You made a definitive statement that was rather defensive in nature. Now you admit to the fact there's no empirical data to support your statements; only anecdotal observations.
I think the hobby has gotten a bit crazy with the names which, many like myself feel, only adds to confusion and increases in costs of corals that are not special in terms of hardiness or their growth rate. It's a known and scientifically proven fact that any coral will grow and color differently in different tanks with different lighting and different parameters such as flow, etc.
These "special" corals aren't new species. They aren't patentable. So someone wants to call their coral Red Planet. There's no way to prove otherwise and our corals don't come with papers showing lineage or DNA. Caveat emptor, if one plans on buying a "special" coral at an inflated price.
You're taking this all so seriously... I never claimed that there was "empiracal" or "definitive" data in the first place, nor am I making any big scientific claims.
The hobby has gotten a little crazy with names, and the only useful thing about it in my opinion is if you have lineage to a certain mother colony and some trust in the source you're buying corals from, you can actually have a decent idea of how a coral grows and what type of colors it's capable of in other people's tanks. Are there papers, or lineage, or patents, or is anyone going to spend money on DNA testing, no. But neither are there for fish of different strains, and at some point you have to decide if you trust your eyes and the source/breeder.
If someone takes a coral and slaps the name of a well know coral on it because they think it looks like the named coral, then it takes away the only useful part of all these stupid names. For instance, if I told someone that I had Red Dragon for sale, most people would know exactly what I'm talking about and have some good ideas on growth form, growth rate color, and possible coloration. If I just took any old A. carduus, maybe one that tends to grow slower or has different colors, and called it Red Dragon it takes away any usefulness of the naming thing in the first place. If you need scientific data fort what I just said, you're missing the whole point of the argument.
You can often find ORA red planet from hobbyists for around $15, so not sure what you're talking about as far as inflated prices go. That seems like a very fair price for such a beautiful coral that is known to be hardy and hold color well. The widespread distribution of this coral from ORA, along with the hardiness and fast growth have helped set the market price low. With all of these corals, once they've been available for a while, supply and demand will ultimately determine the price.
