Silver Dollars

[Smaug21]

I have a habit of browsing the local Craigslist, like anyone with even the minor case of MTS that i have should do, and i stumbled across a little tank for 15$. What originally attracted me to it, was that it came with a stand, and not a crappy iron stand, but a real wood, 2 shelf thing. after responding and looking at the picture a bit better, i'm even happier. I think the tank is a kit of some-sort, possibly even a bowfront so not even a 10g, probably one of the weird ones, on top of that it comes with a filter and a light (probably incandesent but the Wal-mart Compact things are growing java fern and moss just fine in my other tank).

My question comes because it's aparently a family tank that the mother has been forced to take care of, so it's such a $ deal because she wants to get rid of the whole thing. On that note, they don't know much of anything about fish and i was told that she had "3 silver dollar fish and another fish that i don't know" that are in the tank and she was hopeing whoever gets the tank would take them. Normaly this would be , but, i'm probably getting some fish for free if they aren't just going to die on me, and even if they do, it won't be because they lived their lives in a 10g tank, over all it will do them some good.

That comes to my real question, nominally these fish should have a 55g or bigger tank, thats my feeling on any fish thats fairly big. The thing is, Live Aquaria lists it at 30g, and i have a 29g tank already setup that just has a few guppies and a cast-off pleco in currently. I know Live Aquaria and the chains like to under-size the fish, but how much of an undersize is this?

Is it in the range of like, some schooling fish and just needs a slightly bigger tank, it just needs more space or something? Or is this gonna be the not as common version of Common Pleco and Bala Shark horror stories?

Either way i'm taking the fish, but if i can't keep them in the 29g in the long run i'll look into fish stores that might give me credit for them locally.

Always get good advice on here so i thought i'd get some more info then the websites are giving me.

 

[Bubble_B0y]

3 reasons why silver dollars require large LONG tanks.

1) they grow big! the size of a dessert plate/saucer!

2) they are schooling. They should be kept in a minimum group of 6.
You do the math

3) they are very fast fish. They need lots of room and like to swim from one side of the tank to the other side.

I say a minimum of a 3 foot tank.

 

[Atl300zx]

i have 2 in my 55 gallon. they definately need the length.

 

[rkilling1]

IMO, anything bigger then a 10 gallon would be MUCH better for them. But understand that as they grow, you will either have to upgrade your take size or get ride of them.

 

[Smaug21]

I did a little searching around today during my lunch break and i think the pet store up here where i work will take them if i can't find one closer to home that will. I was looking at them in this particular store and i know they get big, he had one, might not be the same sub-species or whatever but still, that was probably a good 6inchs round, quite large. But he also had a bunch of small ones that he was selling that were well under an inch, and thats probably what i'm gonna get. So if i can't find a pet store that will take them they might be good in my 30g for awhile.

Anybody have any experience on how fast they grow? If they are slow growers and take years to get to full size i might keep them in the 30g and hope after i get my Degree in December that i'll be able to afford a bigger apartment/house and a 55g+ to put them in. That might take a year or two, depending. If push came to shove, i could take them to the LFS if i don't have a reliable job/ big enough apartment at that point.

At anyrate, calling this person this evening to get a time and meet with her, so i should have them tommorow or next week. Maybe i'll go enquire in the resource center here on campus about a digital camera, i was told they will just let you take one if you have a campus ID. So i could get some good pictures or them, and my other tanks.

 

[rkilling1]

How fast they grow depends on how they are cared for, as in how fast they 'normally' grow, I don't know. Sorry.

I really just want to add, Good luck on getting the degree!

 

[Smaug21]

Ok so i went and picked up the tank today and boy was i in for a suprise.

This tank is probably a 10g, maybe a bit bigger, hard to say it's one of those built in hood things so it's not a type i'm familiar with. The tank had no heater....yeah. It has a built in undergravel filter, which i'm gonna have to replace before i use the tank :? and only one of the incandescant lights worked. I expected all that, she's not taking care of the fish with water changes and dosen't have the time for them so the equipment is gonna be bad, what i didn't expect was what and how big these fish were.

The story is quite interesting, aparently the women's uncle had a 55g corner tank and had run on hard times and couldn't keep the tank anymore. So she took the tank and put it up on craigslist, she also had a little tank that she had gotten in a garage sale, so rather then move the whole 55g full and take care of that...they just put the remaining fish in the little 10g!!!!

So in this neglected 10g, thankfully they had only been in there for a few months, so most of their life they were in a bigger tank, so i can hope they aren't permanantly stunted, she had
- One Silver Dollar, oh about 3 inches wide maybe? i might be exagerating a bit but he's big enough that he wouldn't go in the little net she had and we had to use the big one that i bought for my 30g. Him alone would have been way too much in the tank but she also had

- 2 Full grown Black-skirt Tetras,probably an inch tall, 2 if you include the fins. She had originally said there were "3 silver dollar fish" i will admit that they are slightly similar but they have freaking black stripes and fins! The good thing for me is they are full grown (more then likely) and won't get much bigger, and they are a type that should be ok in a 30g depending, so they can live in my 30g and i can get them a bigger school.

-and lastly, a Pretty large albino Cory.

I was shocked when i got there, to say the least. I expected some half-dead baby fish that she had gotten from some chain store somewhere and i got large Grown fish! The only down side is that i'm sure there is some damage from that time in the small, not well cared for tank. If they survive, i will have some pretty nice fish. The other upside is that i only have to find a home for the one Silver Dollar, the tetra's and the cory can stay in the tank. And they should be fine till that time comes tank space wise.

So overall i'm very glad i responded to that listing and rescued these fish!

 

[rkilling1]

Just be VERY careful when doing water changes. They probably have been living in a tank with high NO3's for some time now. A sudden change to the chemistry could kill them.

 

[Smaug21]

Well, i was going to do a minor drip-aclimate type things by adding a bit to the water over about an hour, but about 15 min into it, and about 2 little cups full one of the tetra's decided that he didn't want to be in the tuperware thingy i had him in and jumped into the tank. Luckly he jumped that way instead of the other way! At that point i just did one more change and then put the other guys in, so it might be a bit early, but too late now.

On another note, i finally replaced my old test kit that i haven't been using for awhile because it was these little tab thingies, and i never got the same responses. I tested my water, and i'm a bit concerned, ammonia was none existant, but the Nitrate was only 5 ppm, and the Nitrite was a bit high at .25 ( on this API test kit) So it ironicly enough might not be as much of a jump as pristine water would be, but i'm gonna have to keep my eye on it and do some water changes if it gets out of hand.

I'm also a bit worried about getting a mini-cycle, cause the tank only had some guppies and a pleco in it for about a month, so these guys probably double the bio-load if not more. So i'm gonna have to watch that i guess.

They didn't eat anything when i fed my fish earlier, which isn't supriseing, but hopefully they will eat tommorow. The cory cat, on the other hand, was more then happy to clean up all the un-eaten flakes, so he's looking ok lol!

We'll see how they are tommorow.