silver dollars

[mdtomlancs]

what family does a silver dollar belong too is it part of the pirannah family or chichlids or angel fish because i aint got a clue

cheers

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

They are characins. They are in the same family as all the Tetras.

[mdtomlancs]

exerlent thank you i have them in with my malawis and they seem to attack the malawis i just googled characins and it come up with what looked like piranahs it did also come up with tetras as you say and with silver dollars are the linked to piranahs at all thankyou for your help

[Lady Hobbs]

I would only keep silver dollars with mild cichlids or community fish in an unplanted tank. They are big vegetable eaters and must have it as their main food source but they are very gentle fish and have no means of defending themselves. (Like a tetra)

[dean30bb]

i dont no about having them with community fish when i had them in my old comunity tanks they killed all the other fish eventualy but they are good now with my oscars they keep to them selfs and dont bothere them :)

[Lady Hobbs]

Odd. I've had mine with all kinds of community fish with not one show of aggression including very small gold tetra's.

[dean30bb]

stange i no i was angry when it happend i think i was because they were about 3inches when i got them and the fish were all only smaller at the time

[Lady Hobbs]

I was just reading something about silver dollars that I had not read before and that is they will "play dead" when very stressed and first introduced to a new tank. I had not seen this written about them before but I remember well the day I first got mine a couple years ago.

These are fish that are often bought with chopped up fins and with ICK and I noticed those I purchased were also in this condition. I put them in a quarantine tank right away and darned if they didn't fall to the bottom and lay on their sides on the gravel. I thought they were goners, for sure. I turned the lights off and also covered their tank (after medicating) with a dark towel. The following day they were swimming around but very, very skittish.

Months later I bought a few more and these did not do the play dead routine but immediately started swimming with the others I had......now adults.

They always stay a bit skittish but not nearly as timid as when first purchased. They make no attempt to hide from me but will line up, side by side, at the glass and sat for hours looking at me. They love to just sit all together in a group and right in the middle of the tank so they can be in all the other fish's way.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I've actually experienced some aggression issues with my Silver Dollars as well. They were responsible for the death of a Firemouth and possibly 3 Pictus Cats. I never saw the culprit with the Pictus but they were the only fish in the tank with the Firemouth.

Silver Dollars have another rather interesting talent, they are capable of completely shedding their slime coat. The common factor seems to be salt. When salt is present in the water at a certain concentration some Silver Dollars will actually shed their slime coat for some unknown reason. It grows back without issue. I have actually seen this happen on 2 occasions, once with mine and once with someone else, the common factor with both was the salt. Both times they were being treated for Ich using salt in addition to Melafix to prevent a secondary infection. Rather disgusting sight to behold for sure.

[s_hahroo_z]

hi , i have an aquarium with the dimensions of 120Cm 30Cm 50Cm ( 200 Litr ) ,there are two
parets and two silver dollars and a green terror.the Green Terror i have is very little
and the two Silver dollars are too big , but the Green terror attacks the two dollars, i just wanted to know that
will my two dollars get wounded by the green terror or not

[Lady Hobbs]

They could but they are also very fast. They will stay very nervous and skittish if they are threatened, tho. I have 9 SD with my parrots.