Heiko Bleher

Heiko Bleher (born October 18, 1944) is a German researcher, author, photographer and filmmaker best known in the scientific community for his contribution to the exploration of fresh and brackish water habitats worldwide and the discovery of many species of fish and aquatic plants, several of which carry his name, discovery location or are named in honor of Bleher's family including Hemigrammus bleheri, Leporinus bleheri, Bleheratherina pierucciae, Streatocranus bleheri, Channa bleheri, Phenacogrammus bleheri, Moenkhausia heikoi, Chilatherina bleheri, Vrisea bleheri, Hyphessobrycon amandae, named for his mother, and various others.

Heiko Bleher was born in Frankfurt on Main, Germany. He is the fourth and last child of Ludwig Bleher and Amanda Flora Hilda Bleher, born Kiel. Bleher inherited his passion for freshwater fishes and aquatic plants from his mother. Amanda Flora Hilda Bleher 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.

At the age of 4, Bleher’s mother took him to Equatorial Guinea, in West Africa on a research expedition and 2 years later he accompanied his mother on a journey throughout Europe collecting plants and fishes. By age 7, he and his three siblings joined their mother on her adventurous exploration tripdeep into the "green hell" of the South American jungle, where they lived with natives. During this 2-year expedition from 1953 to 1955 his mother discovered many new aquatic plant species, fishes and other animals. At the end of 1958, Bleher's family settled permanently in Brazil and established a water-plant nursery and fish-breeding hatchery called "Osiris" in the jungle outside of Rio de Janeiro. In 1962, Bleher moved to the US and later attended the University of South Florida, studying courses in ichthyology, biology, limnology, oceanography, parasitology, combined with the work at Elsberry's Fish Farm and at Gulf Fish Farm. Two years later, after his return to Rio de Janeiro, Bleher established his own export company "Aquarium Rio" and continued his research and collecting throughout Brazil.

At the end of 1964 Bleher introduced the first new species to be named after him, Hemigrammus bleheri (the brilliant rummy-head tetra)to the aquarium hobby.

Bleher contributed to the rainbowfish species community by introducing Melanotaenia boesemani and many of the other almost 100 species of Rainbowfish. In 1970 Bleher was the first to collect live Pterophyllum altum from Venezuela