_{A couple of very old American friends: Jack Wattley was invited by Tropical from Poland and answered questions and Peter Thode did judge. Jack and I have been friend for exactly 40 years now, and Peter, who is the oldest breeder now (as Jack does not breed anymore for a couple of decades), had started in the 1980s to breed discus and we know each other since. Jack came also to my stand to see the layout of my new book, where is also immortalised in it … And the great Italian friends from the Discus Portal, one of the largest in the country welcomed Heiko – great guys …}

_{The judges of the 8th International Discus Championships – my friend Bosse Quiding (centre) was invited the first time to judge in Duisburg and the president from the Discus Club Singapore also (far right).}

_{The price giving started only on Sunday afternoon, a few hours before closing and most people never saw the winners, and hardly anyone was able to photograph the prized fishes…}

_{Unfortunately the organizer had to put, according to vets, sand and driftwood into the aquariums of the wild Discus (probably have read Bleher’s Discus volume 1?) and a cone into the tank breed Discus aquariums (maybe the vets thought Discus are monogamous?). In addition they placed giant heaters and large filters in each aquarium so the Discus had plenty of places to hide in the deep aquariums, which made judging and photography almost impossible …} 

_{… in addition it was unprofessional the fact that none of the competition aquariums had a name for the visitors to know what variety or Discus species is in the aquariums and no one knew until the last 3 hours of the last day, which are the best fishes chosen … With other words over 25,000 people paid entrance fee for this championships and left without ever knowing what was what … and some of the Discus got burned by the large heaters ...}

_{There were several stands at the championships in Duisburg selling Discus, like Stendker, or Discus Food from Germany which had only Discus from Malaysia, mainly from Tony Tan and from Jeffrey Tan. And the latter presented some of his newest hybrids, a Heckel-cross with a very beautiful (natural) colour pattern. In the evening Heiko had diner with many friends from all over the world and also the two he had invited to judge 8 days later in Shanghai, Bosse Quiding from Sweden (left) and Cüneyt Birol from Turkey (right). Below now the Discus winners in their categories:}

_{The 1st. for Wild Blue was a Discus also my Hudson Crizanto collected for me in the Lago Nhamundá last year. The trophy received Andrea Sassi and Antonello Greco from S. G. Discuscultura in Lainate, near from where I live in Italy.}

_{The fist in the category Brown was a fish from Rob de Fouw from the Netherlands, which was also the Grand Champion for wilds.}

_{The first in Green came from Watanabe in Nagoya, my dear Japanese friend. Impossible to photograph … Watanabe san brought also this very yellow Discus and it was placed in the Open solid class but without a prize.}

_{The fisrt prize for the category Heckel was taken by Rob de Fouw as well (upper), but Heiko Bleher’s preferred and best wild was the Heckel above.}

_{The first place in the category Open striped and spotted became also the Grand Champion for breeding and went to Ricky Lim from Malaysia.}

_{The first in Red from Taiwan was a deformed Discus, it is a real question how it was judged as the best!?}

_{The very nice Red Turquoise was placed into the category open spotted striped – therefore could not win …}

_{… instead this one placed into the category Red Turquoise (which should be in open class) became the first in its (wrong) category …}

_{… and also this one, which is a good Red Turquoise, was placed into the wrong category: Striped Turquoise, where it naturally became the first prize because it was not a normal striped turquoise …}

_{… another Discus placed into Red Turquoise were it does not belong … but gut 2nd placement, from M. Pikis in Greece.}

_{Tony Tan’s Solid Turquoise was a very nice fish and deserved the first prize in its category.}

_{The Most Superior Discus chosen by Internet participants went to Jeffrey Yang in Malaysia with this one …}

_{… and The Most Superior Discus chosen by the public went to Tony Tan and his IP Discus company, a variety placed in Open stripes… should be in Red Spotted placed …}

_{… and another one placed in that category (Open striped) should have been in Red Spotted did not get any prize}.

_{This one was in Red Spotted and received the 2nd. Prize for the Taiwan Discus Farm.}