So what did you guys get at the swap?
- Thread starter nashorn
- Start date
Vincerama2
Active member
Twas me, thanks Darcy! (also, I'm jealous you found a fungia frag!)
I picked up...
green Oxypora (or "Chalice" as a newbie might call it
)blue eyed lep (of course!)
Favia (will go well with a nice Chianti! slurp slurp slurp!
)on the first 3 rounds, then on the "take 2, take 3, cleanup rounds;
Orange monti cap (nice big piece!)
Green monti cap (nice piece too)
"Eternal Burning Eye of the Most Magnificent Lord Humongous" zoos (ie; unnamed brown zoo, I was considering calling it "brown eye of Fluffy", but thought that it wasn't extravagant enough)
so not a bad haul.
It was a good op to buy some IC gel and some of that iodine stuff too. Plus meeting new people and talking to people who forgot that we'd met before
I look forward to all the frags growing and returning to the next swap! Will the blue lep become the next xenia??
V
Thales
Active member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9222485#post9222485 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ooulophilia
Hey, no animosity meant, just finding this trend amusing- who do you think comes up with all these names in order to charge more for them
That would be animosity, as was disparaging people who collect comic books. I don't collect comic books, but spending thousands to keep stuff form the ocean in my house has made me realize that I have no business making fun of what other people decide to do with their money.
Money isn't the only reason people come up with names. IDing coral isn't all that easy, and people who do it for a scientific living often need to see the coral skeleton to do it, and even then they sometimes disagree. Corals that are imported are often mis ID'd and asking wholesalers to ID coral is almost as bad as asking LFS employees to ID coral. It's just had to do accurately. Even corals that are agreed on often have different appearances while being the same species. Common names do a very good job of differentiating between morphs.
Common names have always served a very useful function in the aquarium industry - they allow people to be on the same general page when talking about an animal. I see nothing wrong with that as there are always people who know and are interested in the latin, and as people get more interested, they tend to get more interested in the latin.
Sexy names are sexy, thats why people give sexy names. This is always the case where marketing comes into play. Tyree gives sexy names, but he also works hard to have good latin at the same time. I don't really see much difference in calling a piece Jayda's Watermelon Alien Eye Echinophyllia vs calling it pink with green eyes Echinophyllia. Sure, sometimes its out of control, but the market will swing back towards sanity if a year or two.
I put some turbinaria in the swap and I called it Thales turbinaria not because I want to make money on it (its too common to make a mint on), but because I have been growing the same colony for 4 or 5 years and tracing lineage matters in a hobby where wild collection puts all kinds of strain on the wild animals. I think good for a long term acclimated coral to have a common name that people will recognize because they know there is an alternative to wild caught.
Ooulophilia
New member
I totally understand, and I think my frustration would be better vented at the wholesaler - you see how it can be confusing - when ordering corals, I often have to order "jewel stones", or "meat corals", or my current favorite "rock coral". The wholesalers have got wind of this trend of naming stuff, and recently any wild caught of AC monti with blue on it has become a "superman stone", and has tripled in price!
But again, your shooting the wrong people. The SM stone naming comes from over seas, and the wholesalers are just using the name provided.
On the import list, the coral is listed as a M. danea but on the proforma invoice, and the stock list sent to the wholesaler, it's listed as a Superman Stone.
Vincerama2
Active member
My parents decided to call me Vince, rather than Chinese boy with black hair and dirty shirt...
Naming some corals sometimes makes it easier to track it's lineage, like "Mumbo's red zoos" because the original parent colony was introduced to the swapping circle by some guy named Mumbo and "red zoos" is not descriptive enough to tell it's background. It's just what we do.
Making up names is, of course silly, but most of us hobbiests swap for fun and we'll call thing whatever we want.
yes, I used to collect comics as a kid (have boxes of them at my folks place). And my wife and I name our corals in our tank (ex: "Mop Head" = torch coral, "Blue flowers" = blue mushrooms, etc, etc). Seriously, it's for fun. As for identification, you'd be surprised how many people know what is meant by "Armor of God" zoos. And yeah, some guy made up the name to sell it on eBay, but at the swap, it was freely offered, so the name was just a way for people to ID what it looked like when opened.
Incidentally, an iPod is an MP3 player, and Zen is also an MP3 player. People DO pay more for the iPod due to it's branding, so I'm not arguing about the effectiveness of branding and marketting here!
V
Naming some corals sometimes makes it easier to track it's lineage, like "Mumbo's red zoos" because the original parent colony was introduced to the swapping circle by some guy named Mumbo and "red zoos" is not descriptive enough to tell it's background. It's just what we do.
Making up names is, of course silly, but most of us hobbiests swap for fun and we'll call thing whatever we want.
yes, I used to collect comics as a kid (have boxes of them at my folks place). And my wife and I name our corals in our tank (ex: "Mop Head" = torch coral, "Blue flowers" = blue mushrooms, etc, etc). Seriously, it's for fun. As for identification, you'd be surprised how many people know what is meant by "Armor of God" zoos. And yeah, some guy made up the name to sell it on eBay, but at the swap, it was freely offered, so the name was just a way for people to ID what it looked like when opened.
Incidentally, an iPod is an MP3 player, and Zen is also an MP3 player. People DO pay more for the iPod due to it's branding, so I'm not arguing about the effectiveness of branding and marketting here!
V
Actually, AOG was named by our club Pez, Norm and had nothing to do with selling anything.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9223100#post9223100 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Vincerama2
My parents decided to call me Vince, rather than Chinese boy with black hair and dirty shirt...
Naming some corals sometimes makes it easier to track it's lineage, like "Mumbo's red zoos" because the original parent colony was introduced to the swapping circle by some guy named Mumbo and "red zoos" is not descriptive enough to tell it's background. It's just what we do.
Making up names is, of course silly, but most of us hobbiests swap for fun and we'll call thing whatever we want.
yes, I used to collect comics as a kid (have boxes of them at my folks place). And my wife and I name our corals in our tank (ex: "Mop Head" = torch coral, "Blue flowers" = blue mushrooms, etc, etc). Seriously, it's for fun. As for identification, you'd be surprised how many people know what is meant by "Armor of God" zoos. And yeah, some guy made up the name to sell it on eBay, but at the swap, it was freely offered, so the name was just a way for people to ID what it looked like when opened.
Incidentally, an iPod is an MP3 player, and Zen is also an MP3 player. People DO pay more for the iPod due to it's branding, so I'm not arguing about the effectiveness of branding and marketting here!
V
Mr. Ugly
New member
Hehe... and I don't think I've ever sold a polyp of AoG 
Here's some interesting reading on naming in another field:
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/f...7c9fa3fdfcc9bdd3e33a1e88&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Here's some interesting reading on naming in another field:
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/f...7c9fa3fdfcc9bdd3e33a1e88&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Twisted
Premium Member
Well Thale I got a piece of Thales Turbinaria in the swap, and you can betcha a mint when I put a piece in the next frag swap, it will be listed as a Thales Turbinaria.
As far as describing corals? I am having a hard time Identifing anything, I am fairly new to it all, but it seems impossible.
It seems that if you break up a single colony and put a piece in 20 different peoples tanks that it is unlikely that any two of those corals will look the same in a year.
Water flow, lighting, paramiters, other corals in the tank, the rock it's mounted to, the rocks around it, the direction of the current, feeding times, food types, lighting cycles, the lighting in the room the tank is in, everything in the envirment seems to morph a coral into it's one of a kind.
I bought a colony from a local guy the other day that was a nice blue acro. Thick limbed greenish white with trunk with bright blue tops.
I went over to a fellow reef club members house last night to see what he got at the swap, and he showed me his colony that was originally a frag from the colony I bought, it was about half as thick in the limbs, had a darker green trunk with a bright blue top. It looks nothing like mine.
I have a colony of zoas that I bought from a fellow reefer, that were brown with a couple small pink dots in them <kinda ugly, but cheap, and added to my empty tank> the were under 250k halides after a month under my T5s the centers started turning bright pink mouths with a pink ring. Still nothing special, but they look a lot better.
I have a colony of orange skirt zoas with yellow mouths, but the ones growing on the very edge now have orange mouths where the are morphing.
Corals are to unpredictable not to put a creative name on them description.
I still don't know where they came up with the name for my new poker star monti, I expected polyps shaped like hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs.....
As far as describing corals? I am having a hard time Identifing anything, I am fairly new to it all, but it seems impossible.
It seems that if you break up a single colony and put a piece in 20 different peoples tanks that it is unlikely that any two of those corals will look the same in a year.
Water flow, lighting, paramiters, other corals in the tank, the rock it's mounted to, the rocks around it, the direction of the current, feeding times, food types, lighting cycles, the lighting in the room the tank is in, everything in the envirment seems to morph a coral into it's one of a kind.
I bought a colony from a local guy the other day that was a nice blue acro. Thick limbed greenish white with trunk with bright blue tops.
I went over to a fellow reef club members house last night to see what he got at the swap, and he showed me his colony that was originally a frag from the colony I bought, it was about half as thick in the limbs, had a darker green trunk with a bright blue top. It looks nothing like mine.
I have a colony of zoas that I bought from a fellow reefer, that were brown with a couple small pink dots in them <kinda ugly, but cheap, and added to my empty tank> the were under 250k halides after a month under my T5s the centers started turning bright pink mouths with a pink ring. Still nothing special, but they look a lot better.
I have a colony of orange skirt zoas with yellow mouths, but the ones growing on the very edge now have orange mouths where the are morphing.
Corals are to unpredictable not to put a creative name on them description.
I still don't know where they came up with the name for my new poker star monti, I expected polyps shaped like hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs.....
Twisted
Premium Member
See and I heard rumor that Steve at new alameda named the AOG.
And that right there is the only problem I have with the naming of stuff, is it is fairly sporadic, and it is hard to trace back. I think anyone who names something needs a gimmick to tie it to them, like Tyree does, if it was "Mr.Uglys Armor of God" I would know, what it was in a heart beat, but I have seen so many orange centered zoas with that name that it is insane, some have orange skirts, some have grey skirts, etc..
Mr. Ugly
New member
Ok... quick AoG background...
Got the original polyp from Steve at New Alameda. It was the most exotic zoa he had at the time. Didn't have a name back then.
Here's what the name references:
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/armour_of_god.htm
Love kung fu movies, plus the name sounds like Armageddon which is another bright metallic orange zoa
Got the original polyp from Steve at New Alameda. It was the most exotic zoa he had at the time. Didn't have a name back then.
Here's what the name references:
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/armour_of_god.htm
Love kung fu movies, plus the name sounds like Armageddon which is another bright metallic orange zoa
