Heiko Bleher
Encyclopedia
Heiko Bleher is a German explorer, researcher
, author
, photographer, filmmaker and producer, editor and nature lover. He is very concerned about the conservation of the freshwater habitat
s of the world.
Bleher was born in a bunker in the ruins of Frankfurt on Main, Germany. He is the fourth and last child of Ludwig Bleher and Amanda Flora Hilda Kiel. He inherited his passion for freshwater fish
es, aquatic biotope
s and their environments as well as for aquatic plant
s from his mother, Amanda Flora Hilda Bleher, who was the daughter of Adolf Kiel – "Father of Water Plants" and pioneer of the modern aquarium starting in 1887, who established the world's largest plant and ornamental fish farm in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
, in 1900.
Bleher is well known in the scientific community
for his contribution to the exploration of freshwater habitats, worldwide, and discovery of many new species to the science of fresh and brackish water
s including many plants, several of them are carrying his name or one of the Bleher's family, or location:
Hemigrammus bleheri, Leporinus bleheri, Bleheratherina pierucciae, Steatocranus bleheri, Channa bleheri
Vierke, J. 1991 (Jan.) [ref. 16625]
Ein farbenfroher neuer Schlangenkopffisch aus Assam: Channa bleheri spec. nov. Das Aquarium v. 25 (no. 259): 20-24., Phenacogrammus bleheri, Moenkhausia heikoi, Chilatherina bleheri, Leporinus bleheri, Melanotaenia synergos, Echinodorus bleherae, Echinodorus osiris, Echinodorus opacus, Echinodorus horemanii, Echinodorus portoalegrensis, Echinodorus heikobleheri, Vrisea bleheri, Neoregelia amandae, Vriesea michaeli, Cattelya violacea, Hyphessobrycon amandae, Hyphessobrycon khardinae,, etc.
He is the founder and managing editor of the quarterly published scientific magazine aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, which publishes since 1992 original scientific peer-reviewed articles in the fields of systematic, taxonomy
, bio-geography, animal ethology, ecology
, and general biology of fishes.
Over the years of his continuous explorations and research (in 2009 he had already covered 166 countries), Bleher accumulated a profound encyclopaedic knowledge about fresh
and brackish water fishes of the world. Because of this, he created in 1992 the quarterly magazine aqua geõgraphia for Aquaprint (today Aquapress Publishers, Italy) publishers, dedicated to virgin and bizarre habitats, expeditions to new, uncharted places, endangered species
, biology
, herpetology
, botany
, myths and aquatic legends, etc.
Bleher has contributed to the aquarium hobby worldwide and introduced into this, nearly 5000 new and already described species, which were only known from conserved material in museum
s.
As being the largest European ornamental fish wholesaler and supplier in the 1960s through the late 1980s, Heiko Bleher was the founder of the German Ornamental Fish Wholesaler Association in 1975. And in the 1977 he founded the renowned OFI, Ornamental Fish International, and worked extensively for 3 consecutive years to get it off the ground – today a very well established and recognized organization.
In the aquaristic field, Bleher is recognized as the leading expert for Discus (Genus Symphysodon), wild and captive bred forms. His publication on the genus appeared first in 1955 and in books since 1982. In 2007 he was the senior author of the scientific work "The Revision of the Genus Symphysodon Heckel, 1840 (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae) based on molecular and morphological characters" together with other leading German molecular scientists Axel Meyer
, Kai N. Stölting and Walter Salzburger.
Bleher's recent book “Bleher’s Discus, Vol. I” is also dedicated to this genus, with the detailed description of the Amazon region, its discoveries and explorations through the centuries, 14,000 years of Amazon history including that of its Indian tribes
past and present. He has lived in the Amazon and explored it since his childhood on more than 300 expeditions – at the end of 2009, he had completed his 356th Amazon field trip.
Articles by Heiko Bleher regularly appear in aquarium magazines around the world, in some monthly, which help to popularize the aquarium hobby worldwide.
, in West Africa
, at age 6, he went with her throughout Europe
collecting plants and fishes. At age 7, his mother took him and her other 3 children to her adventurous exploration trip deep into the "green hell" of the of South America
n jungle
, lived with natives, sampling new aquatic plant species, fishes and other animals during almost 2 years, from 1953 to 1955.
At the end of 1958, Bleher's family settled permanently in Brazil
and established a water-plant nursery and fish-breeding place in the jungle outside of Rio de Janeiro
. In 1962, Bleher moved to the US and attended the University of South Florida
, studying courses in ichthyology
, biology
, limnology
, oceanography
, parasitology
and others. In this period Bleher combined his studies with work at Elsberry's Fish Farm and at Gulf Fish Farm. Two years later, he returned to Rio to open his own company "Aquarium Rio" and started his research and collecting throughout Brazil. Bleher first opened several compounds in the interior, others later in several 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
, one of the most widely sold aquarium fish
es today. 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, unresearched areas in South America, travelling monthly into the most remote places. By 1967, he moved his company Aquarium Rio to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, returning monthly to Brazil and South America to collect.
In the 1970s he expanded his operations to include every Africa
n country, Asia
and Oceania
(Australia
, New Guinea
, Solomon Islands
, Togo
, Fiji
, New Hebrides
, Bougainville
). Until the year 1997 he supplied wholesalers of ornamental fishes world-wide with new species (in 86 countries), including new discus variants and many new species every single year, most of them 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 around 5,000 aquarium fish species he had discovered (or re-discovered). This includes some of those mentioned already but also unique colour variants of discus fishes such as "blue-headed Heckel Discus" from the Rio Negro and Rio Nhamundá regions from the 1960s to the 1990s, brown and red discus variants from the Alenquer region already begin of the 1970s, "Red-spotted greens" from the Brazilian Coari
and Japurá
regions and the famous "Rio Içá" discus from western Amazonia in the 1970s and 1980s.
Bleher contributed to the rainbowfish
species community. Except for 3 or 4 well-known species before his field trips to Australasia
in 1974, rainbowfishes were hardly known. And most of them came into the ornamental fish hobby and into public aquaria because of Bleher's extensive research and field trips into the most remote areas of Australasia. He was able to introduce species Melanotaenia boesemani, M. lacustris and M. praecox (one of the most sold aquarium fishes today – all come from 13 specimens Bleher collected) and most of the other nearly 100 species of rainbow and blue-eyes
fishes today known.
In 1970 he was the first to collect alive Pterophyllum altum from Venezuela
, other firsts include many of the South American and most of the African dwarf cichlids (family Cichlidae), such as Nanochromis nudiceps, Nanochromis transvestitus
, Nanochromis dimidiatus, and several Steatocranus
species such as Steatocranus bleheri.
Bleher is known for his early collectings in the Indian Subcontinent, in India
, Myanmar
, Thailand
, Laos
, Malaysia and Indonesia
. For instance, from India, one of the most colourful snakehead fishes, Channa bleheri goes to his account. But many other fishes known in science and hobby today are attributable to Heiko Bleher's explorations, like a great number of the catfish
families, such as species of the family Loricariidae
(as many as 800, at the time of printing), as well the family Callichthyidae
, like many new Corydoras
species.
To his account, go species of the elephant fish
es, knife fishes, puffers
and flounder
s. One of his best-known discoveries was the first freshwater sawfish, known, in 1982, in a remote northern Australian lake, which later turned out to be a juvenile of a wellknown marine sawfish.
In 1965-1966 he rebuilt the Public Aquarium in Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Botanico
and has helped public aquariums around the world by consultations, doing research, collecting for them and helping in their development, as well as giving seminars on freshwater biotopes.
Since the 1970s, Bleher has given lectures and seminars around the world. In 2009 alone he had been invited to give 58 lectures on freshwater habitats, biotopes, biotope aquariums and correct decoration, about the incredible facts of man's continuous destruction of freshwater habitats and demonstrated the daily extinction
of freshwater species on a global basis.
Bleher 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. 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 fishes in the 1990s.
Heiko Bleher 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.
Bleher is the founder of the new direction in the aquarium design, which is based on the principle of creating the authentic aquatic habitat in the aquaria. His intention is to give to the fish the same environment, as in nature – including the décor material, water plants (or none) and aquarium mates. This idea encountered a great interest among the developed aquarist and nature lovers. Bleher's aim is to protect the aquatic fauna
and to conserve it for future generations through aquarium breeding.
For his contributions to the aquarium hobby, Heiko was elected Man of the Year
in England
in 1993, and later in France
. In 2009, he was elected Scientist of the year 2008 for his world-wide contribution to ichthyology by CAOAC. Recently (2010) he was awarded Fellow of The Explorers Club in New York
. At the start of 2010, his expeditions in 166 countries had exceeded the 850 mark.
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, photographer, filmmaker and producer, editor and nature lover. He is very concerned about the conservation of the freshwater habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
s of the world.
Bleher was born in a bunker in the ruins of Frankfurt on Main, Germany. He is the fourth and last child of Ludwig Bleher and Amanda Flora Hilda Kiel. He inherited his passion for freshwater fish
Freshwater fish
Freshwater fish are fish that spend some or all of their lives in freshwater, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 0.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, the most obvious being the difference in levels of salinity...
es, aquatic biotope
Biotope
Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, but while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biological community.It...
s and their environments as well as for aquatic plant
Aquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or aquatic macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the water's surface. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is...
s from his mother, Amanda Flora Hilda Bleher, who was the daughter of Adolf Kiel – "Father of Water Plants" and pioneer of the modern aquarium starting in 1887, who established the world's largest plant and ornamental fish farm in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, in 1900.
Bleher is well known in the scientific community
Scientific community
The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...
for his contribution to the exploration of freshwater habitats, worldwide, and discovery of many new species to the science of fresh and brackish water
Brackish water
Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salty"...
s including many plants, several of them are carrying his name or one of the Bleher's family, or location:
Hemigrammus bleheri, Leporinus bleheri, Bleheratherina pierucciae, Steatocranus bleheri, Channa bleheri
Channa bleheri
The Rainbow snakehead, Channa bleheri, is a species of snakehead. Its type location is Dibrugarh, the most north-eastern area of Assam, India. It is known in Assamese as Sengeli....
Vierke, J. 1991 (Jan.) [ref. 16625]
Ein farbenfroher neuer Schlangenkopffisch aus Assam: Channa bleheri spec. nov. Das Aquarium v. 25 (no. 259): 20-24., Phenacogrammus bleheri, Moenkhausia heikoi, Chilatherina bleheri, Leporinus bleheri, Melanotaenia synergos, Echinodorus bleherae, Echinodorus osiris, Echinodorus opacus, Echinodorus horemanii, Echinodorus portoalegrensis, Echinodorus heikobleheri, Vrisea bleheri, Neoregelia amandae, Vriesea michaeli, Cattelya violacea, Hyphessobrycon amandae, Hyphessobrycon khardinae,, etc.
He is the founder and managing editor of the quarterly published scientific magazine aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, which publishes since 1992 original scientific peer-reviewed articles in the fields of systematic, taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
, bio-geography, animal ethology, ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, and general biology of fishes.
Over the years of his continuous explorations and research (in 2009 he had already covered 166 countries), Bleher accumulated a profound encyclopaedic knowledge about fresh
Fresh Water
Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...
and brackish water fishes of the world. Because of this, he created in 1992 the quarterly magazine aqua geõgraphia for Aquaprint (today Aquapress Publishers, Italy) publishers, dedicated to virgin and bizarre habitats, expeditions to new, uncharted places, endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, herpetology
Herpetology
Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...
, botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, myths and aquatic legends, etc.
Bleher has contributed to the aquarium hobby worldwide and introduced into this, nearly 5000 new and already described species, which were only known from conserved material in museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
s.
As being the largest European ornamental fish wholesaler and supplier in the 1960s through the late 1980s, Heiko Bleher was the founder of the German Ornamental Fish Wholesaler Association in 1975. And in the 1977 he founded the renowned OFI, Ornamental Fish International, and worked extensively for 3 consecutive years to get it off the ground – today a very well established and recognized organization.
In the aquaristic field, Bleher is recognized as the leading expert for Discus (Genus Symphysodon), wild and captive bred forms. His publication on the genus appeared first in 1955 and in books since 1982. In 2007 he was the senior author of the scientific work "The Revision of the Genus Symphysodon Heckel, 1840 (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae) based on molecular and morphological characters" together with other leading German molecular scientists Axel Meyer
Axel Meyer
Axel Meyer is an evolutionary biologist and a Professor of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology at the Universität Konstanz, Germany....
, Kai N. Stölting and Walter Salzburger.
Bleher's recent book “Bleher’s Discus, Vol. I” is also dedicated to this genus, with the detailed description of the Amazon region, its discoveries and explorations through the centuries, 14,000 years of Amazon history including that of its Indian tribes
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
past and present. He has lived in the Amazon and explored it since his childhood on more than 300 expeditions – at the end of 2009, he had completed his 356th Amazon field trip.
Articles by Heiko Bleher regularly appear in aquarium magazines around the world, in some monthly, which help to popularize the aquarium hobby worldwide.
Biography
Since childhood, Heiko Bleher followed his mother's interest for fishes and plants. At the age of 4, his mother took him to Equatorial GuineaEquatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
, in West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
, at age 6, he went with her throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
collecting plants and fishes. At age 7, his mother took him and her other 3 children to her adventurous exploration trip deep into the "green hell" of the of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n jungle
Jungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
, lived with natives, sampling new aquatic plant species, fishes and other animals during almost 2 years, from 1953 to 1955.
At the end of 1958, Bleher's family settled permanently in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and established a water-plant nursery and fish-breeding place in the jungle outside of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. In 1962, Bleher moved to the US and attended the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
, studying courses in ichthyology
Ichthyology
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish...
, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, limnology
Limnology
Limnology , also called freshwater science, is the study of inland waters. It is often regarded as a division of ecology or environmental science. It covers the biological, chemical, physical, geological, and other attributes of all inland waters...
, oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
, parasitology
Parasitology
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question, but by their way of life...
and others. In this period Bleher combined his studies with work at Elsberry's Fish Farm and at Gulf Fish Farm. Two years later, he returned to Rio to open his own company "Aquarium Rio" and started his research and collecting throughout Brazil. Bleher first opened several compounds in the interior, others later in several 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
Tetra
thumb|right|250px|Pristella tetra — [[Pristella maxillaris]].thumb|right|250px|Golden Pristella tetra, a [[morph |morph]] of [[Pristella maxillaris]].thumb|right|250px|[[Silvertip tetra]] — Hasemania nana....
, one of the most widely sold aquarium fish
Aquarium fish
In fishkeeping, species of aquarium fish vary with the water chemistry of the aquarium.For species of fish found in particular types of aquaria, see:*List of brackish aquarium fish species*List of freshwater aquarium amphibian species...
es today. He also discovered the "Royal Blue", his first new strain of discus
Discus (fish)
Discus are a genus of three species of cichlid freshwater fishes native to the Amazon River basin. Discus are popular as aquarium fish and their aquaculture in several countries in Asia is a major industry.-Taxonomy:...
, now world famous along with many other species. Some years later, Heiko explored many new, unresearched areas in South America, travelling monthly into the most remote places. By 1967, he moved his company Aquarium Rio to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, returning monthly to Brazil and South America to collect.
In the 1970s he expanded his operations to include every Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n country, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
(Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
, Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, New Hebrides
New Hebrides
New Hebrides was the colonial name for an island group in the South Pacific that now forms the nation of Vanuatu. The New Hebrides were colonized by both the British and French in the 18th century shortly after Captain James Cook visited the islands...
, Bougainville
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
). Until the year 1997 he supplied wholesalers of ornamental fishes world-wide with new species (in 86 countries), including new discus variants and many new species every single year, most of them 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 around 5,000 aquarium fish species he had discovered (or re-discovered). This includes some of those mentioned already but also unique colour variants of discus fishes such as "blue-headed Heckel Discus" from the Rio Negro and Rio Nhamundá regions from the 1960s to the 1990s, brown and red discus variants from the Alenquer region already begin of the 1970s, "Red-spotted greens" from the Brazilian Coari
Coari
Coari is a Brazilian city , in the Amazon region. It is also one of the largest cities of the Amazonas state. It is the seat of the Territorial Prelature of Coari. The area has reserves of oil and natural gas....
and Japurá
Japurá
Japurá is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 13,026 and its area is 55,791 km². It forms the Japurá microregion together with the municipality Maraã . The southern border of both the municipality and the microregion is the Japurá River....
regions and the famous "Rio Içá" discus from western Amazonia in the 1970s and 1980s.
Bleher contributed to the rainbowfish
Rainbowfish
The rainbowfish are a family of small, colourful, freshwater fish that are found in northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea and in the Southeast Asian islands....
species community. Except for 3 or 4 well-known species before his field trips to Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
in 1974, rainbowfishes were hardly known. And most of them came into the ornamental fish hobby and into public aquaria because of Bleher's extensive research and field trips into the most remote areas of Australasia. He was able to introduce species Melanotaenia boesemani, M. lacustris and M. praecox (one of the most sold aquarium fishes today – all come from 13 specimens Bleher collected) and most of the other nearly 100 species of rainbow and blue-eyes
Pseudomugilidae
The Blue-eyes are the family of atheriniform fish, the Pseudomugilidae, related to the rainbowfishes. They inhabit fresh and brackish water in Australia and New Guinea. Blue-eyes are small fish, typically no more than in length...
fishes today known.
In 1970 he was the first to collect alive Pterophyllum altum from Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, other firsts include many of the South American and most of the African dwarf cichlids (family Cichlidae), such as Nanochromis nudiceps, Nanochromis transvestitus
Nanochromis transvestitus
Nanochromis transvestitus is a sexually dimorphic cichlid from riverine west Africa. Unusually for cichlids, it is the female not the male that is the most colourful. The female has a vertical black and white banding on her anal and caudual fins, with a bright red abdomen. The male, by contrast,...
, Nanochromis dimidiatus, and several Steatocranus
Steatocranus
Steatocranus is a small genus of rheophilic cichlid fish. Most are endemic to the Congo River Basin in DR Congo/Congo Brazzaville, although one species, S. irvinei, is restricted to the Volta River in Ghana....
species such as Steatocranus bleheri.
Bleher is known for his early collectings in the Indian Subcontinent, in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Malaysia and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. For instance, from India, one of the most colourful snakehead fishes, Channa bleheri goes to his account. But many other fishes known in science and hobby today are attributable to Heiko Bleher's explorations, like a great number of the catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
families, such as species of the family Loricariidae
Loricariidae
Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish , with almost 700 species and new species being described each year. Loricariids originate from fresh water habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South America. These fish are noted for the bony plates covering their bodies and...
(as many as 800, at the time of printing), as well the family Callichthyidae
Callichthyidae
Callichthyidae is a family of catfishes , called armored catfishes due to the two rows of bony plates running down the length of the body. This family contains some of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish, such as the Corydoras.-Taxonomy:The family derives its name from the Greek words kallis...
, like many new Corydoras
Corydoras
Members of the South American Corydoras genus are freshwater temperate and tropical catfish in the armored catfish family , and are commonly referred to as corydorases, cories, or cory catfish.-Taxonomy:...
species.
To his account, go species of the elephant fish
Elephant fish
Elephant fish may refer to:* Freshwater elephantfish, the family Mormyridae of ray-finned fish.* Marine elephantfish, also called elephant shark, the family Callorhinchidae or plownose chimaeras, in the class of cartilaginous fish....
es, knife fishes, puffers
Pufferfish
Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the Tetraodontiformes order. The family includes many familiar species which are variously called pufferfish, balloonfish, blowfish, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, toadfish, toadies, honey toads, sugar toads, and sea squab...
and flounder
Flounder
The flounder is an ocean-dwelling flatfish species that is found in coastal lagoons and estuaries of the Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.-Taxonomy:There are a number of geographical and taxonomical species to which flounder belong.*Western Atlantic...
s. One of his best-known discoveries was the first freshwater sawfish, known, in 1982, in a remote northern Australian lake, which later turned out to be a juvenile of a wellknown marine sawfish.
In 1965-1966 he rebuilt the Public Aquarium in Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Botanico
Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden
The Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden or Jardim Botânico is located at the Jardim Botânico district in the "Zona Sul" of Rio de Janeiro....
and has helped public aquariums around the world by consultations, doing research, collecting for them and helping in their development, as well as giving seminars on freshwater biotopes.
Since the 1970s, Bleher has given lectures and seminars around the world. In 2009 alone he had been invited to give 58 lectures on freshwater habitats, biotopes, biotope aquariums and correct decoration, about the incredible facts of man's continuous destruction of freshwater habitats and demonstrated the daily extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
of freshwater species on a global basis.
Bleher made his first Discus-TV film, "Expeditionsziel Aquarienfische" with the German ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
and made many TV appearances in different countries. His first Discus book was published in 1982. His first documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
"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 fishes in the 1990s.
Heiko Bleher 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
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, coordinated the first three Aquarama Exhibitions and Conferences held biannually in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and many others.
Bleher is the founder of the new direction in the aquarium design, which is based on the principle of creating the authentic aquatic habitat in the aquaria. His intention is to give to the fish the same environment, as in nature – including the décor material, water plants (or none) and aquarium mates. This idea encountered a great interest among the developed aquarist and nature lovers. Bleher's aim is to protect the aquatic fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
and to conserve it for future generations through aquarium breeding.
For his contributions to the aquarium hobby, Heiko was elected Man of the Year
Man of the Year
A Man of the Year award usually refers to a person nominated as the most influential or meritous in a business, organisation, a specific form of human endeavour, or amongst humanity at large...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1993, and later in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In 2009, he was elected Scientist of the year 2008 for his world-wide contribution to ichthyology by CAOAC. Recently (2010) he was awarded Fellow of The Explorers Club in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. At the start of 2010, his expeditions in 166 countries had exceeded the 850 mark.