I think ianiwane's post reflects a sentiment of a lot of reefers that are trying to avoid the increasingly common trend for people to pick up random pieces that don't come with names and try to attach a trade name to it. This has become especially rampant in the zoanthid sector and people seem to think every single zoa morph needs a name. Most of the time this is purely so they can brand and sell theirs. The most honorable purpose for named corals, in mine and many other's opinion, is to identify a very specific coral from a particular source for the purposes of clarifying which coral you are talking about/looking for. Certainly if a fellow hobbyist has a coral which turns out to be very exceptional, we live in the age where everyone is an aquaculturist and it's pretty easy to frag and share one's coral (share or sell--helping to defray the costs of the hobby). That coral may become very desired and many people may want to get some. At that point, people want to be able to specifically say "I'm looking for coral x", and a name becomes very useful. Of course, you can also see why taking that name and putting it on another coral, even if it looks a lot like it, would not be very ethical. If you don't know it came from that source, then you shouldn't attach that name, even if it looks like it. I understand you may not have been looking to name yours for profit, but in the end it really helps to avoid confusion and hard feelings if people would not try to take a piece that they found without a name and try to have others name it based on established varieties. Corals really don't have to have a name, especially if it's just for your enjoyment. Aside from species ID, there really is no "identifying" an unknown coral. Just call it pretty and if people want it and you want to share some, feel free to label it with your own original label. Hope that helps!
Nice find!
