As many of you are aware, I keep three Silver Dollars. One of them is the size of a plate, the other two are still pretty small.
Like most Silver Dollars, they are nervous and skittish fish, especially our big Dollar. When he gets scared he will literlly start swimming like mad all over the tank and will swim full-force right into the tank walls. One of the last times he did this he banged up his nose really bad to the point where it was an open wound and we had to go out and buy Melafix (which, granted we haven't used yet since our carbon was brand new. We're trying to wait until its time to change the carbon since the Melafix bottle says to remove it during treatment). His nose starts looking better, and then he gets scared, bashest it on the tank wall and makes it worse again. Anyway, today I went to gravel vac the tank and he got scared when he saw the gravel vac in the tank. He went and hid in one of our plants, but not until he'd bashed his nose on the side of the tank again. Since he still hasn't come out from behind the plant in the back of the tank, I haven't been able to asses the damage he's done to his nose this time.
I know this is part of his survial instinct, and a Silver Dollar trait to be very jumpy, but is there anyway to make him feel more secure....at least so he'll stop slamming himself into the tank walls when he panics. Our tank is 75 gallon and has fake plants (so they don't eat them), and imitation driftwood to act as hiding places. The tank is located in a place of moderate travel. The Silver Dollar seems to get scared when I use the gravel vac, when someone walks by the tank, and sometimes he seems to get scared for no reason. I've noticed that if we walk past the tank slowly and make sure that he sees us before we walk by, he usually won't get scared.
My main concern isn't the fact that he's getting scared, but that he's panicking so much that he's injuring himself. I've had some people suggest to me that I should cover the sides of the tank with aqurium background so that the fish can tell there's a "dead end" there, and that since the paper would take away the clearness of the glass, it wouldn't look like the tank just kept going and going. Then, only the front side of the tank would be visible for viewing. I'm not sure if this would work though, or if it would just make things worse if he couldn't see us coming to walk by.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Like most Silver Dollars, they are nervous and skittish fish, especially our big Dollar. When he gets scared he will literlly start swimming like mad all over the tank and will swim full-force right into the tank walls. One of the last times he did this he banged up his nose really bad to the point where it was an open wound and we had to go out and buy Melafix (which, granted we haven't used yet since our carbon was brand new. We're trying to wait until its time to change the carbon since the Melafix bottle says to remove it during treatment). His nose starts looking better, and then he gets scared, bashest it on the tank wall and makes it worse again. Anyway, today I went to gravel vac the tank and he got scared when he saw the gravel vac in the tank. He went and hid in one of our plants, but not until he'd bashed his nose on the side of the tank again. Since he still hasn't come out from behind the plant in the back of the tank, I haven't been able to asses the damage he's done to his nose this time.
I know this is part of his survial instinct, and a Silver Dollar trait to be very jumpy, but is there anyway to make him feel more secure....at least so he'll stop slamming himself into the tank walls when he panics. Our tank is 75 gallon and has fake plants (so they don't eat them), and imitation driftwood to act as hiding places. The tank is located in a place of moderate travel. The Silver Dollar seems to get scared when I use the gravel vac, when someone walks by the tank, and sometimes he seems to get scared for no reason. I've noticed that if we walk past the tank slowly and make sure that he sees us before we walk by, he usually won't get scared.
My main concern isn't the fact that he's getting scared, but that he's panicking so much that he's injuring himself. I've had some people suggest to me that I should cover the sides of the tank with aqurium background so that the fish can tell there's a "dead end" there, and that since the paper would take away the clearness of the glass, it wouldn't look like the tank just kept going and going. Then, only the front side of the tank would be visible for viewing. I'm not sure if this would work though, or if it would just make things worse if he couldn't see us coming to walk by.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
