pica_nuttalli
don't be a twit
er, well, how big are the silver dollars again? total length, please, from mouth to end of their tails.
Silver Dollars
- Thread starter cooliee
- Start date
Puffdaddy
Fishaholic
I know where your going with this pica_nuttalli, and is a good Q. The Shark's can be hazardous to small fish even the Silver Dollars. Although being in a group of at least six should detour the Shark's. You must however agree that this is a better situation for the Dollar's than a 14gl tank. With that said the Dollars should also grow rapidly in a 120gl tank as well. Would you agree?
pica_nuttalli
don't be a twit
oh, definitely they would do better in the 120! i just seemed to remember hearing 1" somewhere in this conversation and a 1" fish is a very small fish indeed! but, it's also so small that i doubt an LFS would carry silver dollars at that size.
now, what the OP could do (and some of you won't like this idea) is engage in a "rapid growth program". take two five gallon buckets; set up one of them with clean water and a seeded filter. put the silver dollars in this bucket and top with saran wrap or some other transparent cover (poke some holes in it for aeration). the next day, fill the empty bucket with treated water and move the fish and the filter to that bucket. empty the old one. repeat this swap each day until sufficiently large size is reached.
the brief interval between the 100% water changes should mean that only temperature would need to be equalized before swapping between the buckets; all the other water parameters should be roughly the same and require little acclimation. while a 5g does technically have less volume than the 14g tank, this volume would only be occupied by the silver dollars. since frequentl influx of clean water is a commonly used breeder trick for getting fry to grow more quickly, you should be able to get the SD up to 2.5" TL in much shorter time than would be spent in the 14g. just be sure to feed them as much as they want to eat during this process! i suggest grabbing a bag of Hikari algae wafers and feeding those. a little fresh veg wouldn't be bad for the SDs, but the algae wafers contain quite a bit of protein, which is what the fish will be using most as they grow.
now, what the OP could do (and some of you won't like this idea) is engage in a "rapid growth program". take two five gallon buckets; set up one of them with clean water and a seeded filter. put the silver dollars in this bucket and top with saran wrap or some other transparent cover (poke some holes in it for aeration). the next day, fill the empty bucket with treated water and move the fish and the filter to that bucket. empty the old one. repeat this swap each day until sufficiently large size is reached.
the brief interval between the 100% water changes should mean that only temperature would need to be equalized before swapping between the buckets; all the other water parameters should be roughly the same and require little acclimation. while a 5g does technically have less volume than the 14g tank, this volume would only be occupied by the silver dollars. since frequentl influx of clean water is a commonly used breeder trick for getting fry to grow more quickly, you should be able to get the SD up to 2.5" TL in much shorter time than would be spent in the 14g. just be sure to feed them as much as they want to eat during this process! i suggest grabbing a bag of Hikari algae wafers and feeding those. a little fresh veg wouldn't be bad for the SDs, but the algae wafers contain quite a bit of protein, which is what the fish will be using most as they grow.
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