Hi there.........
Yes, the Silver Dollars are BEAUTIFUL....thus my user name and Avatar (which is my female Red Hook)!!
I don't think mine are quite adults yet, but I think when I got them in late January they were about 3 in. by 3 in. minus the tail fin. They are now 5 inches long by 4 inches tall and only 5 months later!!!! I recently bought 2 baby Red Hooks at Petco, which are surprisingly healthy and hansome to boot, and their bodies were the size of nickels - minus the tails. Now, 3 weeks later....they are almost the size of silver dollars (literally speaking). I think they do grow very fast. My almost-adult Red Hook Silver is MUCH more skiddish than the other which I believe to be just a "Silver Dollar". The skiddish one has scratched his nose on a rock, it actually took the tip of it off
and it also ran straight into my inside tank thermometer and shattered it
!! They do like it when the light is off.....my two big ones dance together in the night. Back and forth.......back and forth....they will go swimming together....ALWAYS together in whatever they do except feeding time. I give mine shelled peas. I just buy the freezed peas and thaw them quickly in the microwave and shell them. They LOVE peas!!! They also LOVE algae wafers. They will literally pick them up and run so my Blood Parrot can't steal it right out of their mouths. My two babies were very afraid at first. It was soooooo cute when I saw these little nickel sized Dollars in the tank....I about had a cardiac arrest for I had never seen baby Silver before. I just HAD to buy two so I picked out the toughest two. Man, they were picking on all the rest of the Silvers in the tank, but as soon as I put them in my tank with the "Big" guys they hid behind a plant and stayed their ALL day until feeding times. Just recently they have been coming out and checking the tank out. I have a 55 gallon and will soon buy a 45 gallon JUST for my 4 Silvers. I am hoping that the little guys will swim with the big ones soon and I can get some pictures of all of them and post them up here. The size difference is just too cute!!! I am soooo glad to hear that you have ample enough space for your Silvers to swim. It just breaks my heart when I hear of people who have 2 or 3 Silvers in like a 20 gallon or something. They REALLY like to swim and that just isn't big enough and isn't humane enough in my opinion.
Happy Fish Keeping
Silver
