Naming corals - When has it gone too far?

[Opus]

Have you seen all the things they don't name? Or have you walked into their shop and asked what corals are called? I have -- The vast majority don't have names. But if you wanna sell you need to name things.

In this day and age, we don't want things that don't have a name. Things that aren't named are basically a scam -- it's something that's unreliable, and you're not sure what you're going to get.

I've been in this hobby since I was saving lunch money in middle school. The days of buying big wild colonies are ending -- and the days of people wanting things WITHOUT a name are looooong gone. I've got more than a few unnamed corals people like and want pieces of, until they ask the name and I say it's unnamed. Then their response is "ooh. Nevermind."

If it doesn't have a name, most people consider it trash.

75.82% are named.

 

[trustmeimalawyer]

Agree with many of the posts here. Naming certain corals is just a necessary evil. The unfortunate byproduct is that naming also serves to drive up costs since the natural tendency is to want to buy something popular/with lineage etc. The practice certainlt wasn’t common when I first started but then again, neither were the amounts of corals coming in either.

 

[Proteus Meep]

Names... which are free to come by make for vastly increased profits for the business people that sell them, so we can't blame them for the practice

But..it is nice to look around your reef and have names to put to each variant especially when you have multiples of a species, rather than just a colour/species as a name

 

[PhreeByrd]

All my corals are named 'Albert'. They are all priceless.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Buying named corals can help the buyer have a better idea of what the frag will look like as it grows. There have been numerous times I bought a maricultured acro colony only to have it brown out or turn all green. But with named pieces if anything changes there is usually documentation somewhere that explains why it did that.

Fragging on its own should raise the overall price of the entire colony. It provides convenience to the buyer because the frag is still less expensive than buying the whole colony.

 

[BoomCorals]

I realize that I'm just one tiny statistic, but I visited the Boomcorals website for the first time this weekend (yeah, I know, so sorry). I clicked on every acro to enlarge it and read the description EXCEPT for the one acro he has listed as "unnamed acro". I didn't waste my time even looking at it.

So the two takeaways here are 1) I'm feeling very shallow right now, and 2) he needs to give that poor acro a name.
;Cat

LOL

 

[Passionate Reef]

There's s huge price tag that comes with naming Corals. Some sellers take advantage of this, in most cases you will run into the exact came Corals with multiple names attached to them because everyone naming the same Corals for a better price tag. I buy my Corals on how they look not on the name that was given. This is my opinion and what I see [emoji5]

 

[chefjpaul]

All my corals are named 'Albert'. They are all priceless.

Awesome

 

[Billdogg]

All my corals are named 'Albert'. They are all priceless.

made me LOL. TYVM for that. And get outa my head

I buy my Corals on how they look not on the name that was given. This is my opinion and what I see [emoji5]

^^^This^^^

Awesome

^^^And This^^^

If I called all of mine Albert they'd get confused! At least Charlie, Fred, Mary and Cousin It probably would.

Buy it for the name. Buy it for the shape. Buy it for the color(s). And pay for it whatever you are willing to pay for it. Some of my favorites (Cousin It) were $10 frags from a local swap. If they had names I've long forgotten them anyway.

 

[mikes686]

Is anyone else getting sick of every coral now being named? I miss the standard scientific/basic name. At first I noticed very high end rare pieces being named. But now, it seems like every coral you see has a name. I just think its getting out of hand. Am I the only one? I mean no offense to anyone that names them. I think its heavily the consumers fault too. Like I said the higher end pieces were usually named, is it because all consumers now see a name to the coral and think its a must have because “its named”?

I actually give them names that I prefer...Bob, Chuck, Floyd, Jerry...My fish too.

 

[C-Reefer]

I don't care about names. I just buy what I like. Don't care for the acros anyway so its just the high end softies and LPS mostly. If I see a coral I like, i'll buy it. But not if its some $200 frag that's named. I don't care if its named, as long as I like the kind of coral (euphyllia, acan, meat, ect), shape, color, ect.

 

[DMG Reef]

The "Earth Angel" acro.

A fast-growing bright lemon-lime acropora with white tips. The halo on this beauty will light up your reef.

I think this would sell??

The real story is that it was an unnamed, bleached, single branch $5 frag from my LFS that I got just 5 months ago.

The name game is fun and it's representative of what you can expect from an otherwise small, colorless frag. IMO, a true acro addict wants the coral to have a name and we are willing to pay for it.

 

[cobergas]

As stated many many times before named frags sell no namers do not. It is all a point of reference for shopping to see if someone else has the same named coral for a better price. Funny thing is someone mentioned walking into a wholesaler and picking a zoa rock and chopping it up into multiple frags and selling them for higher margin by naming them. This does not happen that often. It is not like you can go into a wholesaler and pickup a rock of adonis zoas and chop them up only paying for the rock at $50 bucks. Certain companies name their corals certain things. JF has corals he has never named and still sitting in his place. Burning Banana acro is a prime example. I have had a piece LONG before he slapped the name on it and I bought it because it looked awesome. I took frags to shows all around the country and it never sold. It sat in a prime location and was not hidden in the tank because it looked awesome, showed well and grew well. Now he named the acro and people want it and it brought attention to the coral. Boom, sold all our frags at the next show.

The problem is the naming is not consistent and or people do not give credit from the source of the coral. If vendor A buys a piece from Vendor B the new vendor can throw it in their tank and rename it something totally different and charge what they want for it while the source Vendor B never knows the new naming of the same coral. I can count for TONS of times this has happened. Sometimes though the name sticks and carries on throughout the coral industry so it is traded often under the same hobby name.

I believe in naming things that are reproducible and can be reproduced over and over. Rock Flower nems are a prime example of something that should not be named. You can never reproduce the same flower nem over and over. Wellsophyllia are another example along with Acanthos, they do not sprout new heads and reproduce readily in any tank. At the same time I see people slapping names on them all the time to try and play to the consumer. I cannot name EVERY red carpet I bring in I would run out of names. The markup on the named coral is basically the same from my experience.

People can walk up to our tanks at any show and I can tell right away what they are hunting. I watch where their eyes track and see what interests them the most. Sometimes people ask for certain pieces named or not named and I point them to that direction. 8 out of 10 customers will always ask for a name of the coral and I usually refer to the scientific name unless there has been precedent set on selling the coral under a more common name.

Maybe I am missing the marketing train here but I know what it cost me to get said coral and I know my operating expenses and travel costs to setup sometimes in your backyard to sell you the corals that I have either imported or grown from nothing. I guarantee you that JF prices for example are in the same lines as ours. It costs MONEY to get the top .5% of corals to propagate. But, when you see something that is nice or has potential to be nice you gamble and buy it. Sometimes like consumers things turn out exceptional other times (more than I would like to admit,) they do not turn out as nice as we hoped for. But you still had those costs rolled up into that coral and it is something you have to recoup.

Another reason why pricing might seem to be so high is simple supply and demand. I think someone mentioned this a few posts back but, If you only have a small amount of any coral you cannot sell it cheap because you may never see that said coral ever again. It may not EVER be offered to you again and is truly an exceptional piece. Would you sell you only piece to make the money you need or invest in your future and continue to propagate and release the now acclimated and grown coral to really recoup on your investment. I prefer the latter so more people than just the 10 you might have sold the frags of that new hot coral to get to enjoy it and helps keeps many businesses open by allowing them to continue to offer that coral.

Now, there are some people that do just offer newly imported corals and they are rather cheap. They have less invested in keeping the coral alive and allowing it to go through what I call the settlement period in corals adapting to their new life. So, making a comparison to people that flip corals and the true hardcore growers and propagators of coral are totally different. That is where the business model differs. Flippers usually never name a coral and just try to move volume. Sure they make a living doing that but the overall model is short term gains only. Propagators will most likely name the coral they are growing for a point of reference and marketing ability.

Sorry for this long post but I do see both sides. I also see a lot of misinformation as is REALLY prevalent in the industry. I can only speak for me and our business model but I am good enough friends with most other vendors out there I understand how things work.

 

[408Dartfish]

The coral names I see remind me of walking into my local marijuana dispensary. Dustin

 

[declanisadog]

This thread as just a repeat of the previous thousand about the exact same thing. Last time I think it started as a thread about the homewrecker. You aren't going to convince anyone who doesn't already agree with you that your opinion is the right one.You guys are beating a dead horse. If you don't like the names, cool. Don't buy into it. If you only buy corals for the names, also cool. Put whatever you want in your tank.

 

[DMG Reef]

I enjoy threads re-hashing old topics with new contributions. I wasn't a forum member at the time those threads were active so it's new to me.

I think controversial topics keep forum members engaged in the forum. I always learn something new. As long as it's civil, what's the harm?

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

As one who is in the medical field, names really really do help identify things. I will say it does help knowing the scientific name. However, as others have stated doing this for every type of coral is exhausting from a consumers point of view. In terms of scientific research, and trying to save and preserve the reefs, then yes it’s absolutely necessary.

But, I feel that once one has named a coral and either the color or the name sparks a frenzy, that’s what everyone seeks. Do to the vast amount of environmental conditions we can place these in, the corals will change and adapt to their conditions. Knowing coral can produce asexually, means have a pure line may not always be accurate. Even if we frag a coral, it could always reproduce asexually and genetically it can change.

I think the names are neat, but I think driving the price up because of the name, isn’t a such a good idea. Yes, it’s a business and needs a profit, but sometimes it takes the fun out of the hobby.

An example is the home wrecker beautiful coral and lovely piece but I hate the name. For some who have had an actual home wrecker (and I don’t mean the coral at all) like some that I know, avoid it simply because of the name. If the industry decides to name corals, can they be a tad more professional. Another example is pink bxxxxxbs lol and monster bxxxxxxbs lol, funny names but not exactly appropriate. Yes some of them are comical, and yes I have both but gets a tad embarrassing when people who are not in the hobby ask me their names. They kind of give me a look of did you just say what I think you said?

 

[Opus]

Great post Cobergas! I also like the fact when I see different companies keeping the names when they sell frags they have grown out and not renaming it. Unfortunately you have to trust the person you are buying from on the lineage. I do feel most of the vendors at the frag swaps I go to are fairly honest about it. I really like the fact that a lot of the vendors are actually hobby friends at the frag swaps. They hang out during the show discussing reefing topics and will even go out after the show to eat. Don't see competitors doing that very often.

We hobbyist have gotten the idea that the names are what drives the prices and there are so many other variables. Naming came along just after aquaculturing got started and it costs a lot to grow frags out to sell. If we could still bring in enough wild collected colonies to support the hobby then we would probably still see mushroom rocks covered with 20 mushrooms for $40.

Personally I try not to let Names drive the corals I want but who knows what is happening at a sub-conscious level.

 

[bsn_rn_cen]

I clicked on every acro to enlarge it and read the description EXCEPT for the one acro he has listed as "unnamed acro". I didn't waste my time even looking at it.

LOL

Is this acro #159?


edit: failing at quoting today...

 

[Rakie]

I enjoy threads re-hashing old topics with new contributions. I wasn't a forum member at the time those threads were active so it's new to me.

I think controversial topics keep forum members engaged in the forum. I always learn something new. As long as it's civil, what's the harm?

Understood. Personally though -- I've seen this topic be dredged up since 2005-6