Interview of Heiko Bleher - CBAC2019 - Aquapress

So who is Heiko Bleher and what is CBAC？

Heiko Bleher is a biologist as well as an excellent explorer. And it can be said that wherever water flows, there always shows up Heiko.

Heiko have been doing explorations all over the world in past 30 years. He is a super star and idol in every biotope-lover’s heart. This year in shanghai, China International Pet Show 2019 (short for CIPS 2019), we meet Heiko in the CBAC Liveshow. So is there any secrets between Heiko and biotope aquariums? Let’s go and see.

Good afternoon, all of China! Thank you very much for coming to this amazing CIPS 2019! Very short (introduction) about my life. I have been doing explorations all over the world in 219 countries and I have discovered more than 7,500 species of fishes and many many new aquarium plants.

This is the third generation. Because my grandfather started in the 19 century, followed by my mother, and I’m the third generation. Hopefully, we’ll have the fourth one soon, with my daughter-Amanda.

I think you want to know about the biotope aquariums.

I was asked for the second time to do a biotope aquarium in the CIPS Liveshow. Last year was the first time, in China, in Guangzhou. And they invited me again here.

So I was asked to do a biotope about this river-Atabapo, which is a black-water river, extremely acid water, very soft.

And there live this beautiful angelfish, which was described in 1903 as Pterophyllum Altum. And in this angelfish group of Altum angels, there are about already known 8 or 9 different populations.

And I want to do this actually with the population of Atabapo. But this Atabapo population was not available.

So I have all the other fishes which are living together with this angle fish. And these are Hemigrammus bleheri, which are discovered in 1965. And there are Cardiner tetras, Paracheirodon axelrodi live in there. You can find Heros severus, all these fishes live there in the same biotope as this beautiful angelfish.

So I created it actually very much authentic to the natural habitat to where they live. Normally the water is naturally darker than this. But it will take some time because I just decorated it yesterday.

And I’m very happy to see here that China is really going ahead of biotopes. Because biotope is the future of the aquarium hobby. Because that’s the nature.

That’s the nature of how the fishes live and the communities with life together. Because every fish talks, this is what most people don’t realize.

So if I put fish together that they do not know each other, they cannot talk. But if I have fish from the same habitat, even if they can’t breed, they will talk and they will understand.

So that is the most important point in biotope aquarium decorations. And it was taking off all world wide.

And I’m very happy. Because China has having all these biotope aquarium shows for the second time.

And this year is much bigger than last year. And I hope this will grow from year to year.

But aquascape is naturally not made for the fishes. It’s more made for men.

It’s beautiful, it’s excellent and I appreciated it, but it’s not natural.

And this is natural. This is how fishes live. This is how plants live. This is how nature looks like in its original habitat.

Many magazines, I have written over 1,000 articles, even conferences in 100 countries, and I’m very happy that China now is promoting this the most beautiful and educational hobby which we have.

Because every child can learn from it, every youngster, every adult person can learn from it. And that’s very very important. And I’m really proud to see that China is promoting the same direction. Because there’s nothing on this globe which can teach us as much as nature.

By doing biotope aquriums, you can preserve the fishes which in nature are becoming extinct because of the continued destruction of the natural habitats. And this is happening worldwide. Even in China, even in South America, even in Africa, everywhere, unfortunately, the habitats of the fishes are disappearing. But doing a biotope correct in an aquarium, everyone can preserve nature. Everyone can help us in nature and can continue to protect these animals.

REVIEW – CBAC 2019