Hi,
all of you, this is Heiko Bleher, and I guess I do not have to introduce myself, or repeat that I discovered the Channa bleheri (and many others) and brought the first ones back a life and introduced them into the hobby.
I really have to say: thank you Uli, you speak from my heart. It is more than frustrating to always find people who do not read, inform them selfs (unless only on the web, which is becoming more and more a nucanse as people believe everything they read on the web...).
Pascal did a very good job by showing the differences and he really showed the fish I discovered and he identified it correctly (and his Channa bleheri is quite big, I have never seen it that big in nature, but that is almost normal, as most fishes grow larger and longer in well kept captivity than in nature).
So this is correct what he explained. Thank you. I just wonder why you write: "...nearly no one was at the habitat"... I was there and collected it and gave the specimens to Vierke who described them. Naturally he was not there and he was not the one who collected them, it was me. I collected it in 1987/88 for the first time and it was published (also for the first time) in October issue of TFH in 1988 (page 60). I went back and Vierke described it finally in 1991. After he had also breed it (very unique behavior of breeding. Interesting is, that you found out the temperatures, as in Assam were I discovered it, temperatures drop to less than 15 degrees Celcius in winter and go up to 28 and more in summer. The funny thing is, when I found it, and showed it to local people, they said it is the large Channa, and will grow to 1 meter and more, and they laughed at me when i said this is a different, dwarf species... But I found this with many native people around the world, that is why small species are still the most ot there to discover. last year alone, I am sure I found two new dwarf Channa in southwestern India, and I found tiny dwarf killi fish species, less than 15mm Tl and a catfish with less even, as well as other tiny new fish species from several groups (all together about 30 new ones from 4 continents - out of 3000 collected species).
A few things (but very little) one can see on my site:
www.aquapress-bleher.com
under expeditions, or Latest news, biography, etc.
So, to Pascal, keep up the good work and correct your Channa bleheri text. And to MagnusM: believe Pascal, he is correct, and everything else is wrong.
best regards from the discoverer, and good luck with the beauty (and look up the TFH issue).
Always
Heiko Bleher
www.aquapress-bleher.com
www.aqua-aquapress.com
all of you, this is Heiko Bleher, and I guess I do not have to introduce myself, or repeat that I discovered the Channa bleheri (and many others) and brought the first ones back a life and introduced them into the hobby.
I really have to say: thank you Uli, you speak from my heart. It is more than frustrating to always find people who do not read, inform them selfs (unless only on the web, which is becoming more and more a nucanse as people believe everything they read on the web...).
Pascal did a very good job by showing the differences and he really showed the fish I discovered and he identified it correctly (and his Channa bleheri is quite big, I have never seen it that big in nature, but that is almost normal, as most fishes grow larger and longer in well kept captivity than in nature).
So this is correct what he explained. Thank you. I just wonder why you write: "...nearly no one was at the habitat"... I was there and collected it and gave the specimens to Vierke who described them. Naturally he was not there and he was not the one who collected them, it was me. I collected it in 1987/88 for the first time and it was published (also for the first time) in October issue of TFH in 1988 (page 60). I went back and Vierke described it finally in 1991. After he had also breed it (very unique behavior of breeding. Interesting is, that you found out the temperatures, as in Assam were I discovered it, temperatures drop to less than 15 degrees Celcius in winter and go up to 28 and more in summer. The funny thing is, when I found it, and showed it to local people, they said it is the large Channa, and will grow to 1 meter and more, and they laughed at me when i said this is a different, dwarf species... But I found this with many native people around the world, that is why small species are still the most ot there to discover. last year alone, I am sure I found two new dwarf Channa in southwestern India, and I found tiny dwarf killi fish species, less than 15mm Tl and a catfish with less even, as well as other tiny new fish species from several groups (all together about 30 new ones from 4 continents - out of 3000 collected species).
A few things (but very little) one can see on my site:
www.aquapress-bleher.com
under expeditions, or Latest news, biography, etc.
So, to Pascal, keep up the good work and correct your Channa bleheri text. And to MagnusM: believe Pascal, he is correct, and everything else is wrong.
best regards from the discoverer, and good luck with the beauty (and look up the TFH issue).
Always
Heiko Bleher
www.aquapress-bleher.com
www.aqua-aquapress.com
