Hunter says it's an Oregon Tort but doesn't remember who gave it to him. It would be nice to know which one he has so I don't have to buy a duplicate one from Upscales in Portland. Here's an interesting history that explains the confusion over different Oregon Torts (I think Hunter's OT is #2 due to growth rate):
"the original oregon torte,
came in a box of acros trans-shipped in to a shop called gateway tropicals in portland, or. ran by a man named bob and his daughter out of his garage based shop. was almost completely a brown out, with 3 purple tips. one tip being a inch and a half and the other two were about a half inch ea......a gentleman i used to go to the shop with when shipments arrived was dwight guss. he and i would take turns picking out the nicest acros from the packing containers before they were acclimatized, so we could grab em before they were stressed any further, on my turn i scooped this 1.5" "mini" colony.(like a med frag)....almost put it back, it was ugly and dwight insisted i keep it for the 40.00 price back then, it would be worth it. i kinda hesitated but did....once it was under my actinics i realized this thing was gonna be really nice though it was only tip color. shaun monahan owned waves at this time. my 1.5" mini colony started base up rtn, this was in dec 98, i gave him the left over mini colony which was basically 3 tips. i had a pretty average tank, but his tank was a larger in store display, sps dominated and he was supposed to frag it, heal it, grow it out, get me a piece back later. shaun ended up putting it in this stupid lagoon style tank in his shop that had a homemade kalk reactor that went crazy every couple weeks and it started the base up rtn again a few months later to my dismay. finally travis and i convinced him to give it to travis for a try. by this time the only thing left was about a brown and blue half inch tip!!! at which point it took off and grew well. i was out of the industry in vegas for several yrs, when i came back i was surprised to see how much attention this thing had garnered! truthfully the person to heal and keep this alive and healthy was travis at upscales in portland, or. if it were not for his amazing display it wouldnt be here now. upscales deserves the credit and this part has been the great discussion for yrs now.....travis gave several frags to shaun later and a frag to tyree along with several others in 01/02 and thats when this thing really got moving. shaun sold his shop. at the last moment out from under the new owner sold many many nice cultured acro colonies to a different retailer here and they have it in unlimited quantities.
+1 dejavu on your knowledge of this.
now that yrs have gone by and i have seen/heard all the stories and tales of this i laugh, i figured i would offer mine. this is how the "original" oregon torte came about "up here". not the other variations. sad thing is shaun and i used to be really good friends. i had a home built in jan 2000. my tank was to be transferred to my new home, during this transfer things were hectic. shaun at waves housed my livestock during this move and many many pieces were sold and fragged up for his profit. a couple millis were sent to tyree and have been traded as well.by then our friendship was damaged and as a result i shut my tank down giving the remaining livestock to travis at upscales. i restarted another reef yrs back and have 3 variations currently.
1. original oregon torte solid blue with no other shadows, sheens or polyps colors. slooow grower. straight blue a touch lighter that the others!
2. std oregon torte which has same everything with some dark metallic blue sheen. med grower.
3. cali torte which is same in color with a green metallic base/body sheen and green polyps on tips. at least in my tank. and a fast grower.
i remember when i grabbed this mini colony it was obviously a jagged broken tip. the way tips grow with space, not the same as a frag directly under light. my belief is that it was wild and came off of something that was sold or dying. also that up here in the northwest what most people sell is variation#2. upscales has #1, soutas #1 and west side #1 (via upscales). what i mostly see is #2 and #3. rarely do i see #1.
#1 grows so slow you couldnt take a frag from mine for at least several months.
#2 looks so similar that if your tank was average thy would look the same except the growth rate
you can now see why the story never had been complete? when i tore down i had no idea the story was so unfinished. i was angry with shaun and we still have not talked. he tried to contact me when i came back from vegas but i figured when he sold his store and pulled shady stuff what was the point of being cool with him if thats how he is. what next ya know?? several people up here know the full story. travis sent it to tyree and shaun had it first in the store. soutas bought up his remaining exceptional acro stock and then tyree got busy with reef farmers. tyree knew the story and think he tried to post what he could without creating static between the two.
travis did used to sell the only supply, and thats one reason why the static between him and shaun. rick soutas used to hate it and had to send his customers over cuz that guy had none. we used to laugh about it all the time. he finally gave a few pieces back to shaun monahan and thats how he ended up getting it "back" and growing it out. when shaun sold his store, he sold all his colonies of the original torte to rick soutas(a other competitor in portland is rick soutas) to **** travis off. also travis "never" had it first.... shaun had it first but it was dying for both him and myself. lol.... basically i said give it to travis, your display lagoon is killing whats left.... i know he is your competitor but its worth a try. you see what most people dont know behind the story and why its so chopped up is this.
shaun monahan worked for travis before he ever opened his own shop. shaun left to become the competitor and tried stealing customers. which you cant really steal, and thats why the hard... cold.. bloody.... static. they actually tried to be friends a few times but i think customers played against one another. shaun had a very small part but made it his ultimate destiny.
the now finished saga.
will j "
[quoted from post #46 at http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1784128&page=2]
Pages 2-4 from the above link are good reads, the whole thread is very informative when coupled with Steve Weast's input on this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=577835&page=2.
