushrooms (fungi) and other intraspecies color or body morphs (well tbh fungi aren't fragged from a mother colony so they actually do have different genetics by strain so not a perfect analogy). It means nothing. Don't waste your time scouring the internet to identify the trade name of your acro...
I think a majority of people already know this though.
I think a majority of people already know this though.