Jestersix

"Lucky Goldfish" LFS Coral ID

Does anyone know with certainty whether Hunter's blue tort centerpiece in the display tank is an Oregon Tort or Cali Tort? I think it's under 20K, the color's metallic blue purple with some green tints on new growth from the base that's been shaded from the light. There is minimal green on Hunter's tort and is only noticeable if looking for it. I've read on another board that even an authentic Oregon Tort can show some green in certain conditions. BTW, I've observed an inch of perpendicular growth in 2 months on a healed frag in his tank. Any help would be appreciated.

~B
 
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.
 
He got it at the first BA-CFM IIRC> I remember him getting at least one Tort at that show as I had my eye on it
 
From the BA-CFM website, the 2006 vendors were Reeffarmers, Atlantis Aquarium, Fragfarmer, Reef Ready, ACoralSource, AWExotics, Reef Tec Designs, Jen Dub, Aquatic Marines (snipersps), YourReef, Diamonds in the Reef, New Alameda Aquatics, Muse Corals by Sheen Yen, Mermaid Aquarium, Reef Nutrition, ELOS USA, and Bay Area Reefers.

Do any of those ring a bell?
 
If you like the way it looks, couldn't you just buy it for that reason instead of wondering if it's a Real or fake OT or what number tort it is?
 
You missed my point. I did buy it because I liked it; however, I also want the Upscales Oregon Tort. From what I have gathered, the UOT is a different shade of blue and growth form than the others. I want to know which one I have so I don't end up purchasing duplicates of the same thing. Another reason is if anybody wants a frag in the future I can tell them what it is. I think your question is rather disingenous, even looking at the frags on the DBTC list will give you an idea of the value of named corals. Another reason is this, if I had expressed interest in the coral and received it as a gift then it's no big deal; however, I paid money with the expectation of getting my money's worth. The prices for Oregon Tort will always be higher than for Unknown Blue Acro.
 
Benaminh said:
You missed my point. I did buy it because I liked it; however, I also want the Upscales Oregon Tort. From what I have gathered, the UOT is a different shade of blue and growth form than the others. I want to know which one I have so I don't end up purchasing duplicates of the same thing. Another reason is if anybody wants a frag in the future I can tell them what it is. I think your question is rather disingenous, even looking at the frags on the DBTC list will give you an idea of the value of named corals. Another reason is this, if I had expressed interest in the coral and received it as a gift then it's no big deal; however, I paid money with the expectation of getting my money's worth. The prices for Oregon Tort will always be higher than for Unknown Blue Acro.

I wasn't trying to knock you, but I am one of those rare reefers who gets almost everything from Jim's store or one of the clubs DBTC programs, so I don't really know nor care about their "worth" in fact I have given red planet frags 3" in lentgh to ppl and called them "Red and green acro" instead, the reason being that I am not a fan of high prices for things, basicly I'm cheep
 
Blue acro blah blah blah...

If anyone ever sees a piece of this:
blueacrob12803.jpg


I'd pay a lot to have it again. The pic is from my tank on Treasure Island, and when I took the tank down I sold a piece to a BARE member, gave a piece to Matt, and gave one to Eddie at Tropical Paradise. When I set back up Matt gave the piece back to me but it never recovered from several months in a refugium under VHO's and faded away to nothing, I could never get it to recover. The other people had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if there was any chance of getting a frag back.

Afaik, no one has it now. I think it was an awesome piece, definitely the brightest blue I've seen from a coral, and it grew fast too.
 
Pretty sure Matt's tank is no longer so I doubt he has it :( Those tentacles in the background scare me :)
 
Yes, to this day I remember that aiptasia. that was a piece of flat rock resting on a very porous one, and the porous one got infestested with aiptasia and I could never chase them all down. Oh the good ol' days...

And yes, Matt gave me back the piece, he was actually nice enough to hold several corals for a couple months while I moved. The problem was I had 2 400W halides over a 65G on TI because electricity was free, and he had a fairly low light refugium. The coral browned out and didn't do well, so when i got it back it never recovered. I always hope it's out there somewhere.
 
What is that, A. prostrata? It's also a similar color to one of the hoeksemai morphs at Atlantis Aquarium. They have both the darker royal blue and electric blue.

I used a peppermint shrimp to get rid of aiptasia. Didn't feed him at all so he eradicated all the pests, even the 25c sized ones in a week. Had to take him out afterwards tho, he molted four times, tripled in size, and stole food from everyone else -- also started harassing the Purple Long Tentacle Anemone, not cool.

So Gresham, any vendors on that list jog your memory?
 
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