Silver Dollar Help

[JSmails]

Hi. Im looking at buying a Vision 260 tank and was really taken by the Silver Dollars in my local shop. I believe this would be large enough to house 4-5 of them. But I'd like to know what I could put in with them? Any stocking ideas?

I also know they are bad plant eaters but can put Java Moss or Anubias in there. So what would be the best design of the tank to keep them happy. Would it be a more rock display?

 

[8inary]

hi, i have 4 silver dollars 'large 6" thereof' - they are very peaceful fish 'well mine are in a mixed cichlid and oddball tank' however - like in most cases
anything small enough will be eaten. mine get on with a wide variety of fish such as jack dempseys, flowerhorns, sharks, ...see the video...


http/uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DLGa8d9L1SY&...re=channel_page

 

[shroob]

I had 4 silver dollars in my juwel vision 260, I rehomed them as I felt there wasn't enough room for them. They often went smashing into the sides if I was doing a water change, or walked in the room. They do get to the size of a side plate and need room to swim as they are active fish.

I would instead try and search out spotted silver dollars - they stay smaller (can have a larger school) and are more attractively marked in my opinion, males especially. They are relatively cheap as well, I think my LFS has them in at £3.95 or something similar.

Stocking can be pretty open with silver dollars, they could be the main attraction with a school of smaller tetra such as neons/cardinals, or they can be 'dither fish' for cichlids. I'd go for a South american theme personally. Sandy substrate, winding pieces of bogwood and a few hardy plants/mosses (as you've heard silver dollars are renowned for eating plants, mine didn't touch onion plants or java fern/moss though so they might be an option - I wouldn't do a rocky theme though as I think it would look unnatural personally, they might also scrape themselves on the rocks as they are skittish). For fish I would have 6 spotted silver dollars, a shoal of 12-15tetra's (rummy nose/neons/cardinals/blackwidow tetra) only 1 shoal though as I think a large school looks more impressive than lots of little shoal. For the bottom I would do 8 corys and a pair of dwarf cichlids (apisto's or rams).

 

[kenny fish fanatic]

al 2nd that about them darting about,i have 4 1,not small spotted. and 3 larger,ones,they will swim into anything when iam doing water changes,really scared,for this reason,iam going to let mine go to another home,mine wont let me put any plants in as they just eat anything,,kenny

 

[hensonc4098]

We have 3 large silver dollars in a community tank. They don't bother any of our other fish but if you do anything even like standing right next to the tank they go mad. They also make quite a fuss at feeding time We have been unsuccessful in finding plants which they won't eat, although we haven't tried moss.
Also, our oldest fish is 16 years old and is still going strong. He has been through quite a lot - being frozen when the heater broke when we were on holiday, being toasted when the heater jammed on, he has moved house 3 times from my aunties to my grampas to our house and seems no worse for wear. I think it's fair to say they're quite hardy!

Hope it helps and happy fish hunting!

 

[blaqk]

i have had silver dollars before now, 6 of them. they really do eat plants when they want to! i bought like 20 plants and in a couple of days they were all gone! i have tried every plant i could find in with them and they have ate them all. never gave any other fish hassle and really fun to watch, if you drop a catfish tablet one will grab it and the others chase it. really cool.