Even if it's head has never been 100% covered, still looks better than most FHs that don't even crossAgreed on difference between GH & FH -- but my fish's head has never been 100% covered, there are some brown splotches here and there (even more so, some places where the gold layer is not as thick and you can partially see some brown below the gold), so I've never referred to him as a full helmet). This is reflected also in the price I paid for him, upper-middle, not top tier.
And yeah I guess regardless of what kind of Asian Aro one is getting, there's always the factor of luck (or sometimes not) -- your experience can give at least some hope to highback owners
Btw has qnyone ever seen any larger/older Xbacks with 100% full helmet (and displayed under relatively normal lighting, not 24k lighting hocus pocus)? Personally I've only seen small-mid size fish exhibiting like this, but who knows, maybe some of the newer generations will grow to full adulthood with FH more or less intact, given that this trait is being seen earlier and earlier with each new generation.
If you paid in the middle, that's an extremely good thing seeing what you've got. it's more of luck IMHO; until sellers or people with an actual eye for aros document an actual selection process, it will always be left to luck for your average hobbyist, or experience.
A good example would be purchasing SRs. Prices are dictated by the size you get them at, but primarily by farm name. In my country, what turned out to be a fly-by-night "farm" popped up 2 years ago, selling extremely cheap super reds; They were being sold by a well known, and trusted shop at 6 inches (good luck with that) and their prices were too good to pass up. 2 years later shop gets scandalized with a couple complaints that they were sold Malaysian RTGs passed off as SRs. An average hobbyist most likely wouldn't be able to tell the difference with Asian arowanas that small, but one thing's for sure; the tag number indicated in the SR's certificate matched the tag of the Malaysian RTG; following that debacle on social media was exhausting, you can imagine the business fallout between the supplier and the shop. Most of the said "SRs" though turned out to be SRs but, at best, a dull orange, but 2 years is too early to say.
There are SRs that look almost exactly alike in color (at least to me), same size at 12" but differ in cost by a whopping $3k. But man the specimens from that farm are crazy.
I got mine fully crossed, silvery white with a hint of blue; a week after in my tank, it looked like a GHHB, not at all like yours (tagged May 2019, at 13" now)
Looks like a 24k FH to me. Man you've exceedingly nice fish in your area.
