Flowerhorns are neat because no two of them are identical. Not even from the same spawn.

All Flowerhorn are judged sort of the same way. I am NOT a Flowerhorn judge but I've bought a LOT of Flowerhorns (I own about sixty of them) and I know what I am talking about.

There are five big areas of Flowerhorn appreciation, things which affect their value and what you should pay for them.

Nuchal hump
The nuchal hump is visible in fish as young as three inches total length. You can see the "forehead" area bulging up, creating a more vertical line from the mouth up to the top of the head. How big this gets will have a lot to do with warmth, water quality and the gender of the fish. Having no hump is not a critical problem, because the fish are still capable of being quite pretty, but having no hump would preclude 'champion' good looks.

This small fish (under 3 Inches) has all the makings of a champion with electric blue scales, piercing red eye, and most of all, it's wonderful hump. A lesson. Look for this.

	This fish is sweet! The exemplary eye, the superb hump for a juvenile, the electric blue and the flowers. If the fins were more sweeping, it would have found perfection.
	Here's an example of crap. The fish is low in primary color, and has no hump. None at all. The fins are short and stubby. It was sold on an auction site. People bought it for the price, not knowing quality.

Red Eye
A lot of Flowerhorns get sold, that don't have red eyes. They're prettier if they do have red eyes. The exposure of the fish to natural sunlight, feeding VERY good varied foods and the presence of other Flowerhorns near their tank will result in redder eyes.

Any Flowerhorn fed nothing but flake food and kept indoors all their lives will probably have pale pink eyes.

If you put a Coralife Trichromatic bulb on the tank, it mimics real sunlight and can help improve color quite a bit. This is not a percevied improvement, in fact the skin is healther because it's able to take in limited amounts of UVA-B from the bulb. To bring out the reds visually, (except for photography purposes prior to sale) use a Penn Plax Aquarilux fluorescent bulb, it makes the reds look like tomatos.

The halide lighting (gives a blue color) which provides close to full spectrum light for skin health is making the fish appear bluer than it is but you cannot mistake the redness in that eye. Excellent!

This fish has size, and color. But it's got almost no hump. A great example of red eye, and the rarer redness in the fins that's desirable in Red Dragons.

"Flowers"
The actual flower of the Flowerhorn is the "eye" spot back from, and above the eye. The "flowers" are the row of flowers that go down the side of the fish.

This fish would be better if the flowers (which are doubled) were bluer. Still, this is a one of a kind fish that is already sold, so don't drool. Note the double flowers. The next fish is prettier, because the design is less cluttered.

Here's an amazing fish. It sold for under $300 and features a brilliant red eye, a good hump, red in the fins (rare) and DOUBLE flowering. Note the Flower further back.

This fish has a great eye, and a nice shape but NO hump and NO flowers. Oops.

Thickness of the body
Fish should be thick when viewed from the top or the back. The older they get the thicker they tend to get, but some fish never will get thick and it's a let down. They look like Bream if they don't fatten.

My fish, Bebe, is "thick". I keep thinking one day she will be as wide as she is tall! Thickness is a good trait unless the fins are short in the process.

Primary Colors
You don't pray for too much blue in a Red Dragon, nor would you want too much red in a Blue Dragon. But you need those primary colors. Some fish, like the Jin Kang looks best when mostly red or orange. The colors should not wash out or be pale.

This fish is great in body shape and head hump! But look at her poor color! She's been kept indoors for her entire life. The owner probably fed her well and gave her good space and water but not full spectrum lighting, and probably no live food. So her color is gone, or never was.

Again, not to pick on anyone, but here's a great looking fish with poor, washed out color. Probably much the same care as above. All they'd have to do is raise the fish with a Coralife Trichromatic bulb and occasionally some color food, shrimp, or live food.

Fins
Fins should frame the tail. The top and bottom fins (dorsal and ventral) respectively, should be lyre shaped and curve around the tail. I have collected some examples of impeccable tails for you.

Lyre shaped fins and a double flowering make this fish "to die for" but the spots are blacker than desired. The fins define "great" however. What you should look for.

	Not even funny, how long and perfect these black fins are. What a gorgeous fish. You could buy it for the eye color, the electric blue, the flowers, or most of all, those fins!!!
	This fish has a rare, great mark under its eye*. Buy it when you see it. However, this fish is an example of poor base color, and VERY poor finnage. *Mark under eye is called "Dragons' Tear" by some.

Some examples of impeccable fish, sold for under $300 at three inches.

This is an awesome fish which brings in a great hump, a great red eye, electric blue scalation across the body over a brilliant primary color of red, and then the fins are amazing. The fish sold at Flowerfish for under $300 and was three inches long, not including the tail. This fish has "Dragon's Tear" as well.

	This amazing fish is also under three inches, not including the tail but is already well on its way with an aggressive red eye, a high hump, great blue and red and the fins are excellent. The fish sold for under $300 in May 2004.
	Dragon's Tear under the eye, makes this fish worth more, but this fish sold at 'regular' price of under $300. If the eye were a more ferocious red, it would have probably been moved into the Hall of Fame.

This young fish at right is 2.5 inches long and already shows three of the most important Flowerfish traits; the start of a hump on its nape, a robust red color and a nice row of flowers on the sides. Interestingly, in the smaller sizes, Flowerhorns aren't very aggressive to each other.