Spooky Fish

[Jabba]

A year ago when I got into this hobby through a house move I inherited a large sick Silver Dollar, it is no longer sick and doing OK ... BUT.

It is so easily spooked and once started spooks everything else, if I didn't have a good top on the tank it would have have been out more than once, it bangs into the glass and other fish - it killed a Rasbora Trilinea in one of its stupidity sessions!! - mashed it into an ornament !!

If I even walk in the room it starts to 'stress', if I approach the tank it goes really jittery and darts about, if I open the lid it goes mental, and cleaning time it makes the tank boil like a shoal of Pirahna at lunch.

I put another dollar in there 6 months ago to see if a little company would help - nope it doesn't now I just have two stupid silver torpedoes (although the newer one is calm till the original resident starts). I have tried varying degrees of tank ornamation to give / remove hiding places, tried a regime of approaching the tank every half hour to see if the panics wear off - they don't. I even put it into the hospital tank for a while where the only traffic is for feeding, it hasn't helped.

I'm really getting to the point where I feel like chasing the bugger around till he stops panicking or croaks except I don't want to harrass the other occupants that much.

I also can't have ANY live plants in the tank because of these dollars, they dig up / shred / chew and spit out or eat everything in hours.

Suggestions please I am at my whit's end with this stupid fish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sorry to hear your struggling, shy fish can often be calmed by having dither fish in there. have you tried that? get a group of something like giant danios. big and quick enough to not get bullied or eaten by larger fish and cos they are so active it sort of makes the shy skittish fish think there's nothing to be scared of and calms it down.

 

[Jabba]

Tried,

I got 5 Rasbora Trilinea, 6 Black Widows, 6 Neon Tetras, the Swordtails are increasing their numbers to the point where a cull or give away might be needed (how do you neuter a fish) ... and of course another Silver Dollar ... it hasn't helped instead of it calming down it just spooks them instead.

The only fish that is never spooked is the Siamese Fighter - he actually comes to you when he sees you !! - I think he has a Marijuana stash somewhere.

 

[kewskills]

I think he has a Marijuana stash somewhere.

Coooool Duuuddeeeee 8) lmao

 

[andywg]

Let me get this straight:

You have a shoaling fish that is acting skittish due to being on its own. You then add one more and expect it to feel happy?

I would try getting a shoal of around 6 before looking for other reasons.

My silver sharks calmed down massively when I bolstered their numbers from 5 to 9.

 

[Jabba]

Nice idea, I read the books, I thought that when I got the second one to see what impact it had on its behaviour but adding potentially another 20+ inches of fish would require a tank upgrade and a whole load of hassle from her indoors ... or the sacrifice of something else from the tank. I'm already pushing the limits of what the tank will support.

I find the Dollars at the moment to be a liability both in time (I sometimes need to stop even doing things in the same room and let them calm down), and what I can do with the tank i.e. REAL plants (which I have given up on - better just to throw lettuce in the tank serves the same purpose - feeding or amusing Dollars) so add more of them, risk having 6 or more potential nutters ..... errrr no thanks ... unless somebody is offering a sale or return on Silver Dollars and an 8 foot tank on extended loan.

The newer Dollar isn't anything like as bad as the original resident Dollar but when the original resident starts then it too panics, which in turn spreads to the whole tank and this particular Dollar is ALWAYS the instigator of the bedlam, the tank was totally different while it was in the hospital tank on its own.

I am not buying another tank just for one fish, I am not sacrificing my quarantine / hospital tank either.

If the only answer is that it has to go then so be it - I just don't give up quite that easily - besides it all helps the learning process.

PS : I have 2 sharks and they are no problem at all .....