Italy – Naples, 25 September 2010

Today’s Discus-Breeding-World owes almost everything to a single man and that is Dr. Eduard Schmidt-Focke, also known as the father of the Discus-Breeding. For over three decades, since the 1960s, Heiko Bleher gave to him the best of the best from his yearly collecting and he bred the most beautiful wild Discus and alpha animals consistently in a very natural way. With his selective line breeding and a simple peat-bomb (as he called his filter), Eduard developed the most unique Discus strains this world has ever seen. He bred them to perfection and established – by 1982 – his first seven strains. Those formed the basis for every single breeding form known today around the globe. The merit of almost every single breeding form found throughout Asia and the rest of the world goes back to the tiny village Dornholzhausen, near Frankfurt, were he lived, almost side by side with Heiko for more than 30 years, and where these unique Discus-Jewels were developed …
Now, for the first time in history, "The Dr. Schmidt-Focke Prize" was given out during Italy’s NapoliAquatica, the greatest Aquarium Fish Exhibition and Conference and Italy’s greatest Discus Championship, to Heiko Bleher in merit to his life contribution to the aquarium hobby and the Discus-World. This was possibly the greatest honour for Heiko, for him worth more than any one of the many awards or degree he received during his life.

The base of the trophy is part of the famous volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples, the Discus poses on a hand-moulded terracotta base, and the Discus itself, is moulded from a special ceramic by the famous Italian artist Alessandra Pedone. See the video below:

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