When you venture far enough to start thinking about breeding good shrimps, there will come a time when breeding stock comes to mind.
Why is breeding stock so important ?
One of the most important reason is the genetic of the shrimp lineage.
One could argue that you can start off with a nice shrimp as breeding stock but if we understand one step further a nice looking shrimp might not have the best genetic! How so? The breeder could have bred it in mass and selectively took the nicest out for sale. We will not know if the dominant gene will carry forward or the recessive gene might show up a couple of lines down.
It pays to start off a good breeding colony with good stock shrimps. Good stock shrimp comes from reputable breeders who have maintain and or refine the line for a long time. If you are heading out to purchase some shrimp, ask where the shrimp is from and which breeder bred it. The source is important and if they tell you XYX breeder bred this shrimp, it is even more critical to ask for validation.
Why validate?
Put simply, anybody can claim it is from a reputable breeder but if they can validate them then they are authentic. How do you even get about doing it? Just simply ask.
For example if someone would to ask me where my shrimps are from, I will say XYZ breeder and I can take a picture and show the breeder and the breeder can validate that it is from him. This is more true for stock shrimps, these stock shrimps are expensive and usually not in the masses.
For example a BFT stock shrimp would easily be recognised even the breeder himself as it is rare and few.
So next time before you purchase your next shrimp, ask for validation!