A silver dollar tank

[swimmy103]

what would be the minimum us gallon tank to keep some silver dollars in, and mayb 2 or 3 cories? what eles would i need to know about the silver dollars, what do they like and dis-like?
thanks in advanced

 

[drobbins27]

Silver Dollars grow to have a diameter of 6'', and need a bit of swimming room. For a decent school of 3-4 I'd say 40g-50g. The cories would fit in perfect with them. SD's love vegetables, and shrimp pellets. 78-82F is what i keep mine in with a pH of 7.4. They are hardy, and easy to keep.

 

[swimmy103]

what type of algea eater would u suggest?

 

[fish_r_great]

I'd say a smaller plaec that only gets to 4" or an SAE

 

[drobbins27]

It all depends on tank size. 40g+ would be a decent home for a common plec, my favourite fish. SAE are cool, I got Khulis and Clowns also. Its all about your preference tho, check some out at your LFS next time

 

[NDIrish7]

would this be possible in a 50 us gallon tank??

1.) Tiger Barb ( 8 )
2.) Red Finned Black Shark (1)
3.) Blue Ram (1)
4.)Ottos (5)
5.)Silver Dollar (3)

 

[silver]

Well, I'm sorry, but for SDs you would need a 55 gallon AT THE LEAST, not a 40....sorry Drob!!

Also, they like subdued lighting, darker substrate, and a well-planted home to make them feel....well...at home! So to put it simply, they like a "natural" tank. They are VERY fast and quite exciteable. Mine gasp for air and start swimming hard whenever I so-much as come within 5 feet of my 55 gallon. Also, they should never be kept in tanks that are 48" or less......4 ft. + is a MUST in mine, and so many others, opinion because they swim so fast and are very strong swimmers. They LOVE vegetables, as drobbins said.....mine adore shelled peas, but as CFC points out......they do need meat in their diets as well and most SDs will PIG out on shrimp pellets! I have a 6+ Silver Dollar right now and another one is 5". My smallest are about 4".

ND Irish, in a 50 gallon what you suggest should be fine EXCEPT I wouldn't keep SDs with any nippy fish or a red-tailed black shark to be honest. Not a good choice for they are on the aggressive side aren't they??

I always like to point this out to new SD owners or people interested in them:

I almost regret getting my first 2 SDs because of how skiddish they are. One of them is so bad it will actually hurt itself if I'm not careful. I've had to remove all of the rocks and anything that it could hurt itself on when rushing by blindly with fear of me My other 3 aren't so bad.....tolerable, but still very skiddish. I am also battling a severe case of fungus in my 55 gallon and it's only affecting my SDs I'm getting really fed up with them so I don't mean to be pesimistic, I just want you to know what you "could" be getting yourself into. Others don't seem to have such scared and timid SDs, maybe mine were wild caught

I wish you luck in whatever you decide!