I saw something really interesting yesterday. Two of my silver dollars were swimming together and sort of shimmering and putting their anal and breeding bits together. One of them developed a black tinge to the edge of his fins and also 2 black marks on his body. I think they were laying eggs- im sure i saw an egg come out at least twice. It was difficult to tell as the other fish in the tank seemed to know more than me because they were following them around and going for the anal area, i assume to eat the egg. I am guessing SD's are egg scatterers. The best part was another smaller SD's kept sneaking in and 'having a go himself'. Great fun to watch

I have got three silver dollars and have also noticed the black marking on the side. I believe that you sex silver dollars by the shape of their anal fins. You could well have witnessed them laying eggs, they do let them drop onto plants and they hatch by themselves, they don't need any help from the parents

When I purchased mine I did a lot of reading up on them and their behaviors. I believe, if I remember correctly, that the males have more red on their anal than the females.

i thought i was doing a gd thing wen i bought 7 silver dollars only to wake up the next morning and find them gone i know my oscar ate them wen lights wen out

im waiting to get some more but i will put them in another tank till they are a decent size
regards ash

They are at it again tonight and this time i saw something drop that the other fish didnt see so im pretty sure its eggs. Dont rate its chances of survival even if it hatches, will get gobbled up in no time. O well free food i suppose

I've never gotten mine to spawn. Water is you water chemistry? Temp? Photoperiod? If you don't mind.

Nitrate tends to be between 20 and 40, ammonia and nitrite are 0 (of course). temperature is 79-81. Ph is 7.4 - 7.6 . I dont test for hardness but i live in a hard water area- we get lots of limescale in the kettle and around taps. They are in a 180 g tank with lots of tank mates (too many in fact- when they all get bigger some will have to go). I feed maggots on mon and tues, prawns weds, pond fish pellets thurs and sat, hikari pellets on fri and peas on sun

sorry ive been missing in action for the last 3months but ive been building my 2meter tank,cabinet,hood,plumbing & sump so i hvnt had much time for ofl.com.

anyway my two SD's r going through the same thing black spots appear the red on the tail goes completely black and the kinda slap and shiver their anal areas together this is really intersting to watch but id like to find out what this is too and the web is full of conflicting stories.

will post sum pics soon of my new tank with the odd mixture of fish in it.

Hi My silver dollars do the same thing, and they lay eggs when doing it. My male doesn't have much red on his anal fin at all, my female has more, my males anal fin is...longer if that makes sense, it has a bump in it instead of being straight like the females. The get black smudgy spots on their sides and a black line to their tails, the red on their tails goes redder and the male gets red around his gills and they aldo get black spots on their dorsal fins. Their silver colour gets deeper and almost has a rainbow look to it. Haven't had any successes with the eggs but that's because the other fish eat them.
The colours fade back to the silver and red for a couple of weeks and then they are at it again, colours deepen, black appears, and they shimmy!!!!