China – Shanghai – 17 October 2010
Heiko Bleher was invited at the Shanghai Ocean University again to give seminars for the 3rd time, and also Cüneyt Birol from Turkey. During this visit Professor Chen Zaizhong showed us a special building dedicated to the breeding and study of ornamental fishes as well as the breeding and study of native fishes, mainly from the Changjiang delta. It was very impressive and hardly seen in any other University around the world.

_{The entrance of the new building has a large pond with skylight and Zen garden…}

_{There a rows and rows of aquariums, with automatic water supply and drain system. Every row has a unit, which controls electronically the pH, conductivity and temperature, as well as an automatic alarm if any value goes wrong (above or below the given values). In this row they were doing experiments with Danio rerio – an evolutionary species …}

_{They are testing their own “creations” of Goldfishes, some of the oldest ornamental fishes in China and still one of their main sold aquarium fishes (naturally, after a more than 1000 year old tradition …)}

_{… but also Discus – one of their main objects to have stable breeding forms – are found in their building. They are breeding and crossing them, trying to get stable strains out of it and they have a special RO and water preparation system installed to control all water parameters for the Discus …}

_{In this building they also monitor and breed the Changjiang delta fishes, like Lates japonicus, rarely ever seen, but a beauty (upper), as well as Scatophagus argus, which both can live in marine, brackish and freshwater. Here they are kept in freshwater aquariums to breed.}

_{In addition they do also breed fingerlings of food fishes, like this Chinese cyprinid, Culter recurviceps from southern China. All fingerlings are raised before they become released in hundreds of these gigantic containers. And they test all kinds of commercial feeds.}

_{Cüneyt Birol gave also a nice talk, it was about Discus breeding in Turkey and mentioned my 2-day-seminar I gave in Istanbul in 2009 – I only wish I live that long (could catch probably every single fresh and brackish water fish if I lived to 20009 …). The professor with some of his students and Heiko after the seminars.}

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