silver dollar fish

[dale o shea]

Are silver dollar fish easy to keep ive being thinking about getting them for awhile now. Will they eat flake food and is there any type of fish you cant keep with them ? Also ive read that they will eat the plants in the tank is this true.

[dyco]

they do indeed eat your plants, tho there are a few plants that they dont bother with so much,
amazon swords there are a few others as well, not a big expert on plants..

otherwise lovely fish, very peaceful and there is not much they cant be kept with in the way of SA/CA cichlids etc.. i kept mine with oscars, with no problems,

they can be a bit skitish,when you turn the lights on or come up to tank to quick, and are best kept in groups of 4 or more,

they school together and do laps of the tank which is quite impressive looking,

need a big tank, they can quick enough to,

[dyco]

also will take flake food or anything else,

very hardy fish as well.

good luck,

[igmillichip]

Great fish to have.

You can pick them up for next to nothing costwise....and you get a fast-growing lotta-fish for your money.

They look a little duff when small.....but when big are simply awesome.

As said by the previous poster....these are skittish (so maybe have a 2-net system for catching them).
feeding is no problem.....feed a good balance to include spirulina flake.

Good clean tank, good aeration, good filtration and good water changes.

As for partners in the tank.....many fish will work well with silver dollars. I would avoid delicate slow moving small fish such a chocolate gouramis as they may be in the way when a silver decides to dart.!!
Very small bite-size fish may easily be mistaken for food.

If you are tempted by silver dollars then next step up are the even more awesome red hook pacus (Myloplus rubrippinis).

ian

[micko]

I've had them before but this was years ago, before I knew they loved eating plants so much that I bought 4 plants one day, 24 hours later there was nothing there, not even the stems.
They're related to the pirahna and pacu but are a very easy going fish. I've always gone on the theory that a minimum of 6 should be kept together. Another reason why I gave them away was that they grow big, they stay the same shape but grow huge, I seen them in a LFS and it was around 8 inches in length. I'm not sure what they max out at though. They can be kept in a community tank but not with any small fish such as neons, or anything else that can fit in its mouth.

[dale o shea]

Thanks guys really helpfull