Silver Dollars and other schooling fish.

[Sulla]

Hi I have a 125G tank with 8 silver dollars at the moment and I am trying to plan out the rest of the fish community. I am debating getting more silver dollars so I have a school of 12-14 or should add I another group of schooling fish with some color maybe.

Also at the moment the silver dollars tend not to be to interesting as they mainly sit in the cover on the corners unless I have all the lights in the room off. Would adding other types of fish or more silver dollars tend to make them more active? (Seems they are getting a little better since I went from 4 to 8 fish.)

Also this is an image of the aquarium. You can see it has dark color "rocks" on 3 sides and I use more subdeud lighting than in the images. http://aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic...&start=0&sid=11a131c00ca14bd08441808646a76301

 

[Sulla]

Oh also if you have any advice on adding plants or other items to help the fish fill more comfortable let me know also.

 

[Jchillin]

I recall looking at that tank when I first joined and thinking "Wow"!!!

Silver dollars are a great schoaling fish, especially in good numbers. 12-14 in that tank would look marvelous.

Have you thought of other fish to stock with as yet?

 

[Jchillin]

LOL...I was looking at your tank and you posted about plants before I could get back..

What type of plants (high, med. low) did you have in mind? This depends on your lighting level and whether you want to do CO2 injection.

What is your current wattage?

 

[Sulla]

Well I have thought about live plants but it would seem most need a good deal of light and the silver dollars seem to get freeked out by to much light. Plus they tend to eat plants

I have some high dollar compact florecents and hoods I could use but even with one in the center of the tank its so bright I am not sure they will get used to it. I am trying it now to see. Its a 96w 6700k light. I normaly the cheap single bulb florecents that keep the light level way down.


I could always add more plastic plants to the tank I have a tone of them. Possibly some more plants in the middle of the tank so the fish do not have so much open space to where they fill unprotected.

 

[Sulla]

Oh and glad you like the tank it was a lot of fun to make.

 

[greenmaji]

If your worried about the silver dollors getting used to the light needed and it would
need at least 120watts of light to grow low light plants well and wether or not they
would eat the plants.. you might have trouble with putting live plants in the tank.. there
are quite a few plants that are low light and really dont taste all that good to fish but as
I said before your going to need quite a bit of light for your tank to grow plants.. HTH
other then more silver dollors what kind of fish would you like? would you want more
fish from the same region of the world?

 

[Sulla]

After thinking about it I think live plants would be to much work with a school of silver dollars

As for other fish some from the same region could be interesting. I would like more schooling fish I think. Having 2 schools of fish would be interesting. Or the one big school of silver dollars. If I thought I could take care of them I would get discus. I large school of them would be great kinda like colorfull silver dollars

But I am open to any suggestions.

 

[Pacifico]

Wow, that is just an AWESOME tank. One of the nicest ones I've seen!

Good luck on deciding on the Silver Dollars!

 

[greenmaji]

I really wouldnt put discus and silver dollors together if it were me.. and discus do shoal/school in groups of 5 or 6+.. you would want to grow discus out in a smaller tank before putting them in your big tank because they need alot of water changes when they are young and that really wouldnt be a good idea with that big of a tank...

 

[Sulla]

Well I really didnt mean I was considering Discus. I think they are to much work. But are there other schooling fish that would go well with silver dollars? Maybe something less shy.

Pacifico - Thanks

 

[greenmaji]

less shy then silver dollars? or less shy then discus? nether fish is shy.. and discus are only alot of work when they are young.. adult discus are not as much work as people think they are.. Im guessing you want a schooling fish that will be near the same size as the silver dollars yet be more colorful.. I would consider angel fish but I dont know if they school in large groups.. Ive never had that many of them in a tank before..

 

[Sulla]

Yes less shy than silver dollars. And yes a schooling fish atleast large enough to live in the same tank with the silver dollar.

 

[tetrin]

first things first, your tank is truly an inspiration. amazing work.

back to fish, you could try a school of tinfoil barbs. the idea would be to get fish that accentuate your background, not steal focus away from it.

 

[Sulla]

Thanks for the nice words about the tank.

tinfoil barbs could be interesting I will read about them more. But I think they get to large for what I am wanting.

 

[Jchillin]

With that size tank, you could go with:

Angels (any variety) 3-4
German Blue Rams - 4
Keyholes - 4

Bottom feeders

Sailfin Gibbiceps Pleco, Rubbernose Pleco, Bristlenose Pleco, etc. - 1
Corydoras - 6 or more...any variety.

HTH

 

[Sulla]

As I side note my largest silver dollar seems to have done a good job of nipping the fins down on some of the other silver dollars. Mainly when I had 4 now with 8 he seems to be starting the same thing on them. From watching I think he does it when they get in his corner. So for now I made a big pile of plastic grass in that corder so he cant really get into it and it does not look the same. I will watch him and see if it helps. Any advice on the nipping?

 

[Fluff]

What is your sex ratio. Maybe it's aggression due to attempting to breed. They are supposed to be realitively easy to spawn.

 

[Sulla]

Hmm didnt think of that. Reading about Silver Dollars no one mentioned sex ratios being important like some other species. Of the first 4 I think 3 were mail. Of the next 4 I think only 1 or 2 are male.

 

[Fluff]

I read about breeding them a while back and can't remember reading about aggression but, if you have a pair trying to spawn, I would think that may trigger some.