Eating my Tiger Lotus!

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jcarlilesiu

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Joined
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I picked up 2 red hook silver dollars on Friday to be my center peice fish in my 56 gallon planted.

Today, I noticed several of my tiger lotus leaves floating on top of the water, and that many leaves still attached have been chewed.

URGH

I knew they were ominivores, but why do they have to go after my center peice plants? Im worried they will eat these plants to death. They aren't touching the amazon sword, val, sag, or ludwigia. As far as I can tell anyway.

Any advice? Should I feed them more, or should I take them back? Do you think they will eat the lotus to death? Any experience in this situation is appreciated.
 
FWIW I believe that silver dollars are plant eaters. You have to decide whether or not you want the plants or the silver dollars. If it were me I'd probably take them back.
 
people always tell me the silver dollars are plant eaters. They have never eaten anything in the tanks i have had them in for the past 4 years. Although last night my star grass was stripped bar....i am definately thinking it was them. I've had them too long to get rid of them now, ill see where it goes from here.
 
Update. They were returned to the store last night.

I am still considering my options for center peice fish. Any suggestions are appreciated.

In the tank now is:

15 Rasbora Tetras
3 Rainbow fish
3 Clown Loaches
2 Algea Shrimp
3 Siamese algea eaters

I know my bio load is pushing it with a couple big center piece fish, but my maintanence is high.
 
What's a rasbora tetra? I've heard of rasboras, and tetras, but not together.

How about a rainbow or red-tailed shark?
 
Silver dollars are known to be voracious herbivores. They won't eat all plants but can, and will, feast on any plant they find tasty.
 
Depending on what type of Rainbows you have they can be great centerpiece fish.

Otherwise, maybe one larger Gourami, 1 Pearl, or 1 Blue Gourami would have a nice graceful look amongst all those schooling fish. Unless you go with a male and 1 or 2 females. Probably best to stick to 1 Gourami.

Again, depending on what type of Rainbows. Increasing to 5 rainbows with maybe 2 males and 3 females, or 7 with 3 males and 4 females. Would provide a very nice centerpiece. In larger groups rainbows can have some very interesting behavior.
 
Zezmo said:
Depending on what type of Rainbows you have they can be great centerpiece fish.

I'm with Zezmo on the rainbows. A school of Praecox rainbows or maybe a small group of millenium rainbows would look very striking.

A school of roseline barbs would also be quite nice. They get up to 5" when full-grown, and have some incredible coloration/markings. I'm also a big fan of snakeskin barbs in good-sized schools.
 
Thanks for the input.

I really like Monos, but I am having a hard time finding them locally at the moment.

How big do rainbows get? Because of the 24" depth of my tank, my aqua-scaping has to be very vertical (read tall driftwood and tall plants like vals). Due to this odd tank shape, I also feel I need some larger sized fish.

Right now, I am concentrating on getting my plants back to healthy again following the all out buffet the silver dollars caused. I think most of the plants will pull through.
 
I believe Monos are brackish anyways.....so skip that idea. ;)

The size of Rainbows depends on what type you have. Praecox Rainbows get about 2". There are some types that get around 4-6" (Boesemani and Turquoise are larger ones).
 
Monos are definitely brackish fish and require salt in their water. They can even be acclimated to full saltwater conditions. One thing that won't work, however, is keeping them in freshwater.
 
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