Heiko Bleher

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Who is Heiko Bleher?

Heiko Bleher was born on October 18, 1944 in a bunker in the ruins of Frankfurt on Main. He was the fourth and last child of Ludwig Bleher and Amanda Flora Hilda Kiel. Amanda’s father Adolf Kiel was the well-known “Father of Water Plants”, a pioneer of the modern aquarium who established the world’s largest plant and ornamental fish farm in Frankfurt. In those early days his adventurous daughter Amanda travelled around the world collecting fishes and plants. She was the first woman to ride a motor bike in Germany, and competing against men, won 148 European Moto-Cross car races, won championships in tennis, table tennis (world vice champion), European skating and ice skating, and was the first woman to fly an aircraft without an engine... Just as Amanda followed in her father’s footsteps, so Heiko followed his mother’s. At 4, he saw his first discus at an aquarium fish exhibition in the still ruined Frankfurt Zoo. Later he travelled with her to Africa then, aged 6, throughout Europe collecting plants and fishes. When he was 7, his mother took him, his elder brother and two sisters with her on his first discus hunt – a highly adventurous exploration trip deep into the “green hell” of the of South American jungle. They reached areas inhabited by unknown Indian tribes, some of whom had killed and eaten 4 missionaries shortly before. They lived with the natives for over 6 months, sampling 60 new aquatic plant species, countless fishes and many other animals. Still a child, Heiko learned to live like the Indians, eating the same food and collecting fishes and plants in the Mato Grosso, He learned about the life and behaviour of fishes, and became familiar with the amazing variety of fish that exist in unspoiled nature. He also discovered the wimpel-piranha, but no discus at that time.

After two years, Amanda Bleher’s return to civilization with her four children made newspaper headlines around the world. In 1959 she decided to settle permanently in Brazil. It was there that Heiko helped build a water plant nursery and fish breeding establishment in the jungle outside Rio. In 1962, he moved to the US and attended the University of South Florida, studying at night and learning more about fishes. He took courses in ichthyology, biology, limnology, oceanography, parasitology and many others. During the day he worked at Elsberry’s Fish Farm and later at the Gulf Fish Farm. Two years later he returned to Rio to open Aquarium Rio and start his own collecting in Brazil. He first opened several compounds in the interior, others later in other parts of South America. At the end of 1964 he discovered the first new species to be named after him – Hemigrammus bleheri, the brilliant rummy-head tetra, now one of the most widely-sold aquarium fishes. He also discovered the “Royal Blue”, his first new strain of discus, now world famous along with many other species. Some years later Heiko explored many new, uncollected areas, and by 1967 he moved his company Aquarium Rio to Germany, returning monthly to Brazil and South America to collect. Over the years, generally alone, Heiko penetrated jungles in all South and Central American countries. He also travelled to the Amazon area as many as 10 times a year in search of discus and others species. In the 1970s he expanded his operations to include Africa, Asia and Oceania (Australia, New Guinea, etc.) and began to give lectures around the world. He made his first Discus-TV film, “Expeditionsziel Aquarienfische” with the German ZDF and made many TV appearances in different countries. His first Discus book was published in 1982 and re-printed 10 times. Since then he has published articles on discus in magazines around the world. His first documentary film “The Wimpel Piranha” was made In 1983, followed by films on freshwater fishes in New Guinea, Australia, Central America and Brazil then four films on discus in the 90s. Until 1997 from Frankfurt he supplied wholesalers world-wide with new species, including new discus variants every year, mostly from his own discoveries. Between 1965 and 1997, besides introducing most of the wild discus variants into the hobby – directly or by means of the breeders – he introduced more than 4,000 aquarium fish species he had discovered (or re-discovered). This includes the variants such as “blue-headed Heckel”, “Alenquer”, “Red-spotted greens” from the “Coari” and “Japurá” regions and the famous “Rio Içá” discus, and also rainbowfishes such as Melanotaenia boesemani, M. lacustris and M. praecox (most probably now one of the most sold aquarium fishes), angels such as Pterophyllum altum, dwarfs such as Nanochromis nudiceps and Steatocranus bleheri or Channa bleheri. Among other fishes attributable to Heiko’s explorations are also many loricariids (as many as 800, at the time of printing), new Corydoras species, almost countless tetras and dwarf cichlids from West Africa and South America, knife fishes, puffers and flounders. One of his best-known discoveries was the first freshwater sawfish known, in 1982, in a remote northern Australian lake. For his contributions to the hobby Heiko was elected Man of the Year in England in1993, and later in France. He holds many other titles and has met kings, presidents, ambassadors and senators. He is happiest and at his most relaxed away from it all when deep in the jungle searching for rare or new fishes. In 1992 he created the quarterly magazine “aqua geõgraphia”, for Aquaprint (later Aquapress) publishers, a unique publication dedicated to virgin and bizarre habitats, expeditions to new, uncharted places, endangered species, biology, herpetology, botany, myths and aquatic legends, the wonderful world of water, and much more. He is the managing editor of the scientific journal “aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and Aquatic Biology” and still finds time to write numerous articles and has been working for more than 15 years on a forthcoming tome on all fresh- and brackish water fishes. His lectures take him to the five continents each year and he is frequently invited to judge fishes (mostly Discus) in exhibitions world-wide. He also collaborated with and organized the first International Discus Show and Exhibition in 1986 in Tokyo, coordinated the first three Aquarama Exhibitions and Conferences held biannually in Singapore and many others. Heiko continues to travel almost monthly to remote jungle areas to find new fishes, and several times each year to remote, unexplored Amazon habitats in search of discus...

His life is dedicated to fishes.