A question for you sps lovers
 

How many of you actually know the names of your corals? I'm not referring to the common name such as strawberry shortcake. But the scientific name such as acropora palmatta.

If I could post a poll via tapatalk I would.

I barely even know the common names lol. Maybe half. But none of the scientific names

Same as above..lol that goes for zoas too...but it seems like I have expensive taste lol

I have no idea of there scientific names. Although I would like to learn there names and more about each type.

of course I know them all.... i have a cactus... the one with the green polyps... the one from ebay... the one that changed color

hahaha gator +1.... everytime I like something its like $400 an eye or 3/4" lol

Yes colorful stick red...colorful stick green......

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I like to know the scientific name of all coals in my tank, I keep a list with a picture from day one the coral enters the tank, having said that, there are some SPS's that are practically impossible to id their SP with certainty and there are some that are very easy to ID.

Negatory Ghostrider......just the common names of some of them.....

hahahaha matt

theres a good reason marvin is asking this folks.

More chime in please.

I for one only know names the vendors give them.

There's scientific names for stuff?

Yes there are, why do you think they call you Boricua?

Boricua sp. is Latin for pork sandwich

hey Josh I'm Boricua too, scientific name Aguadenisquis De la Costa. Lol.

I dont lol

Id like to
the few in my tank that I do know are
yongei, tenuis, granulosa, millepora, and formosa

What scientist or lab names them? I thought corals go from collectors to wholesalers? At what point do they end up in a lab being cut up dna tested and named?

LMAO, you are a one of kind SP.

Lol. I wasnt kidding! Where can i go and see the nerd names of sps?

this.

Heck, even Charlie Veron who wrote the book on coral ID won't venture a scientific name from just looking at a picture the way hobbyist like to ;) Even more interesting, is that he's found the same species can be morphologically very different looking from one side of an island to another...makes just looking at a coral and ID'ing it rather difficult. Pretty much necessary to strip the flesh and examine the skeleton for ID...and current DNA methods are even showing that might not be entirely reliable.

i like to only use scientific names, anyone can give a fancy name and charge $90 an inch. i have a big book full of pictures with names that i go by

I've been looking at the SPS forum ID section lately, lol, so this thread is very timely. I don't know many "nerd" names but I want to I have a book on corals from Julian Sprung that is basic but informative. It would be nice to learn more.

It's like marke that has 4 different types of strawberry shortcake. They're all beatiful green & pink but you can clearly tell by the polyp extension and the shape of the stalk that they're clearly different species. What book do you use elan?

Josh, those are some of the characteristics that change due to simple differences in light and current patterns. Makes such visual distinctions fairly useless for differentiating species. Best set of books for properly ID'ing corals to a species level is Charles Veron's 3 volume Corals of the World.

I use Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman