Please Help Flowerhorn hump deflating

[CrunchyLobster123]

A couple months ago I was at my LFS and there was a small flowerhorn the size of a neon tetra for sale for $20, I have always wanted a flowerhorn and couldn’t pass this up. I started him off in a 10gallon grow out for his first couple months he was growing rapidly up until recently I noticed that the hump on his head was looking smaller than usual, I took this as a sign that he may be ready for a bigger tank so I drip acclimated him into his main tank a 55 gallon. The first 3 days he was back to normal eating well but today his hump was deflated again so I’ve come to the forums to ask for some help. In his 55 he lives with 1 L014 sunshine pleco and 1 hoplo catfish who will be moved out soon, Temperature is 82 pH 7.5 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0-5 and ammonia 0. Omega One super colour pellets are the main part of his diet (Will be getting him actual flowerhorn pellets now that he is bigger) along with freeze dried krill, frozen mysis, frozen prawns, and live mealworms and guppies. He also has been rubbing and scratching up against decor recently i am not sure if that has anything to do with his hump deflating. The first 4 pics are of when he was best looking in the 10 gallon, and the last 3 are of him today in the 55. Any help appreciated thanks!.

 

[Rocksor]

No competition and no female, no need for hump

 

[CrunchyLobster123]

No competition and no female, no need for hump

So it’s not a health problem?

 

[lp85253]

So it’s not a health problem?

not likely..

 

[Magnus_Bane]

No competition and no female, no need for hump

I believe this is actually a part of how most FH's grow up. Mine did this as they grew. The kok would inflate, the body would grow and then the kok would deflate and rinse and repeat untill they became full fledged adults. I notice that this this up until roughly 5-6in in size and after that they would stabilize the growth of both kok and body. I believe it's mainly to do with their growth spurts as they are juviniles. The kok is mainly just fat reserves and as the juvinile grows, it uses up the fat reserves for quick spurts of growth.

 

[Rocksor]

Kok isn’t mainly fat reserves. It can inflate and deflate rather quickly, within hours. The bare bottom tank provides a lot of reflection, hence th FH thinking there was competition nearby.

The hump in all cichlids, is a water filled sack often temporarily based on alpha status in a group, so genetics is a very important basic factor. If the genes are there to make the sack large, it will be large, if not, thats the profile you get.
It is interesting that in lab experiments, females often don't choose the male with the biggest hump, out of a group, so that is probably not the only determining factor.