Jing Chan, who currently has the 10,000 dollar Flowerhorn has a clientel of wealthy Chinese who practice Fung Shui.A large hump in Fung Shui beliefs signifies good luck and happiness. There are a few famous monks and saints in ancient Chinese religions who are depicted with humps as well (my father brought one of the statuettes back from China during WW2). These giant King Kamfa Flowerhorns have sold on auction for over 100,000 dollars on the Pacific Rim.
More modestly, my pair of Flowerhorns is currently working on their second nest in their tank. They sleep one on top of the other behind the slate rock nest they made, and now they are constructing a pit around a large smooth fossil oyster shell in their tank.
My Bearded Dragon has his little pillow and blanket at the end of my bed and he walks right to edge of the matress after he wakes up and stares at the Flowerhorns while they are digging. The day before yesterday, my male Flowerhorn spit 8 pebbles and a squirt of water at The Lizard (They are only about 3 feet away in that situation and have always disliked each other).
There are some odd criteria for the sale of top notch Flowerhorns. Traditional stores always try to stick as many 8's in the price as possible. Little ones sell for $88, then $108, $188 dollars etc. Color and kok (hump) size determine a male's price. They have to have both to command big bucks. I'd like to show mine eventually (he's still a Flowerhorn teenager): he's good enough to enter a show at 9.5 inches with good pearly color and a tangerine sized hump, but only likely to bring $700 to $1000 dollars. The 10,000 dollar one is 3 times his length and has a kok bigger than a grapefruit. Females are not worth much; usually $38 to $68 dollars.
