Is this REALLY a silver dollar?

[HotDogBun]

our local shop had a trio of large silver dollars they had bought from a customer they were selling, and my wife picked the smallest one, about 4-5 inches in length. I noticed immediately that he was of a different shape than the larger 2, and had an odd spotty pattern on his back. He is more elongated than any silver dollar i have seen personally or in the few days i spent looking on the internet.

I will provide a picture, and hopefully you more experienced folks can tell me what the deal is here. i have speculated it may be a difference between the two sexes of the species, but i have no clue.

[rollie]

i do not think it is a silver dollar. i may be wrong, but it could be a piranha.. but wait and see what some of the other members say.

[tropfish]

looks kinda like a pacu

[gm72]

Definitely not like any silver dollar I have seen. Does he have red on his belly?

[HotDogBun]

He's a shiny silver all over his body aside form the spots. any red on his underside you may see in the photo is due to our bright neon gravel.

[tropfish]

so then i guess its not a pacu because they have a red underside. hmmmmm....

[HotDogBun]

so then i guess its not a pacu because they have a red underside. hmmmmm....

yeah, which is weird cuz his body shape and the spots on his back perfectly match the red bellied pacu picture i found a second ago. Also, FYI, he has an insatiable appetite for the plants we are trying to grow from bulbs in the tank... the get about 1 inch long and he trims them down to nothing.

[troy]

That rules out the possibility it is a piranha, so it's probably a pacu, silver dollar,silver dollar tetra,or a Schreitmuller"s Metynis. And all of least get at least 5 inches when full-grown and all eat plants.

[Fishguy2727]

Spotted silver dollar, just like the 6 in my 75.

[HotDogBun]

Spotted silver dollar, just like the 6 in my 75.

Thanks, found a picture of a spotted silver dollar, matches perfectly. Apparently the other two large silver dollars the shop was selling were of a different breed.

[gm72]

Fishguy to the rescue! Great call!

Troy, pacus have red bellies.

[troy]

I just put pacus because I thought there might other kinds of pacus beside red belly and black pacus, but I'm probably wrong. Sorry gm72.

[gm72]

No apologies necessary, but let's just be more careful in the future. Instead of saying "probably a pacu" it would have been more appropriate to have asked "Is there a kind of pacu other than red or black?"

We just seem to be having a problem lately with people suggesting things and making recommendations without a proper knowledge base to back it up. (not just you, Troy, so I don't mean this as a personal assault at all, just as a generalized statement to anyone reading this).

[Lady Hobbs]

Congratulations. You have the Silver Dollar and were lucky enough to get the spotted that are not that easy to find. There are several different types and those I have are the most common. There's another called Red Hooks and those are neat and get even larger than the others.

Those ragged fins will grow right back. You see that often in too crowded or stress tanks.

[Fishguy2727]

Spotteds are all we can seem to get in at work lately.

[Lady Hobbs]

Dang it. And I can't find them or Red Hooks.

[freshwaterfishlover]

one of my local fish stores tried to do the same thing to me. Since Silver Dollars are closely related to Pirahnas they tried to sell me a spoted Pirahna. The only difrents in the two are. Silver Dollars Are vegetable eater VS Pirahnas are meat eaters. Silver Dollars are peacefull VS Pirahnas are very aggressive.

[gm72]

Glad you knew the difference, that could have been disastrous!

[Lady Hobbs]

I don't know as Pirahnas are regularly sold. The import of fish has been greatly reduced and most of what we now can buy are farm raised. Some states prohibit the sale of Pirahnas......not sure which ones, but I think NY is one of them. People get fish and decide they don't want them and turn them loose in the rivers. No one wants to start having pirahnas in their waters.

Found it.

The states of California, Washington and all lower and most eastern US states prohibit the importation of piranhas. No sales will be extended to those areas where prohibited. Please check with your local Fisheries and Oceans before deciding to purchase.

[gm72]

I'd be scared to death to own a piranha. I'd be afraid it would eat something like one of my cats. Or one of my fingers.

[troy]

I'd be afraid that it would a have death grip on my hand when I try to feed it.

[gm72]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. They are so fast, too. Freaky stuff. Think I'll pass.

[troy]

My brother has a preserved one and can just see how they tear apart flesh.

[RobbieG]

My uncle used to keep them - they really weren't all that interesting other than the wow those are pirahnas factor. They had to be kept by themselves in a huge tank - there just wasn't anything going on.

[freshwaterfishlover]

I live in Maryland and we are allowed to buy Pirahnas.

[HotDogBun]

My pet store has had two 6 inch black piranhas for sale for the last 2 weeks. They were purchased from a customer according to the fish guy. 50 bucks EACH.