Most Coral "Names" are Mean Nothing Guys... Beyond Scientific Name it's Purely Made Up for Marketing
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livinlifeinBKK
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"we need to refer to them as something in the store to differentiate between them"
I agree which is why I included this in my post. As for calling everything by a scientific name, that would actually make things much less easily confusable but obviously we can't do that because everything (for the most part) already had a name before scientific names came along
Names make sense for some corals. Like if I went to a LFS and could ask them.. hey you got any ORA Pearlberry?
It helps to find specific things.
It makes less sense to have 20 different torches only slightly different variation of gold (some due to lighting) and to give them all different names as it can become a bit flooded into nonsense.
It would sort of be like calling every Walt Disney Acro a new name because it looks different in each tank.
Some corals have been mucked up... with too many naming schemes..
It helps to find specific things.
It makes less sense to have 20 different torches only slightly different variation of gold (some due to lighting) and to give them all different names as it can become a bit flooded into nonsense.
It would sort of be like calling every Walt Disney Acro a new name because it looks different in each tank.
Some corals have been mucked up... with too many naming schemes..
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livinlifeinBKK
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If that's how you like to refer to a dog, good on you...i don't think you got the point of the original post though...
Court_Appointed_Hypeman
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Wait... my ultra ultra holy grail blazin 420 blood dragon candy cane.... is just a candy cane?
I did understand. We have names for things to differentiate things. If I want a homewrecker I want a homewrecker regardless of the scientific name. I did however agree that they can get silly.
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livinlifeinBKK
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The point was that it's makes no difference asking for an ID on coral X after you already bought it which people do every day. That was the point...
I can dig on that.
If ypu got it in a trade though and don't have a "name" and someone knows the industry name over the scientific name it is helpful though.
I'm curious if corals will ever be treating similarly to plants with registered 'cultivars' that get noted after a typical Genus species. It is more or less how we treat them already selling clones of a particular selection that has desirable characteristics, but would give a level of validity to something rather than everyone giving a new name to things in their basement.
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livinlifeinBKK
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True
ahh ya I mostly agree.. People ask ID on torches all the time and holy crap there are so many names of slightly different torches and different lighting, just call it a gold torch and be done with it or ask the vender you bought it from.
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livinlifeinBKK
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Before you know it were gonna be using spectrophotometry to certify a coral is really what it's claimed to be haha
Cichlid Dad
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I think what most people New to reefing don't understand is what ever coral they see for sale use light spectrums to make that coral for the photo look it's best for selling that coral. In there tank it will look completely different. Then One coral will look completely different from one tank to another based on tank conditions, nutrients, lights, how often water is changed, water parameters ECT. I use T5 lighting so most coral will look completely different than most tanks. They then will change over time and if I were to ask someone to try and identify something in my tank, especially zoa they would be hard pressed to be correct
I think trade names are useful, especially when it comes to Zoas. Trying to describe a zoanthid can be difficult, say the trade name and everyone in the conversation knows what you are referring to.
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livinlifeinBKK
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I'd say vnkt many people are familiar with more than a handful of the names of zoa's...
This is 100% true. If only people really knew how not-rare, how abundant these corals are in the wild they wouldn't pay such ludicrous prices for a stupid name. Scientific names matter, hobby names are just that.
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livinlifeinBKK
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So seeing as a majority of corals are essentially just clones of the mother colony, anyone can just put it under different lighting and rename it claiming it as ultra rare one of a kind after colors change... literally nothing is stopping anyone and I'm sure some people do very similar things.
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