Anyone keep silver dollars of any type?

homebrewed

homebrewed

Super Moderator
I currently have 2 different species of red hook silver dollars. One with a straight red hook and one with a black and red hook. Both look great and add alot to my tank.

I hope to have a school of at least 12 when I build a large tank.
 
I always wanted to try. I find them attractive, but their mouth scared me. I am afraid they're gonna nip at my aros fins.
 
I know guy's that keep cichlids use the as dithers all the time. I have never kept them because I dont have cichlids.
 
They make great dithers because they can with stand a good beating. When I was breeding some SA/CA cichlids I'd use just ordinary silver dollars.
 
I used to keep a trio of red hooks with an RTG. The three red hooks would beat on each other mercilessly, maybe I had all males? In any case, I ended up with one as the other two just got too messed up to keep. And then when I had only the one, he became terrified of the RTG and just cowered in a corner all the time. So I finally got rid of him. I'd like to try again, maybe I need a larger school?
 
Cirrus said:
I used to keep a trio of red hooks with an RTG. The three red hooks would beat on each other mercilessly, maybe I had all males? In any case, I ended up with one as the other two just got too messed up to keep. And then when I had only the one, he became terrified of the RTG and just cowered in a corner all the time. So I finally got rid of him. I'd like to try again, maybe I need a larger school?
Click to expand...


I was warned about red hooks, before I kept them w/ my aro's. I never listened. I bought a school of 5 red hooks & 3 silver dollars that were half the size or the red hooks. The largest hook I had was over 5 inch in dia.
I had them in the tank with my VIP XBG and one day I noticed a little nip out my aro's anal fin. I let it go for a while and the aro's fin healed.
Just after the aro's fin healed I noticed a larger nick on the arow's anal fin again.
That was it, I had to fish the whole school out including the silver dollars and banished the school forever.
I kept one of the small silver dollars that had an over shot jaw or what we would call PLJ in aro's. I named him Sammy Davis Jr cause he reminded me of the late singer. With his deformed jaw he can't really do any damage, and he,s only 2 inches.
The Hooks and the Dollars really added beauty and they never stayed in one spot in the tank but, I wasn't going to risk my Aro.
I think I will try some yellow tail tin foil barbs next time. Noce fish w larger mirror like scales compared to their red tail or blush cousins.
 
EKen said:
I always wanted to try. I find them attractive, but their mouth scared me. I am afraid they're gonna nip at my aros fins.
Click to expand...

You are correct EKEN for silver dollars and Red hooks should be monitored very carefully. I had a black bar silver dollar and I had noticed that my fish had a nip in the anal fin also. The silver dollar never chased my aro, but when my aro took a shit he would follow closely behind and eat the aro shit. In doing so he once ate the shit then bit at the anal fin right after.:mad: I then moved him to my other tank with my RTG and since I have moved him there he has never attempted to bite either my silvers or RTG fins.:)
So be warned!!! These fish are known to bite fins.

bbsdLAB.jpg
 
thanks for the heads up, i'll keep an eye on my group

so far they don't get to close to the aro because lately he won't hesitate to bite them
 
i keep a small school of 5 red hooks with my three aros and they seem almost oblivious to eachothers groups. im actually going to hopefully get more red hooks to make the school bigger.
 
In my 15k have a small shoal of red hooks (5-6 inches) and a larger shoal of shombergi (12 inches) in with a mixture of about a dozen aro's (18" to 36") and have never had a problem.

In my 52k I have colosomas in with a silver (30") and a rtg aro (24") and they do push the aro's out of the way when grazing for floating pellets but the are a lot heavier than the aros. The C's are between 40 and 60 lbs each.
 
arapaimag said:
In my 15k have a small shoal of red hooks (5-6 inches) and a larger shoal of shombergi (12 inches) in with a mixture of about a dozen aro's (18" to 36") and have never had a problem.

In my 52k I have colosomas in with a silver (30") and a rtg aro (24") and they do push the aro's out of the way when grazing for floating pellets but the are a lot heavier than the aros. The C's are between 40 and 60 lbs each.
Click to expand...

:eek:

I have 5 silver dollars in with my RTG and motoro rays and have not noticed any problems. I like how they swim together but I will keep a closer eye on them as well. Everything seems peaceful so far.
 
really can come down to the personality of the fish... ive had silver dollar and tinfoil barbs with aro's in the past, no nipped fins.. but if i ever saw a nipped fin.. well i tell ya my aro's worth more to me then any other fish..
 
A lot of Myleus and Metynnis are fin biters, I think it's important to keep them well fed and in larger numbers. I used to keep a school of about 16 red hooks and black bars. They never bothered my arowana or rays just chased each other around. Since there was a lot of them none of them really got too much of a beating, just the odd nip here and there. I regret selling them... you guys would hit me if you knew what I sold the 16 xlarge dollars for. The smallest were the size of my palm.

JMorash
 
JMorash said:
A lot of Myleus and Metynnis are fin biters, I think it's important to keep them well fed and in larger numbers. I used to keep a school of about 16 red hooks and black bars. They never bothered my arowana or rays just chased each other around. Since there was a lot of them none of them really got too much of a beating, just the odd nip here and there. I regret selling them... you guys would hit me if you knew what I sold the 16 xlarge dollars for. The smallest were the size of my palm.

JMorash
Click to expand...

Get another group and feed lettuce daily ...they'll grow up just as your old group.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top