20 species of coral added to the US Endangered Species List

[that Fish Guy]

Fish Guy - you're spot on. Communication is the key. If two different corals are called by the same common name, then there may be some potential miscommunication, but common names are very helpful, as you point out. Also, many, many corals are unknown/possibly unnamed species, so scientific names don't help much there either.

Awesome, somebody that sees my point.

 

[fishome25]

When dealing with cites or legal restrictions, color morphs don't matter. So common names don't matter. How many different corals are called maze brain for example. But yes, at retail and consumer level, common names are invaluable.

 

[syrinx]

common names for colors are one thing- and perfectly acceptable in the sense fish guy is speaking of. But in the world of collection it is important to know what the coral is- not the color morph- and this is where scientific names must be used.

 

[Grandlotus]

They're now illegal to take from a reef.

That's great, but other countries do not care about our laws and the last time I checked, we don't have any worthwhile reefs to 'harvest' from.

 

[accordsirh22]

common names for colors are one thing- and perfectly acceptable in the sense fish guy is speaking of. But in the world of collection it is important to know what the coral is- not the color morph- and this is where scientific names must be used.

^ this.

a designer name is not a common name. designer names can be useful when dealing with lots of different color/pattern morphs of a particular species, like with ball pythons, many other snakes, or zoanthids (even though all are not the same species). however when referring to the species, the scientific name is much more accurate.

you can learn things about the species based on the common name if you know latin because usually the species name, if not the genus name, in some way describes a characteristic of the organism.