I have been looking on the internet to find how big siver dollars get but some places say 3-4 inches and others say 6-7 inches. I know growth will vary from fish to fish but does anyone have any full grown SDs? How big do they really get?

Tony123639 wrote:


My buddy has silver dollars in his biotope and they are all fairly large. I would say at least six inches...and that's pretty much all 4 of them. I've never had any experience with them myself, but those ones are pretty big.

Around 6 inches

Ok thank you. I wanted to use them as dithers but I don't know if they move fast enough to be good dithers.

Why do you feel you need dithers anyways?

Because I have two oscars and the big one is always picking on the small one. He won't let him come out of the castle. So I want some dithers to distract him from the small Oscar.

what about something like tinfoil barbs? Only thing I can think aside from a divider for the time being. How big is the tank again?

125 gal. But the thing is I don't like tinfoil barbs lol. I wanted to use silver dollars, do you think they would work at all?

My buddy has 4 of them in a small school with his large oscar and they do just fine in his 120 gallon. I dont know if it changes the dynamic tremendously if you just added 2 or 3, perhaps they might become 'skittish' if not kept in a school. Maybe someone else here with more experience can add to that.

Yeah but I mean will they make a decent dither fish?

Tony123639 wrote:


Ive heard they work as dithers. Although obviously you would have to consider making sure they're large enough not to become lunch right off the bat. And I think they have some additional dietary requirements.

What about clown loaches?

my tank is a lil' bigger, but they make excellent dither fish, in my case.
They're fast, but not as panicky as barbs.
Biggest is just over 5 inch, but not fully adult yet.
This is what you get:



but true schooling fish, so getting only 2 may not help in the end...
I'd say keep 4 at the least.