How did your first breeding project come about?

[Sorped]

Hello,

I was just wondering how everybody got inspired to do their first breeding project

Was it a matter of "Wonder what'll happen if I cross these with those?"

Or was it a matter of "I need those traits from A, and these from B to make C!"

 

Thank you! :)

[fishmosy]

My first breeding project (still ongoing) was simply to increase the quality or grade of my CRS. I wasn't concerned about pattern, more about the coverage and solidness of the red and white sections. In terms answering your question, it was a case of "which are the worst coloured shrimp in the tank?" and removing them until I had a handful left, rather than "which shrimp are best?" and trying to select those few. Once they bred up again, I repeated the process. I found it easier to use this approach as a bad shrimp only must be inferior to only one other shrimp, whereas when picking the best shrimp, they must be better than all the other shrimp so you must compare all the shrimp instead of just a few. Of course if I was breeding for a specific trait, I would select the ones I wanted to breed with from the outset. Its a simple thing to see if a shrimp has the trait you are looking for or not.

[Sorped]

I think your method of weeding out the worst looking rather than chasing the best looking makes a lot of sense if you want to maintain, say, colour, especially in bigger groups.