THE NAME GAME IS DEAD
Every coral has potential—but hype doesn’t grow polyps. Truth does.
The reef scene has lost the plot. Somewhere along the way, we decided corals needed last names, three adjectives, and a backstory. "Dragon Slayer," "Rainbow Envy," "Angry Whatever."
Let’s be real: Half of them are clones with new filters. Most "named" pieces start as wild colonies pulled from Indo or Aussie reefs, chopped up, and rebranded until nobody remembers the lineage.
Everyone is trying to be the next OG, chasing labels instead of growth. That’s not reefing—that’s retail cosplay.
🎲 Imports: The Gamble
When I bring in a box of Indo SPS, I’m not buying finished pieces. I’m buying raw potential.
Some come in brown. Some come in pale. They are unknowns. That is the beauty of it. You don't know what they will become until you lock in your parameters and let them cook.
I’d rather gamble on potential than pay a premium for someone else’s Photoshop job.
👀 The Lookalike Game
Here is the industry secret: 80% of "rare" corals are just variations of the same few species. Different farm, same DNA.
You stabilize a new import, and suddenly you have a piece that looks 95% like a "named" frag selling for triple the price. That is the hunt. Finding the lookalikes that perform better, color harder, and cost half as much.
The "Initials" Trend
And the whole "let’s slap our store initials in front of every coral" thing? Hard pass.
Prefixes don’t grow polyps. They just grow price tags. If I sell a coral, you're paying for the animal, not my ego.
👑 Respect Where It's Due
I’m not trashing history. Names like Walt Disney, Homewrecker, and RR Jawdropper earned their crowns. They changed the game. They set the standard.
I use those names because it’s how we speak the language. Everyone knows what a WD looks like—it’s visual shorthand. But the new wave of emojis and trademarks? That’s just noise.
On this site, names are for ID. Not hierarchy.
Hype vs. Heat
Collectors flex names. Reef builders flex growth. The difference? One is buying status, the other is earning results.
I don't chase hype. I chase performance. Color retention, growth tips, polyp extension. That is what fills the vault. That is what pays for the next shipment.
At the end of the day, turn off the blue lights. Turn up the whites. Strip away the filters. Are you building something real, or are you just renting it?
The Jase Rule
If a coral makes me stop walking mid-tank, it stays.
If it glows because someone on a forum said it should, it goes. The vault isn't about names—it's about heat from the deep. The kind that glows even when nobody knows what to call it.
