Oregon Blue Tort

SPS Deep Dive: Oregon Blue Tort

The Oregon Blue Tort is perhaps my favorite SPS coral. The blue color of a “true” Oregon Blue Tort is so vivid it makes you wonder whether it was injected with an artificial blue pigment. Mother nature has blessed this coral and as such it is a much sought after addition for many SPS collectors.

oregon blue tort

The Oregon Blue Tort, which is an Acropora Tortuosa, has an interesting story behind its lineage. I bought my first Oregon Blue Tort from Rick Souta who was in Oregon and sold frags online at Reefstuff.com. As the story goes, Rick acquired his frags from Travis at Upscales who had picked up a frag from Shaun Monahan, who was the founder and original owner of Waves in Portland, OR. Shaun had received a shipment of corals from Bali Indo and he ended up putting a small light brown colony with some “potential” into his display tank. The coral eventually turned deep blue and then turned heads.

I lost my original frag but I managed to pick up some more from a fellow reefer who had also acquired the coral from one of the original sources in Oregon. My frags did take some time to get going but once they became happy they grew at a pretty good clip.

oregon blue tort

Oregon Blue Torts Require Strong Lighting

This coral typically does well near the top of the tank and requires good flow and strong lighting. Mine have thrived under 400W Radiums with supplemental T5s. I consider the Oregon Blue Tort to be an advanced coral so I would only recommend adding it once success is achieved with other SPS.

Some reefers do confuse the Oregon Blue Tort with the Cali Tortuosa or “Cali Tort”, another sought after coral. The key difference is the Cali Tort has some greenish hues on its body whereas the Oregon Blue Tort is a solid, deep blue. I am a big fan of the Cali Tort as well but nothing beats the eye catching blue of the Oregon Blue Tort…..at least in my book.

Additional Resources

If you would like some help with a new tank build, including help designing a custom aquarium, or help re-configuring your current setup then you can visit this page for more information. And if you are looking to add some equipment, I do sell GHL, Pax Bellum, Reef Octopus Calcium and Kalk Reactors and Royal Exclusiv products, including Dreamboxes, which is the equipment I use and recommend. I also sell Reef Brite metal halide and LED fixtures as well as Maxspect & IceCap Gyres.

As for additional insights and information, please explore my many other reef tank and SPS related articles as well as my YouTube channel. For an even deeper dive into reef tank care you can check out my Reef Keeping Master Class. This online course is an immersive and one of a kind educational tool designed to help reef aquarium hobbyists build and maintain a beautiful SPS reef tank. The course is a series of video presentations with some supplemental video from my YouTube channel. There are also quizzes to help students retain and understand the information presented in the course.

Need some frags…..I can help with that as well 🙂 Please visit my SPS Frag store to see what is available.

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