What is the difference between the Oregon Tort and the California Tort?

[Ed Hahn]

I have seen the Oregon Tort and loved the colors. I want to learn more about the Californiia Tort. I also want to learn who introduced these corals and what type of lighting and flow they prefer.

Thanks in Advance,
Ed

 

[Anthony Calfo]

This is one heck of a touchy subject for me This rant is not directed at you, Ed, my friend... rather thanks for opening the door to a peeve/point to be made

I am profoundly against the colloqial (and sometimes ridiculous, although not the case here) names for corals that have morphologically and chromatically changed and continue to change under case by case systematics (individual growers lighting, nutrient levels, water flow, etc).

To underscore the unreliablility of naming, seeking or selling anything by such improvised names... I consider that the worlds leading experts like Charlie Veron will not even waste their time trying to iD a coral that has grown in aquaria. Very few Acroporids in particular will retain defining characteristics. Heck... even in the wild those that occur over a wide range on the reef can look so dramtically different as if to be speciated.

To the point... so many corals cannot and will not keep the same color or even form that they are grown/sold as. This is not a bad thing at all... it simply is what it is. Folks that favor certain forms and colors will experiment with physical parameters to try to encourage or maintain some such traits. The rest of us just continue to complain about changes

My opinion is if we really want to be true to the habit/system of naming things by gross characteristics and locales... we should do it right: call a coral the "35 Shady Oak Lane, Oregon Tort (tank B)" Heehee...

And to beat a dead horse... until/unless we can definitively say what is needed exactly to keep/replicate the params to produce the same form and color of a coral that we might call "Oregon Tort" or the like... then the name has little value.

Whew

A brief mention too... my apologies if I'm a bit slow on this thread/others for the next week: I'm out of town this and next weekend and will have limited 'Net access. Will jump in/on as soon as I can though.

With kindregards (great question too Ed... seriously )

Anthony

 

[Ed Hahn]

lmao...Thanks Anthony, And that was very fast too. I appreciate your time.
Ed

 

[tamarindthai]

is this Ca tort?,,could you Id it for me,,i think it is ,,maybe not.
thanks.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

always welcome Ed Seriously a good quetsion/topic indeed. And one that will have increased relevance in time if/when we better understand what it takes to grow and maintain certain desirable coral forms and colors

Tamarindthai... I'm not sure what I can tell you... juding by a mere/few kb-sized thumbnail of a coral I have never seen in person... other than to ask you to please consider my perspective/opinion mentioned above of what it means when we favor quirky marketing/regional common names.

kindly,

Anthony

 

[big t]

Anthony, if you click on the thumbnail, it is a pretty high quality shot .

 

[Anthony Calfo]

I appreciate the mention, Big T...

am I missing something, though. mate? When I click on the image to view it, an ~80 kb image appears. It may be a moot point as most any ID from pic is categorically unreliable. But images of even a few hundred kb are very low-res (for comparison, the images used in hobby books/lit are 1-3 meg each... with some full page images much higher - allowing for great detail, of course, that would assist a proper ID)

kindly,

Anth-

 

[Elmo18]

Dang, i would not really mind whether it's the other one or not, that coral is looking nice

- Elmo

 

[big t]

I duno Anthony, when I click it the thumbnail the picture that comes up more then filles the whole screen. It sounded like you were talking about the 1" thumbnail, and I agree it is hard to tell much of anything about the coral by the thumbnail. I suppose that it would help if it was more of a close-up to better view the polyps and coralites and what not. Regardless of all that, it is a beautiful coral you have Dang, SWEET!

 

[badspstank]

I feel the same way so many people just name corals then sale them for crazy high prizes thank you for clearing things up

 

[Angelscrx]

If it looks pretty and you know what it requires to grow does it really matter what the name is? Do the fish that cohabitate with the coral ask each other "who's the new guy?" Just something to think about. :|

 

[reggie060]

down south

here in the ATL at the LFS we never see corals like that. Not trying to sound crazy but I would like someone from the westcoast to send me a small frag of one of those. We have been trying to do some group frag trade with some of the west coast reef clubs. I'm apart of the ARC and we have a great club,growing as we speak

 

[FishyinKy]

Anthony, following your thoughts on this, your pet peeve. Does that mean that all corals change in the tank habitat? Does that mean we can never truly replicate what we see out there? All we can do is strive to create something similar? To me, it definitely says a lot about a corals ability for adaptation.
MacL

 

[Ed Hahn]

here in the ATL at the LFS we never see corals like that. Not trying to sound crazy but I would like someone from the westcoast to send me a small frag of one of those. We have been trying to do some group frag trade with some of the west coast reef clubs. I'm apart of the ARC and we have a great club,growing as we speak

Reggie,
You have people like that close by you. One is BrianE on here. He is in North Carolina. Email him and see what happens. I wish you luck.
Ed

 

[Anthony Calfo]

cheers, Mac

Hmmm... thers a lot of variability here. Some corals will morphologically (or chromatically) change quickly or severely in captive conditions while others do not readily change much at all. Both expressions do indeed speak to the high adaptability of most corals to what are usually very different conditions in our aquariums than in the wild.

But I am sure that we can often replicate the necessary physical parameters in aquaria to maintain desired, natural colors and forms in wild coral - we just cannot do that across the board for all corals in those (dreadful IMO) mixed garden reef aquaria. It is ridiculous for us to expect the hodgepodge mix of corals from wide ranging areas of the reef (even different oceans!) thrown into an aquarium under standardized light, water flow etc to all look and thrive optimally Its simply unrealistic.

So to get those optimal results (form and color) I truly believe we need to focus onmore natural reef displays (biotopes).

Great question, Mac! Danke

Anthony