A few months ago, maybe a year ago, we have done a few articles on the coral name game and its ridiculous marketing. In fact, I was on record to say that I am fully against it, as it serves  a single purpose: to yield more money to those selling them.

So this brings me to today’s post, having a coral in your name. A while ago, I have submitted one of my dear and prized corals to CoralPedia as they were taking submissions. I thought to myself, if I were to name any coral, it would be this only one. I could have easily gone the Tyree route, or the business route and called it a FI Blue Smacker. But its not about the money. Its a little bit about notoriety. Not humble you say? Here is a little history behind this coral.

First off, I know its origins. It came on a shipment from Marshall Island in 2005. For those who don’t know, Marshall Island shipments almost always come in browned out. Prior to roughly 2006, MI shipments were also quite big in coral size. Current shipments, a few that do come in, are frag-like in size. Secondly, 85%-90% of reefers don’t buy brown corals. This is believed to be due the risk involved of not knowing how its going to  ‘color up’. Sometimes people take a chance on a coral that is brown, and can have amazing success with it. Some cannot, and don’t buy. Thirdly, the coral in question was left for the dead. It was sitting in the loonie bin at the LFS. My curiosity was tickled, and so I took it home.

Being at home, it began to transform. It soon grew shades of deep blue. And then purple. And then a dash of pink. Without a question, it was the stud coral. The Bentley of my corals. The coral that every single person who ever saw my tank wanted, and many who were refused. A such coral would be disrespected if they were given to someone to live in a nano. Or a 2 month old 400 gallon. A coral that only seasoned reefers would attain.

So here I am, owning this showpiece. Only a handful of people have had its frags. I continue to have hope to this day that those frags are nice colonies by now. But unfortunately, I fear that most have perished. It is a very demanding coral. It requires a ton of light, and flow. It is very sensitive to water quality. A double edged sword. So why not categorize it with the people on CoralPedia? Who knows if anyone will ever see this coral again. Who knows if anyone has a fragment left? I have had this coral perish from me as well, only to find its double with a friend of mine. Now I own only two small fragments of this gem. So why not?!

So is naming it Vlad’s Marshall Island A. tenuis hypocritical? Say it ain’t so!

So what is in a name? A definition? A description? A trademark? A benchmark? A way to differentiate between two opposites? Or alikes?

You all know that I do a lot of web surfing,  sometimes too much.. friends add. But it allows me to get an understanding what is happening in many regions of the North American reefing industry. I can get a good feel on the pulse of the hobby in an area. So why is this entry labeled ‘Name Game Gone Berserk” and how does it relate to all of this?

Well, let me tell you. I am witnessing a vast majority of reefers AND e-tailers over-marketing every possible coral known to man to make a dollar. I am seeing SPS, LPS and soft corals getting the same treatment that a marketing firm would supply to big dogs such as Pepsi or McDonalds. I am seeing greed, and I am seeing detriment to our hobby. And I can’t stand it any longer!

Initially it was great. We would have very unique slower growing corals that were insanely colorful which couldn’t be found by many reefers. Usually, we tagged them with the farmer’s name and that would have been it. A lot of people would  use it to track lineage for originality as most likely they would command a hefty tag.  Steve Tyree, Greg Carroll, ORA are some that originally had their names on certain corals, corals that were worthy of unique names.  Now, for example, we have local e-tailers (online vendors) who cannot stop naming every coral in their possession with their acronyms. Is it necessary to label an aquacultured pink birdsnest a TNR Highlighter Pink Odyssey S. hysterix? Or a bluish grey chalice a TNR Enter The Matrix Echinophyllia? Trying to make a 20$ frag turn into a 120$ frag? Sad, really.

Not too long ago, I wrote on the whole name game and why it was ok to do so.  I think now I feel ashamed to even had thought so. Greed stewed this all up. People trying to profit from everyday corals that are seen in the hobby. Why not name something that is rarely seen? Something that takes three times as long to grow? Something that it is an immense challenge to keep?

But the problem lies with the vendors. They think all of their coral are unique and rare. Unsuspecting buyers would acquire this coral, and then see it at another location dubbed something completely different. Is that healthy for our hobby? Does anyone have any respect towards the consumers?  What about towards the hobby? Because partaking in this name game is completely and utterly disrespectful towards any member of our global community who takes a lot of pride and strives toward caring and culturing for hard to find and keep corals.

So lets keep the names on corals that need it, and discard your shameful acronyms. Unless of course you have the rarest collection known to man!