Interzoo 1986 – Aquapress

Germany – Wiesbaden, 1986

The Interzoo in 1986 had an incredible display, never seen before: 4 freshwater sawfishes, discovered and captured (and transported) by Heiko Bleher from northern Australia specially to display at the Interzoo in Wiesbaden, Germany for the first time in history shown to the public at an international pet fair in a 4000 litre aquarium specially built for them.

_{Heiko petting the one meter long freshwater stingray and hand-feeding them}

_{Heiko had also built a, what he called Kaaba, a black housing completely enclosed (like the Kaaba in Mecca). It had only one hidden entrance (left) and inside there were many small aquariums, each one with an authentic tiny biotope from different parts of the freshwater world (right). This display was also to show pet shop owners how they can display their fishes better, according to nature and to their environment. (And many tiny fishes live in extreme small habitats all their live.)}

_{The Aquarium Rio stand was on every day crowded with international visitors. Here (from left) Herbert R. Axelrod, Uwe Dost, Hans J. Mayland, Heiko Bleher and Tom Horeman …}

_{… Peppino Rapisarda (Heiko’s nephew), Tom Horeman, Irene Rapisarda (Heiko’s sister) and Christina Rapisarda …}

_{… Hans J. Richter, Tom Horeman, fish wholesaler from Genova and Irene Rapisarda …}

_{… sun of Jiro Mashui, the famous Hawaian petshop owner with Heiko. In the Kaaba centre was a aquarium to be looked at from the top, open with swordplants growing out of the water and stingrays over the sandy bottom, as in nature …}

_{… Meir Levy, the fish exporter from Kinshasa, Davis Sands the catfish author, Meir’s wife and Cristina Taras, the photographer from Chile}

_{At every Interzoo, Heiko and his aquarium Rio company had invited over 100 special guests to his house-party for diner in his Zeppelinheim house (near Frankfurt). Here (from left), Mrs. And Mr. Jean-Claude Sidoli (France), the sun of Virachai (Bangkok), Prof. Rolf Geisler (Germany), father Virachai and dr. E. Schmidt-Focke the world famous Discus breeder …}

_{… Herbert R. Axelrod and Tom Horeman having a great time in the house bar …}

_{… in the centre sitting Emil Haas, the long-time president of the ZZV (organizing company of the Interzoo), friend of the family Kiel-Bleher and owner of Frankfurt’s oldest pet shop Zoo-Haas …}

_{… Heiko presenting to Toyoshima san from Yutaka Shoji, Tokyo’s first importer of tropical fishes (from Aquarium Rio), a real traditional Franfurter Haxe and also to kinoshita san from Oriental Aquarium in Osaka …}

_{… and the Sidoli family, owners of the oldest ornamental fish establishment in France, to whom Heiko’s grandfather and his mother had already, before and after world war II, sold fishes}