Fish Not Feeding

[johnseanpaul]

Thanks in advance to any help given regarding my new fish i bought 2 days ago. It's a lovely silver Dollar but in the 2 days I have had him, he has missed every feeding session because he spends all his time staring at the tank glass.


What advice could you give as I am concerned that he might be hungry.

I know he is the only Dollar in my tank and might be lonely. My other fish are 8 tetras, 1 redtail shark, 2 platy fish, 1 dwarf frog, 4 guppys, 1 killifish and a catfish.



Thanks


JOhn

 

[maximinimus]

Silver dollars are schoaling fish, they require at least a few companions, minimum of 4 to 6 in a group to be happy.

From my experience they also need a large swimming area with a gentle current and like low light.

What are you feeding your dollar?

How large is your tank?

I would suggest weighting some lettuce, cucumber or spinach and leaving it in the tank for a while.

 

[johnseanpaul]

my tank is a Rekord 60 - 54 Litres Measurements tank.

I feed them all TetraMin twice a day, and also add frozen blood worm once every 2 days. and also algae waffers and TetraTabimin for my catfish.


My dollar swims around slowly, I beleive he has enough swim space at present... but conserned about his food.

 

[ox5477]

well I would say he is staring at the glass because he wants some friends. They do prefer to be in shoals and I must say, my sd's can always eat and they are quite voracious. They will will eat krill, mysis, cichlid pellets, flake, and algae wafers.... I would recommend prob taking it back as even if you were to get a shoal of sd's, they would quickly outgrow that tank. I have a 125G (~500L) tank with a shoal of 6, and that is a good size IMO for a shoal of 6 or more.

Also, I believe your rtbs will get too big for our tank and will begin to harass the other sotcking if it hasn't already... many people have told horror stories about the little devil these guys can turn into. so you may want to look into rehoming him as well

sorry, not the best news, but just trying to help

 

[johnseanpaul]

thanks for the advice, but what do u mean by rtbs?





cheers again

john

 

[JenCliBee]

thanks for the advice, but what do u mean by rtbs?





cheers again

john

rtb = red tail black shark and yes they get very terrortorial and aggressive and may bully your other fish 2 death also it needs a larger tank than u have.


i'd have 2 agree with the others he probably is lonely i only just found out that sd's are shoaling fish after buying 2 myself so gonna get another2 just 2 make em happy even tho they are extreamly happy with just the 2 of them.

mine eat almost anything cucumber, bllodworm,brine shrimp. flakes tetra prima etc etc so if urs is not eaten i would say take him back 2 LFS and try and replace him with something abit smaller when fully grown also consider doing same with ur rtb


jen

 

[johnseanpaul]

Thank you for you reply. My redtail has its own cave within my tank and never bullies any off my other fish. I have just came home from work and did my daily 2nd feed which i was hoping my silver dollar would see some action but again he just wasn't interested, even when putting food in front of him. I want to try him out a bit longer before i decide if to take him back or not.


I have put a lettuce leaf in the tank see if he nibbles on that. If not what other advice is there before i end up with a depressed fish that will end up back in the shops???


thanks again


john

 

[JenCliBee]

i dont think there is any more info we can give u m8ee but just be careful about the rtb he mite seem really placid now but all that could and probably will change and u mite wake up 1 morning with some dead fish and if ur anythink like me it's so hard 2 see


jen

 

[maximinimus]

You really do have to watch those Red tailed black sharks. I had one a few years ago, he was fine for the first few months but as soon as he hit around 5" in length he changed into a monster. It got to the point he was seriously damaging my group of wild P.Leopoldi, I returned him to my LFS before I had any casualties.

I can't offer any more advice on feeding your silver dollar, I've never had a problem with them feeding but I've never had less than 2 in a tank at once. You really should think about what is best for your silver dollar. To get an idea about the size he will get, grab a saucer from your kitchen cupboard and hold it in front of your tank, you will be surprised how big it looks compared to your tank.

 

[johnseanpaul]

oh that doesn't sound to good at all. When I bought my silver dollar he was the only one in the tank along with some guppies etc. I asked how long he had had him and the keeper replied about a couple of months. He currently measures around 4 inches. I was told he might half that again, but wasn't told by the keeper that he could grow to at least 6inches.

The feeding has improved as i noticed last night when I put some blood worm in that he got his share once all the other fish where out of his way. Many feeding from the gravel.


I really want to keep my dollar but after the information you have told me I'm in second thoughts now, but i really would like a large fish in my tank as all the others are really small. What type of fish would be large enough but wont out size a tank of 54 liters? ...


thanks again to all thats helped

Regards
john

My Tank

Here is my Silver Dollar
http/s111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/jo...nt=DSC00426.jpg

 

[8inary]

IMO the advise the others have given, is in my experience spot on.

Firstly in regard the rtb, these appear placid to start with, but once they hit a certain size, turn into bullies. I have friends who had them also, they experienced the same thing, ok to start, then bam, it turns into a hitman.

In regard silver dollars, I have 3 large ones in a large tank. I would not suggest having just one as they should have a few pals to play with.

Here is a vid of my tank and the silver dollars.

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGa8d9L1SY

 

[johnseanpaul]

Those silver dollars look big. how many inches would you say they are and how old do u think they are?


nice tank btw....im jelous lol

 

[8inary]

thanks, the Siliver Dollars are around 6" thereof, i have had them for around 4 years, but they were from someone else who had them, but they got too big for their tank, and I ended up buying them.

out of the 3, there is a breeding pair, they will often 'normally once/twice a week' swim back and to, dropping eggs. They can do that all day long, although the other fish just follow them eating up the eggs