So where do new zoas and palys come from? "Designer" via who/what?

[Tired]

I keep seeing zoas and palys sold as "designer", and there's such a massive variety of colors and patterns. Did someone actually design them in some way, or is that just a name they were given? I don't see how someone could intentionally influence the natural variations in zoas, aside from waiting for a new thing and propagating it, since afaik nobody can sexually reproduce corals in captivity yet. The name sure sounds like someone did something, though. 

Do new varieties just come from divers somewhere finding them, or has someone figured out a way to influence current stock? 

 

How many different zoa and paly species are in the hobby, anyway? Does anyone know? 

[Wonderboy]

Basically designer means that they have a "brand/product name" - so that everyone in the hobby has something they can use as a referrence to specific color patterns in palys and zoas. They come from collections. Over time, certain hobbyists have cultured them and given them referrances so that they could be easily differentiated or introduced as new finds.

[Tired]

Okay, so they're just something that someone found somewhere and put a name on, as opposed to somehow influencing them to grow out of a different variety? Makes sense.

[Wonderboy]

On the rare occasion, zooxanthellae can bleach out and redevelop with different colors/patterns depending on stimuli - so maaaaybe some of them came from that, too.

[Tired]

Oh, that's interesting. Would it continue that way, though, where successive polyps would also have that redeveloped pattern? 

 

Imagine if someone could figure out how to do that on purpose. They could make real designer zoas and palys! Heck, pay 'em enough and they could make up a whole set of paly varieties that each have a letter of your name. 

[Wonderboy]

Lol, alphabet polyps