DISCUSBOOK01 - new publication on Discus & Angelfishes

[Heiko Bleher]

Hi guys,

I do not know, maybe this topic should be under geenerel, but as it is mainly about SA cichlids, I guessed it is best here.

I just wanted inform you all, Discus and all cichlid and fish, as well as plant lovers, Amazon and nature enthusiasts, an naturally Angelfish lovers. I have just published a very unique new book. It contains for the first time in any publication, internet or other media, like all the 9 natural angelfish variants (species) in detail. There is a very large article on the real P. altum (demonstrating that it has never been bred before). There are new cichlids discoveries, new characoids and so much more in it. All from the end of 2009, and I included 20 pages on new, never seen sucker catfishes, as well as rediscoveries of amazing loricariids in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela at the end of 2009. And also a complete article of how to setup 5 authentic biotope aquariums for discus & mates.

This is a world-wide first publication of its kind.

It is called Discusbook, but actually it is a 114 page thick hardcover magazine in A4 size, with photographs on nature and discoveries never seen or published anywhere previously.

It will come out yearly (to follow up with my Discus volume 1 and soon coming volume 2, to complte those two monographies and update them every year when I return from my Amazon expeditions), and this is 01 issue.

A short demonstration to be seen, as well as what its contents are, under
http://www.aquapress-bleher.com/index.p ... e&Itemid=1

Enjoy,

Heiko Bleher
www.aquapress-bleher.com

[cichla]

Dear Heiko Bleher,
please be so kind and post a photo of the new Pterophyllum. I am very curious.
Thank you.
Greetings, IS

[Heiko Bleher]

Hi,

you know (or maybe not), I do not post photos on the web, first of all I have no time, secondly I publish them so people can see them much better end enjoy forever. On the web with the billions of photos, people do not even look at it anymore, or just today, tomorrow it is history.

All photos are in excellent print with detailed text information, that stays, in the new publication. The new species and all the forms/species from SA, with exact location, different P. altums populations and what is siad to be P. altum breed adn is not (also hybrids).

Best regards
Heiko
www.aquapress-bleher.com

[cichla]

Dear Heiko Bleher,
that is pity. And to be honest, I can not understand your arguments. So, please be so kind and describe the diagnostic characters which you are using to delimitate the new Pterophyllum species. Thank you.
Greetings, IS

[Philippe Burnel]

I wonder if you are on this forum only to make your own publicity !
... just to make money.

I'm here for more than 10 years and never seen that here before.

In my own forum you'd be away for a very long time....

PH. Burnel (who had so many problems to resolve - about 20 years ago - many problems beetween the french cichlid association and photographs because of your negligence (to say the least)

[HaakonH]

It shouldn't be hard to understand the way Heiko thinks here. He comes from a generation when the easy and free access through internet was unavailable, when you actually had to buy or borrow printed literature in order to learn more and see new things. He is not the only one who thinks the way he does, and frankly I can understand. But to oppose the way things work today is a lost battle, and is likely to come back and bite you. This debate is not very useful, there will be no aggreement anyway. I'm sure the book is great, and I'm probably going to get it myself. However, I see no problem in publishing photos or information online as well, as this is the way everyone will follow in the future. Just because the info is available online too doesn't mean written literature is obsolete. I'm also looking forward to the reviews of this book.

.Haakon

[Mark Smith]

"PH. Burnel (who had so many problems to resolve - about 20 years ago - many problems beetween the french cichlid association and photographs because of your negligence (to say the least)"

Very true Phillipe. Some of my photos of Cyprichromis species he purchased from me ended up in the French Cichlid Associations publication at the time you mentioned. Also, an Astatotilapia sp. "Rock Kribensis" image of mine I also sold to him, ended up in a German Cichlid Associations journal.

[Michael Kwist]

It shouldn't be hard to understand the way Heiko thinks here. He comes from a generation when the easy and free access through internet was unavailable, when you actually had to buy or borrow printed literature in order to learn more and see new things. He is not the only one who thinks the way he does, and frankly I can understand. But to oppose the way things work today is a lost battle, and is likely to come back and bite you. This debate is not very useful, there will be no aggreement anyway. I'm sure the book is great, and I'm probably going to get it myself. However, I see no problem in publishing photos or information online as well, as this is the way everyone will follow in the future. Just because the info is available online too doesn't mean written literature is obsolete. I'm also looking forward to the reviews of this book.

.Haakon

Strange first posting
This forum is for cichlidhobbyists from around the world.. to share information and to get information, it's not for making advertisments from ''buy my book'' I can also understand the posting from Cichla here in this topic.
Without any diagnostic characters of the new Pterophyllum specie we can't do nothing .. who will tell me it's a new specie? so more details please..

[Alex Odesit]

Hi,

you know (or maybe not), I do not post photos on the web, first of all I have no time, secondly I publish them so people can see them much better end enjoy forever. On the web with the billions of photos, people do not even look at it anymore, or just today, tomorrow it is history.

All photos are in excellent print with detailed text information, that stays, in the new publication. The new species and all the forms/species from SA, with exact location, different P. altums populations and what is siad to be P. altum breed adn is not (also hybrids).

Best regards
Heiko
http://www.aquapress-bleher.com

thats an attitude

[HaakonH]

Yep, it's a rather bold step by Heiko to advertise his work like this, my previous post was an attempt to show where he's coming from I believe he takes great pride in his work, yet the way he presents it is rather provoking to a lot of people. I suppose his reason for posting about the book is because he assumes it will be of interest to hobbyists like ourselves, but I don't think it's a very proper way to advertise, unless the admins here support it.

Heiko has done a lot of positive work for the hobby, although I can see how his methods of communication may come across as arrogant. Personally I believe it would be to Heiko's advantage to use a board like this to the discuss the characteristics of a possibly new Pterophyllum species instead of asking the users here to buy the book for that information - I'm sure the book is a nice read even though certain pieces are openly discussed and revealed. Boards like this are used by many very skilled aquarists with just as much or even more knowledge than Heiko himself on certain issues, which means an open debate would be useful for other readers hoping to learn.

Haakon

[Bas Pels]

If I rememeber correctly, recently a new addition was made to the Classification Rules: After publishing - which must be in print in order to have significance, the publication must be made available for free - to allow people to join any discussions

Well, Bleeker obviously does not intend to make his book available for free, so his 'study' can be ignored

(I write 'study' not because I think something is wrong with it, but as it does not comply with the rules, his work can not be regarded as a true taxonomic study, can it?)

[Philippe Burnel]

The code :

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/ ... e=8&nfv=#1

[Bojan Dolenc]

...
Well, Bleeker obviously does not intend to make his book available for free, ...

Hehehe, i think you realy mean Bleher (Heiko)
Pieter Bleeker (1819-1878), famous Dutch medical doctor and ichthyologist is another Fish-hero, but History (all honour to him!)...

[Lisachromis]

If I rememeber correctly, recently a new addition was made to the Classification Rules: After publishing - which must be in print in order to have significance, the publication must be made available for free - to allow people to join any discussions

According to the rules linked below, it says:

8.1.2. it must be obtainable, when first issued, free of charge or by purchase, and

So, that sounds like you need to have the publication available, whether free or bought.

As to why the thread stayed here initially, many other new books have been pushed on the site, and I didn't want to play favourites with anyone.

[Heiko Bleher]

Hi guys,

it is really very interesting to read some of your comments.
And first of all, what you write Lisa is a fact, but very vew want to see that (at least not some on this thread) - and not only books, trips, links to other commercial sites, etc.

But there are people on this forum who do not like me, some who do not do their home work ie Mark, I have a letter from Allgayer, and the late president Jean-Claude Nourissat, that all photographers will be asked prior publication and get their consent, and if yes will be paid, if you or anyone else did not get that, then you must, as Wolfgang Steak and a few others I know did, write to the French Cichlid Association and complain and not blame or condemn me. But I told you that long time ago, I never got anything from them, except for my own photos. And it is about time you stop with this nonesense as I have nothing against you.

With regards to plaving photos on Forums. To say the least, I have never ever done it. Not even photos on our website. I have many more priorities and things I cannot finsh and want to. That is way I publish, as I hope it remains.

And I do definitely NOT advertise my book(s) I just what as Lisa mentioned, I give a link to some (if mine or anyone elses) iinteresting and possibly important publication for this beautiful hobby, which I, my mother and my grandfather, have always supported and no one of us got rich from it, otherwise we would have done things like some publication-gangsters did or do. These are facts, if some of you like it or not, and it is a traceable fact.

To give details on P. altum here, would take me another month or more, sorry but I do not have the time, and I have to earn a living. All my 30 years of savings have been taken away by a ganster (who ended up in prison, but that does not help me to recover that loss), and this is my living, if collecting, discoveries, seminars around the world, lectures and championshipsm, exhibitions and writing for 28 magazines, which pay for my service. And I make advertisement for them, without arguing or confdeming them. Free of charges, because I love this hobby, which is my work all my life (one can also read the interview Juan did recently with me on this site).

If some of you really think I need to advertise, which to me it is not (and if, then almost everything on this forum is advertisement in one way or another), then I can only say I am sorry, but it is not my understanding. My undertsnding of this is passing on information of something new and interesting for this hobby, to grow, and to learn and to evolve.

In any case, all the very best toi all of you,

always

Heiko Bleher

[Philippe Burnel]

that all photographers will be asked prior publication and get their consent, and if yes will be paid,

Nourissat and Allgayer asked me to write to EACH photograh to ask them if they want to give their pictures FREE of charge AFTER the publication, because you have said that you had the permissions (in fact not at all !)... (I think Mark and others remember this)
You don't remember very well !
Remember that Spreinat didn't agree with that and that we must pay for his pictures ( 10 000 francs, 20 years ago) that YOU have given to the AFC without asking him any authorisation.
And I don't tell you what many photographs have said about you when I've written to them... It's not in you honnor....

[cichla]

Dear Heiko Bleher,
I think it shouldn't take this long to mention the diagnostic characters of the new Pterophyllum species. Be so kind and let us know.
Greetings, IS

[Rico Morgenstern]

According to the rules linked below, it says:

8.1.2. it must be obtainable, when first issued, free of charge or by purchase, and

So, that sounds like you need to have the publication available, whether free or bought.

Well explained!
However, the code doesn't matter here since it regulates the naming of taxa and nothing else, and there's no new species formally named here. If someone believes to have found a new species, whether by 'discovery' in its classic sense or by re-evaluation of the characters of a certain population, he can in principle publish this finding whereever and whatever way he wants. Whether others share the view about the status of the 'new species' in question is a matter of its own.

But, Heiko, if you refuse to expose your findings to discussion (is not this the purpose of a forum?), I cannot help thinking that the "new species" is only a publicity stunt to promote your book. There's really no need to redescribe P. altum here. But if you mention that this species has actually never been bred and that there are 9 species of Angelfish, there would more be required than a naked statement that it is so. Would it be so unbearable for you if someone considers a 'new discovery' of you only a variant of an already known species? If not, please help us to make this discussion somewhat fruitful!

RM

[Mark Smith]

When I sold you my photos for your "atlas" over 20 years ago, the photos were only for your atlas. You never said to me that you would parcel them out to various cichlid organizations for publication in their works, and you certainly never asked me for my permission to do so. You are a very dishonest and corrupt person. This valid topic appears to be "nonesense" to you, because you refuse to acknowledge that you were wrong in your actions regarding my photos. Are you even capable of realising that you never seem to be wrong in your own eyes? Any reasonably sane person is able to understand this.

[Philippe Burnel]

When I sold you my photos for your "atlas" over 20 years ago, the photos were only for your atlas. You never said to me that you would parcel them out to various cichlid organizations for publication in their works, and you certainly never asked me for my permission to do so. You are a very dishonest and corrupt person. This valid topic appears to be "nonesense" to you, because you refuse to acknowledge that you were wrong in your actions regarding my photos. Are you even capable of realising that you never seem to be wrong in your own eyes? Any reasonably sane person is able to understand this.

Nothing to add.... this is the truth !