Bala Sharks As Replacment Dithers To Silver Dollars

[bae1994]

in my large tank i was gonna have a shoal of 10 silver dollars but cant find that many so would bala sharks have a similar bio load and would they work as dithers as well as look nice

so like 5 silver dollars and 5 bala sharks

thanks

 

[KittyKat]

What size is that tank? Bala sharks get quite a bit bigger then silver dollars, up to 40cm as opposed to about 15cm so are probably unsuitable as an alternative. Have you already got the 5 silver dollars?

 

[bae1994]

no iv not got any silver dollars yet but i do want some silver dollars the

tank is 9ft x 3ft x 3ft

with a 200 gallon sump with a 15000 lph pump for filter

 

[KittyKat]

That might be big enough for the Balas.. altho barely! I will try to see if I can find anyone with dollars for you

 

[bae1994]

That might be big enough for the Balas.. altho barely! I will try to see if I can find anyone with dollars for you

really???

i thought the recomended size for balas was a 5 foot tank aalso thanks

 

[KittyKat]

Think about it: you have a very active, 1.5ft (ok, slight overestimate), schooling (so normally at least 6 of them) fish, do you really, honestly think that 5ft is enough for it to even stretch?

I actually used to look after a 6x3x4ft tank (not my own) with only a few in there and I can honestly say that the Balas were stunted looking..

 

[bae1994]

yeah fare enough i gotta find some silver ddollars

 

[arobinson1984]

The tank is easily big enough for the sharks bae, but to be honest I wouldn't really use them as dithers. Once fully grown, a shoal of 5 or 6 is going to be more like the centrepiece in the tank. They also ideally prefer species only tanks.

Andy

 

[bae1994]

ok thanks ill keep looking for sd's then

 

[Liam50]

look at tinfoil barbs. smaller than bala sharks, less skittish that sd's.

 

[bae1994]

yeah but nelly told me that they were big bio loads like 2 to 5 sd's

 

[dave_oddballs]

tin foils are a very big bio-load on any tank. they are not an alternative to silver dollars in that repect, also similar to what has been said about the silver sharks, they would be more like a centre piece as opposed to a dither once fully grown. silver dollars are nice fish and are fairly common so shouldn't be that hard to find. if thats what you want then stick to them.
where abouts are you?

Dave

 

[bae1994]

yeah im gonna stick to them

also im in stamford lincolnshire but i want reasonably sized ones eg 4-5 inch

 

[dave_oddballs]

ah bit far away, was just gonna say the maidenhead aquatics near blackpool have about 20 5" silver dollars in and are reasonably cheap, about a fiver each. bit far from you though!! nevermind, you should find some soon enough.

Dave

 

[bae1994]

yeah my maidenhead are asking 15 quid per sd for a 4 inch one wich is stupid