I'm about to go out and buy Silver Dollars. I just want to review what a need to know about them before I buy some.. My plan's is to buy 4 of them. What's the right gender combination? How do I tell again which one is male/female? How fast do they grow?

Hi everyone!! Long time..

www.aquaticcommunity.com/fish/silverdollar.php found this

check www.fishlore.com/Profiles-SilverDollar.htm

Whoa, Kazzy , your good.
And Hello, Obo.
I say get one male and 3 females
the prolongued anal fin will tell you it's a male, red anal fins are the females.

MaleSD:

Mine grew over 4 inches in a year, and i got them as babies.

I know we had a good article on them on the site, but i can't find it anymore.
Wasn't that in the tankmate section before????

ok, found it again;

www.oscarfishlover.com/keeping-silver-do...members-articles-114

So I bought I male and 3 females.. My O's 7" and the SD's I bought were 1.5".. As usual they were swift but my O still managed to catch one twice. It was half-way in his mouth but he can't fully swallow it because of the wideness of the SD. Now all 4 are scared and hiding behind one of the powerheads. Will it be okay for them or will they be eventually eaten.. I'm hoping that my O will realize that they won't fit in his mouth and leave them alone and live happily ever after.. Is that possible?

yes, definetly can work out fine.
But i can give no guarantee...
When something new moves in the tank, O's will try to eat it.
I had a tiny barb and my O tried to catch it once, but didn't show interest at all after that.
Until my Gar finally ate it.
If you want to make sure, you'll have to make them growout in a seperate tank.
But i'd take the risk, and replace if one gets eaten.
But overhere SD's are pretty cheap at baby size.

So I wake up this morning......................



and all four's still alive.

SD's here are quite affordable too. But I realize yesterday that there's a big difference seeing a fish you bought for feeding being eaten and a fish for keeping struggling in a mouth of another pet fish..

I love the SD's Nice photo too.

I have heard that this is one of the types of fish that you should keep in odd number groups, like 3,5,7. I have 7 and they get along very well with a large albino oscar.

They will change color at times and develop black markings behind the gillplate (I have the spotted SD's). I have never seen any eggs or spawning behaviour and I have had the shoal for several years now.

Silver Dollar Fish

Photo credit to Chris Tweed
Silver Dollar Fish Tropical Fish Information
Size Up to 5.5inches or 14cm
Fish Hardiness Easy to keep
Water Temperature 75.2-84.2°F or 24-29°C
Water pH 6.0-7.5
Water Hardness 5-15 dH
Peaceful or Aggressive Peaceful in general
Number of same specie in tank Two or more, more is better
Community Species Yes
Sexes The front part of the anal fin of males are reddish in color
Strata Middle to top
Food Flake food and live plants
Breeding Fairly easy
Breeding temperature 82.4°F or 28°C
Other names Silver Pacu
Scientific name Metynnis hypsauchen
Lifespan 10 years and older

b-cakes wrote:

They do need some floating plants for spawning.
I tried that too, but no luck.
Mind you i bought mine and was told they would eat my plants for sure.
Well, they did not eat the plants, but are eating EVERYTHING thas in the tank.
Cichlid pellets and sticks, all sorts of worms, zuchinni, algae wafers and now they even steal the feeder fish from my gar if he doesn't swallow them fast enough.




They really love feeder fish. And will rip those fish apart like piranhas!
Pretty strange, eh?