Can someone explain WWC/Jason Fox corals?

[tnyr5]

I have always wondered how often Jason actually goes diving for these new pieces. Everyone hypes him saying he collects his own corals but didn’t he just go one time to collect stuff? I don’t think it would be economical for him to go out and collect stuff himself every time. I would guess the large majority of his corals came from shipments or other reefers. I also don’t believe he went diving and brought back brown corals. He says everything looks brown when diving but that’s not really how it is. Yea less color but the corals are not all brown. He knows what he is looking for and he wouldn’t go out there just to fish through brown wilds himself.

...you must have a death wish lol.

 

[Backreefing]

Welcome to Capitalism!

No . Welcome to bait and switch

 

[Graffiti Spot]

...you must have a death wish lol.

Yea I am sure all of the Jason fox collectors who believe he hand picked each coral for them personally from the ocean are fuming

 

[gotmesalty77]

Very simple you have Jordache jeans and Levi's. That's probably before your time but Google it you'll understand . Jordache jeans were always expensive jeans for women and men. And Levi's was For the Working Man, Woman or them.

lol holy time warp thanks for the trip down memory lane

 

[gotmesalty77]

I prefer vendors that stand behind what they sell. No photo shop, no catchy names and a vendor who goes to great lengths to get it to you. Fish of Hex is my goto guy. Travis is awesome and his prices are awesome as well.

Ya I agree the guy is the man. His videos are great I usually like them more than the really produced YouTube studd

 

[SebastianReefer]

JF is my #1 online seller. Why? Because I Known I will receive an encrusted, healthy coral. The corals I receive do achieve the same color as the photos although after a time. Seems all east coast suppliers take longer to acclimate than local suppliers.

I wanted to add WWC to my list but the frags they brought to the local sell events were small, (really small) not encrusted, and 2x the price. Not impressed with what they brought but will keep looking at them should they change.

As far as name, it only helps to determine light levels unless you are buying from the original seller.

Yes I love JF frags they will always be healthy and he does have expensive stuff but the colors are amazing and if you spend 300 on a frag you know what you will be getting no 1/4 inch frags

 

[SebastianReefer]

...you must have a death wish lol.

He takes a blue light down with him you need to watch his videos he has to buy the corals he finds after they go threw customs and he might not even receive some of the corals he finds he sleeps in harsh conditions in these villages he goes threw a lot to get corals to the us

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Those harsh conditions sound like my dream vacation so... and I am sure it’s a pain to pick your own stuff on a dive but also extremely fun, I mean it’s an isolated tropical island. I would guess it’s much easier to go to the farms or holding facilities that are well known and hand pick stuff. Either way a lot of places have divers hand pick stuff for them specifically. I think I may be slightly jealous of the people who can afford to do things like that

 

[SebastianReefer]

Those harsh conditions sound like my dream vacation so... and I am sure it’s a pain to pick your own stuff on a dive but also extremely fun, I mean it’s an isolated tropical island. I would guess it’s much easier to go to the farms or holding facilities that are well known and hand pick stuff. Either way a lot of places have divers hand pick stuff for them specifically. I think I may be slightly jealous of the people who can afford to do things like that

Yes me to you should check out his videos it’s on his web site just type Jason fox corals go to the drop down menu and go to videos has a lot of the places he goes diving the boats he is on it is really interesting and I had no idea how it all goes down

 

[zoomonster]

TSA had a pretty cool video of farm shopping in Indonesia and yeah they were shopping at night with a blue flashlight. 1000's of corals and they supposedly picked ~40 to bring home to farm. Wait a bit and you can get a microscopic unencrusted frag with a really cool name for $$$. Biggest scourge of the aquarium industry was the advent of fragging. A lot of shops out there chop any and everything right down to GSP and Xenia. You can even get a plain old red or blue shroom that used to sell $40-80 a rock sold as a single polyp Aussie Jawbreaker for $$$ online lol. From what I know a lot of stuff at TSA or WWC was collected out of hobbyist tanks also.

 

[LRT]

To me the real difference is being able to dive or buy directly from the divers/wholesalers from these countries and import direct.
Alot of these Named Guys are located at international shipping hubs or you will have to hook up with a customs clearing agent and pay them to clear and piggy back your shipments for a hefty fee and get them on connecting flights to your location etc..
Reputable divers and wholesalers will not sell to hobbyists.
You must be licensed, have a storefront, permitted to import corals etc.
That being said if you have all that you can import all the latest and greatest and even cherry pick directly from the divers themselves for a slight fee if you have the right relationship worked out.
Hope this helps.

 

[LRT]

Just thought I'd add. Bought this during JF last sale. Ended up with a 4-5 inch mom minecraft that was being advertised as 1 inch... For reference each sq slot is 3/4".
As you can see its loving my particular system. Fully laid out. Bubbles fully extended.
They do all have the fire corals. They have the 1 up as previously described.
But from theres on the wholesalers importers perspective you can order 100 times before you run across a holy grail coral...

 

[Braves Fan]

Those harsh conditions sound like my dream vacation so...

I am not sure I would classify it as a dream vacation ,, If you watch some of the videos and read Doctors Mac's post on his site Pacific East ,, on his trips to the corals vendors he deals with to import corals back to his company ,, he goes into some of the draw backs in making the excursions to buy corals ,, the food you eat the water you drink ,, can make you very sick ,, these are lessons that Doc Mac has I am sure learned the hard way ,, I would bet money that Jason Fox has gone thru some of this ,,, not fun ,, my dad back in the day was in the military ,, we spent a lot of my early years living in Japan ,, Okinawa ,, the far east ,, pretty much every time we went to a new country ,, I got sicker than a dog for a week or so ,,, not fun ,,

My best advice for not being disappointed with your coral purchases when you open your box ,,, if its not a WYSIWYG don't buy it ,, if the vendor doesn't have a WYSIWYG section ,, move on ,, chop shop ,, not always true ,, but I am not trusting most vendors to cut me a nice frag ,, at least Top Shelf takes pictures of their micro frags ,, you know what you are getting ,, if that Scoly or like coral ,, isn't setting on a egg create for the picture ,,, don't buy it ,, there is a reason for that if your not buying that frag from a Top of the line vendor ,,, be prepared to run that coral thru a full QT set up ,, if you don't know what that means ,, research it ,, not doing this ,, you "" Will "" pay the price for that ,,

I place coral vendors on the same list with Used Car Salesmen and Lawyers ,, which one is at the top of the list ,, none ,, they all the same

 

[SebastianReefer]

I am not sure I would classify it as a dream vacation ,, If you watch some of the videos and read Doctors Mac's post on his site Pacific East ,, on his trips to the corals vendors he deals with to import corals back to his company ,, he goes into some of the draw backs in making the excursions to buy corals ,, the food you eat the water you drink ,, can make you very sick ,, these are lessons that Doc Mac has I am sure learned the hard way ,, I would bet money that Jason Fox has gone thru some of this ,,, not fun ,, my dad back in the day was in the military ,, we spent a lot of my early years living in Japan ,, Okinawa ,, the far east ,, pretty much every time we went to a new country ,, I got sicker than a dog for a week or so ,,, not fun ,,

My best advice for not being disappointed with your coral purchases when you open your box ,,, if its not a WYSIWYG don't buy it ,, if the vendor doesn't have a WYSIWYG section ,, move on ,, chop shop ,, not always true ,, but I am not trusting most vendors to cut me a nice frag ,, at least Top Shelf takes pictures of their micro frags ,, you know what you are getting ,, if that Scoly or like coral ,, isn't setting on a egg create for the picture ,,, don't buy it ,, there is a reason for that if your not buying that frag from a Top of the line vendor ,,, be prepared to run that coral thru a full QT set up ,, if you don't know what that means ,, research it ,, not doing this ,, you "" Will "" pay the price for that ,,

I place coral vendors on the same list with Used Car Salesmen and Lawyers ,, which one is at the top of the list ,, none ,, they all the same

I agree with you on that it’s not all fun and games for jf he has videos on his website of him going to get corals and some of the boats he has to get on are definitely not safe super loud he sleeps in huts the bathroom is a hole in the ground but he did say there was plenty of bottled water on the islands and he doesn’t price his corals he has to buy them after they come thru customs