Having viewed dozens of breeding ponds, I can say most aro farmers are pretty technical when they stock their ponds. They make sure that the stock is ALL top quality. If the farm is big enough, they can actually practise line breeding, which is how the Gold Heads, King arowana, etc. have come about.
Some farms (even large, supposedly "reputable" farms), buy fish on the open market or from other farms for resale purposes. This is actually pretty common, especially around Chinese New Year when stock at many farms is low. I would prefer to buy from a farm that does not do this and only sells what it breeds.
But even here there can be a problem.
The problem occurs when the breeding stock approaches the end of its reproductive age. That is when the farm needs to replace its breeders. This is when you here people say "Oh, such and such a farm USED to be good; now I hear they are raising fish of lower quality than a few years ago." If the farm is big and reputable, it will have made provisions for this transition by raising its own breeders for future use; if the farm is smaller and less well run, they will buy fish on the open market. If they do the latter, that can really mess things up. Without knowing the parentage of the fish, such farms risk that a certain percentage of fry will grow up to be poor fish due to genetics (i.e. if SR parent fish were produced by banjar male female SR cross, a certain percentage of fry will take on banjar characteristics).
In chatting with Mr.Kan, he gave me advice for selling fish in future. It would be to raise up a batch of quality fry and then scale the prices according to how the fish develop. Going forward I might give this a try, though I must confess I am nervous to have so much invested in live stock.
In the end I think purchasing an Asian aro is a very personal decision. Some people have the big $ to just go out and buy the best. Some of the "instant tanks" I have seen photos of from Beijing fit this model. There are collectors out there who will spend over $100,000 by hiring someone to set up a stunning aro com tank for them. Then there are more "normal" collectors who start basically from the ground up, piecing their collection together on their own, suffering failures and meeting success along the way. I fit in this latter category. For me "it is the journey, not the destination" that is the most fun. If I can build my own aro com tank from scratch and learn lots as I do it, well, that is the real pay off and accomplishment I think. Anyone can go out and spend the big bucks to put together an "instant tank; only the dedicated arofanatic will invest the time and energy - and risk failure - to do it on their own.
Yet another way of looking at the issue of how a person stock's their tank (juvenile fish from good farm versus older fish with confirmed characteristics), would be the old "beginner, intermediate, advanced" approach. Those hobbyists who have already been down the road of assembling a tank from the ground up might not be into doing it twice; kind of a case of "been there, done that". Such a hobbyist might be more willing to just skip a few steps and buy an established fish right away. A different approach would most likely be taken by people with less experience. Thus, as I get ready to start my first aro community tank, I am looking to do it from scratch, as befits my experience level I guess?
A final word on choosing juvenile fish from a good farm versus buying older more established fish: Keep in mind the premium the Japanese are willing to pay for baby fish from certain farms. Munjul Prima F4 and F5 spring to mind. Munjul is able to demand a premium price for these fish at small size due to the serious collectors knowing that there is a very high chance the fish will turn out to be of very high quality. Other lesser known Indonesian farms or recent start ups don't command this kind of respect - and can't demand very high prices either...
