Silver Dollars schooling with Gouramis

[a1wonder]

Presently I've observed by silver dollars and my two cosby gouramis schooling together. I'm new to silver dollars (and these are young ones) but they appear to be constantly following the actions of the gouramis is it normal? The gouramis don't seem to mind. I mentioned this two my lfs and he hasn't heard of anything like this happening before so I invited him over to take a look and sure enough he agreed. Has anyone else out there had similar experiences with silver dollars and gouramis

 

[Lateral Line]

Silver Dollars are a notoriously skittish species, they feel threatened at the drop of a hat. It is no suprise to me that they school up with a similarly shaped fish. I'm sure Silver will add her thoughts to the thread, (SD keeper), but I'll pre-empt by suggesting that they really need to be kept in bigger groups if your tank is big enough.

 

[silver]

Why thank you Lateral........ )

Hmmmm they are schooling with gouramis eh??

How many do you have would be the first and most important question to ask.....2 just isn't enough
I have 4 and I wish I could add 2 -3 more because there really needs to be that many in a tank!!! When I have 1 SD out in quarantine the others in the 55 gallon are a bit more skiddish......so less is DEFINITLEY NOT MORE in this case!! The more the merrier!! You would be utterly AMAZED to see a large school of SDs in the wild.......it would blow your mind Then us barbaric B*STARDS come in, snatch 2 or 3 up and start selling them off 1 by 1 it's cruel and just plain NOT RIGHT!!!

This isn't an experiment I would wish anyone to try, but I have done this....forced to because of quarantining!!!!
If you put one SD into a tank by itself it because withdrawn, scared, shallow HEAVY breathing........won't move and sometimes even acts dead.........doesn't matter which one it is either.....I've had to quarantine 3 of my 4 before. Minutes after you add another one to the tank they will start schooling....they will "appear" happier and "healthier" breathing returns to normal and they are again a happier fish.

Conclusion,
A lonely silver dollar is an unhappy potentially dead Silver Dollar......2 is better than one BY ALL MEANS, but it does NOT surprise me at all that 2 young silver dollars would school with gouramis. It must make them feel "safer", thus suggesting you get 2 more but only if you have adequate space . I don't even think that 2 young SDs would school with 2 large SDs........mine didn't at least, but they didn't school with gouramis It took them a while before they all schooled together.....maybe it was the size difference I really can't say.....but if you were plunged into a 55 gallon tank with 2 HUGE monster versions of yourself I would think we'd be a wee-bit scared

What size tank do you have??

Dun Dun Dun Duuuuuun.........???

 

[a1wonder]

Currently they are 4 silver dollars and 2 cosby gouramis in a 30 gal tank (temp tank till the 40 is properly cycled) when they were both infants they were all kept in the 10 gal which was pretty small. But they were happy for the week that they were their. I was thinking of added more but in my oppinion the tank is a bit to small to add more although they are really tiny silver dollars. I hope they aren't lonely I thought four would be enough.

 

[a1wonder]

My local pet store guy will Not sell them seperately. His house is just a few doors down from mine so I'm luckly but he is usually at work and if they get to big he offered to give them a home in his 55

 

[a1wonder]

LOL maybe I should update my profile... It's a bit misleading Sorry about the confusion the 10 gal was a temp.

 

[silver]

Wow......that's really nice!!

Have you gotten the 40 already.........if not I would absolutley opt for a 55 or 75 if feasible A 40 gallon isn't enough room for large SDs either Sorry to say it.......but it's the truth!

You'll see what I mean when they creap up onto the 6" mark like mine are!!! You will start to feel guilty, like me now, when you see them swim SOOOOOOOO fast and have to turn around every 4 feet I kid you not, my SDs can make it across the tank in a blink of an eye, literally. If I had to guess it would be the " w " sound in the one one-thousand.......if you were counting seconds!!! 1/20 of a second maybe!?
Oh, who knows.......but those buggers are faster than lightning and STRONGE......man are they strong!!

Have you fed yours shelled peas yet?? Oh, it's a blast

 

[a1wonder]

The 40 gal is already purchased it was on sale and within my price range at the time. Going to universty takes a big cunch out of what you can spend on the scaley friends when it reachs the end of the month. Hopefully they will be happy, if they ever get to big I'll sell them back. My LFS is really good about sell fish to the proper people.

Shelled peas? No I haven't yet. Next trip to the LfoodS I will be sure to pick some up although they love pleco tablets.

Here is a question for you, I resently installed a bubble wall in that aqaruium (only 10inch) long, they appear to be somewhat afraid of it, I'll give them a day or two to get use to it but could it be giving out too strong of a current for them?

 

[silver]

You know, mine were too and they've never really warmed up to it except mine isn't a bubble wall.....that would be too much for mine and they'd probably NEVER even go close to it mine is an airstone about 3 inches long. I just have it hanging down in the back of the tank They may never warm up to it It's just them darn SD personalities


BTW, just make sure you shell the peas first. If you are buying the frozen kind just heat them up until they are not frozen anymore....don't cook them....and you should be able to just squeeze the suckers right out of their skins!!! I usually feed my silver dollars a good palm full at a time and they have them all gone by the next morning, but if yours are just baby's I would maybe try 6 peas per SD and see how long it takes them to gobble'em up!!! You don't want any food lying around for more than 24 hrs.!