"Rainbow" Acropora Tortuosa

[FutureDoc]

Ok, I am looking for information about the commercial name here, not to identify my tort because I already know what it is Acropora Tortuosa

I want to know about the "rainbow tort" or other non-total blue torts. I bought my "blue tort" back in '06 before naming really got ridiculous. It was sold only as a "blue tort". To me the only thing that matter is the scientific name... so keep your pearlberrys to yourself (although I own one).

The trick is that for the last couple of months (since April) I have been aggressively dosing with vodka. It has been rather successful keeping PO4 down without GFO or other media. Plus the SPS color does shine with vodka. However, the only result I was not pleased about was the tort. Instead of getting a crisper blue, the branches (except the polyps) began turning a mix of gold, light green, and pink. I have been complaining to the LFS owner, who can hold his salt, about my blue tort not being blue. He took a look at it/my tank and we thought that it was probably closer to a color morph of the "cali" tort... just because there was no other explanation for it.

However, another customer came in and asked if the LFS owner could get a "rainbow" tort in. The LFS had not heard of it and a quick Google search resulted in images and there was my tort strain, being more of the "other colors" than blue. The next time I showed up, he showed me an image and we had a good laugh. Although the LFS actually had a frag of my tort in their tanks, they did not sell it just because they did not know if it was actually a rainbow tort or that the tort name was just a common commercial lable for selling torts at a higher price. The other reason, is that after a few weeks out of a vodka regiment, the gold/green/pink colors will fade. Although I think that a Zeovit system can also achieve this coloration.

So is the rainbow tort more of a result of the tank conditions (constant vodka, 2x 400w halides, and my husbandry approach) or is it that it requires ultra low nutrient system to show color and looks like a more common type otherwise, or is it really a different subtype of tort?

Since threads are useless without pics, here are some unaltered picks from my cheap point and shoot camera (it adds a slight blue wash). Only the image size was changed so that photobucket would be happier.

Enjoy!

[FutureDoc]

Unfortunately the camera is not very flattering. For example, there is a orange digi in the background of some of the pictures. It is not brown, but a very strong orange with a green sub-hue. (It is a very popular here is Clemson Country...puts ORA to shame) Normally, I get ORA frags to "color up" There is no brown, mostly a really vibrant gold with some green and pink. The gold is more prevalent where the 400w-ers (14k) has direct light. When my water quality dips, it turns into a more traditional blue/purple/green tort color. My PO4 is undetectable/ below the .03 range (Salifert for what it is worth) I can't even get chaeto to live. This one (1/3 the way down on the left):

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...icial%26um%3D1

Another thing, this is a "grand-daughter" colony. I lost the mother colony earlier this year when a rechargeable battery was "introduced" without me knowing. Heavy metal everywhere and only a few of my SPS survived. This colony was wrecked, but a few tips survived and I grew it back out (some of the dark area at the bottom is old skeleton). Here is a pic about a week before the crash. Not dosing in this pic, most of the corals were not truely happy either


You can see the mother colony towards the top right and the daughter colony down and to the left.

And a recent photo... it about 60% replace stock


Really, while I can't stand the commercialization of the names, but even the cali description is a bit off for this colony. The green really is not a major color of this colony. Yeah, coral descriptors are just a pain.


Here are my parameters just for some help:

temp 78 (low) 80 (high) It swings more in the summer than winter. No chiller
pH 7.95 (low) to 8.18 (high) (yesterdays readings) I do have a kalk reactor. Do not have a CA reactor
Alk 8
Ca 470
Mg 1400
PO4 0 to .03 if that
No3 0/undetectable

Is there anything I am missing?

[Fat Tony]

Interesting. Frank has noticed color shifts from some of his torts as well when he was running a carbon based regiment in his tank. Personally, I think most coral coloration is system influenced. Here's a for instance. My Tyree Superman monti was redish orange polyps with the typical blue base. It came from atlantis and is known to be the real Tyree. Lately, some of the polyps have started morphing almost like a rainbow coloration... it's kind of neat/strange...

[cutietwo]

I don't know about your question. However, i do know that that is a BEAUTIFUL tank and only hope mine looks like that one day...

[FutureDoc]

Thanks y'all. Cutietwo, it will get there! Tony, I have been trying to find out something about color shift/morphs in torts. I have gotten feedback about this colony that the tort was "browning" but this isn't the case... which leads me to think there just isn't any knowledge about how torts color. Either people are hyped over certain color morphs or that there is just a accepted incorrect idea that torts have certain color(preponderance of idiots). Normally vodka/carbon brings out more intense and delicate colors, but if some colonies loose some the blue in low nutrient systems, could the regular blue color be the default "brown" as if it was a regular unhappy acro. However, due to the variability of the species, tanks, and conditions... the common or commercial names can be problematic. While my tort is more closely colored to a Cali, I have always thought it was a bit different... but everyone asks what kinda of tort and so I respond Cali. I thought that labeling it as "rainbow" like other commercial names was a better description for a tort that had less blue and more gold/pink/lightgreen. But then again, the colors only came out when when the tank went low nutrient with vodka. I am still interested to hear about other hypothesis to the color.

[Fat Tony]

I dunno about the defualt color being blue...LOL as I have browned a few in my time

What I can tell you is that the epidermal tissue layers of the coral contain different pigmented filters in the tissue (the color of the coral) and with Zooxanthellae being brown, it would seem to me that the darker more robust (indigo if you will) blues would be more evident in blue coral that contains more Zoox. Maybe the blues loose their punch when the zoox levels are lower (as in Zeo systems and carbon dosed systems)... just a theory?

[ckusnierek]

As for A. Tortusa I would lean more towards Oregon Tort than Cali. The Oregon just seems to have a lot more color.

In a super clean system with extremely high lighting like yours it could be just about any of the "blue" Torts. Mine it's more color and lightens up when it's high in my tank. When it's low it get a very bark blue almost purple.

Another thought is that it's not even A. Tortousa, rather A Gomezi! maybe?

[FutureDoc]

Originally Posted by Fat Tony

it would seem to me that the darker more robust (indigo if you will) blues would be more evident in blue coral that contains more Zoox. Maybe the blues loose their punch when the zoox levels are lower (as in Zeo systems and carbon dosed systems)... just a theory?

that is the best explanation that I have heard so far, thanks

While I will not rule out A. Gomezi, but looking at a dead tort "paperweight" I have on my desk, the coralites and skeleton structure fit mroe with a tort description. I don't have a Gomezi to compare. In addition, Oregon torts often have a very distinct royal blue color that my colony never had. Would it make a difference if the polyps often have a green hue?

[cronamator]

whatever it is im anxious for a frag. i think w/ the zeovit we can experiment what colors i get from it. i am very curious. as i have cali tort and it doesnt have the same coloration, so i agree with you when you say you always thought it "was a bit unusual".