Silver Dollars fighting?

[MattMal88]

Hello,

I have 3 silver dollars in my tank 2 males and a female and I've seen the males chase each other around before but today they really went at it to the point of scales flying and one male has a few "bite" marks on him. I'm assuming this is over the female but my question is will this settle out once one male shows dominance or will this be a battle to the death? They've been living together pretty peacefully for the last 3 months they've been together except for some minor chasing every now and then.

 

[Autumnsky]

What size is your tank? How many inches are the fish?

As the young fish mature they will begin to try and show their dominance. Also the combination of 2M and 1F is not ideal. They need lots of room and also some areas which they might be able to hide. Visual blocks may help but I think there is a problem because of the M & F ratio to start.

 

[FishesInTank]

Hello
Actaully SD need a group of 5 or 6 and more, they will become more secure and not much aggressive (still a bit scared). But the size? Adult male chase the female when they want to breed.

Gilbert

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[MattMal88]

I have them in a 30g right now which I know is a little small but I am upgrading soon to a 100g. They are about 2 inches a piece with the female being close to 3 inches. They're not regular silver dollars either, they have spots and the males have and orange stripe behind both gills. I also noticed that the dorsal fins on the one male has turned darker and has almost black edges to it.

 

[FishesInTank]

Show the pics

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[MattMal88]

I can't figure out how to upload it. I took the pic on my phone of the two males but it says failed to upload when I try to attach it. I'm using the app by the way.

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[MattMal88]

This is a photo bucket link for the picture. Only way I could figure out how to share the pic on here.



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[pbkuhn123]

Are they the only fish or the largest and fastest in the tank? My silvers were far more confident when in a smaller tank with smaller fish. They were growing fastest, swam more actively, ate more aggressively and so on. Then I added them to my 120 with other similar sized fish and they aren't quite the bosses they once were. Of course, I have 7 of them, so maybe that makes a difference, but I do think they have calmed their confidence since being moved with other larger fish. They are a very peaceful school, all around 5 inches.

Silvers are a wonderful fish...yours look awesome!

 

[MattMal88]

They're not the biggest in the tank as I have king kong parrot that's much larger and I have a few other small juvenile cichlids in there as well that's are around 2 inches as well. Like I said I plan on upgrading to a much bigger tank soon, a buddy of mine gave me all of these fish and this is my first aquarium so I had no idea about stocking levels or nitrogen cycles or any of that at the time. Thanks to this site I do now and that's why I'm going to upgrade soon. They definitely don't lack confidence though during feeding time they'll zoom right in with the cichlids and eat with no fear and the cichlids leave them alone and actually back off when they start zipping around eating or chasing each other. I do love my silver dollars though and when I get the big tank I'm going to add a few females to the mix so they have a bigger school and the males won't fight.

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