Acropora. Intermediate to keep, Typical PAR 200–400, moderate to high flow.
Also sold as California Tort, California Tortuosa.
An established line. Propagated widely under one name, so the name means the same coral from shop to shop.
Collector tier: common, reviewed 2026-08.
A blue staghorn Acropora sold as a tortuosa, growing tall, elongated branches into a bottlebrush shape and encrusting heavily at the base. The corallites and branch tips are blue, green shows through the branches or toward the base, and a larger colony reads as mostly blue.
The question at the counter is Cali or Oregon, and green decides it: a Cali carries green in its branches or base, where an Oregon is a solid deep blue with no second colour. The green can be faint, so a frag shown under strong blues with no green visible is not proof of an Oregon. A Cali also grows faster and longer than an Oregon, which starts slowly, and the tort names have been swapped between shops over the years, so the seller's own history of the colony counts for more than the label.
High light and strong random flow, up in the rockwork. Cali Tort is intermediate to keep at a typical PAR of 200–400 in moderate to high flow. A typical starting range for this type of coral rather than a measured requirement for this morph. Spectrum, how it was acclimated and the system it grew in all move it.
No verified sales yet. A range publishes once 3 dated, checkable records from 3 different sources exist, priced per frag and reported as a median, with what shops ask kept separate from what buyers paid. One frag is a single cut on a plug, whatever its exact size. Colonies, mini colonies and mother stock are excluded rather than averaged in. Nothing on this page is for sale.