Dying Silver Dollar?

[Sammistarlight]

Hi the name is Sammi I'm brand new here. I am however not new to keeping fish as I've had this tank and the fish in question for over 8 years. Before that period while less knowledgeable I did keep fish still and in total I've been at it for about 13 ish years with breaks here and there.

So the dilemma:

I bought two silver dollars about 5 maybe 6 years ago. The tank at that time had a good number of fish. At some point about 2 or 3 years ago I had a new fish I got from pet smart (never again). It must have had some virus or something because it killed every fish in the take swiftly one by one. It was like fin rot that killed fish in 18 hours. The fish would.be fine in the morning and then at night they would be struggling to stay alive. Fins torn up and even gone sometimes.

This killed ever fish. Except one. We call him Red. He is a larger silver dollar (3 or 4 in) and for about a year and a half to 2 years he was the only member of the tank.

He would usually just hang out in the corner underneath the UV sterilizer and heater. Within the past few months ive added some new members. I now have 2 tiger barbs a gourami, two green tiger barbs and 4 Molly's. At first he was fine he would come check out the other fish sometimes but nothing to bat an eye at.

About 3 days ago he has a swim bladder issue. Not unlike I'm he loves to inhale his food. This freaked him out tho I think and he was going nuts swimming all over the tank even jumping up and hitting himself against the glass cover of the tank. He eventually hid behind er the heater and stayed there til the issue resolved.

Now the real dilemma:

As of today he is not in his usual corner. Infact he's not even at the bottom as per usual. Hes at the top. Not floating nothing like that. Just hanging out there. But he looks a little tired almost like he hit his head too hard. The other fish keep nipping at his fins and he turns to chase them off but then goes right back to this new area.

Its just a little weird for him and his reflexes seem a bit slowed as well.

I thought that this could be ammonia due to the addition of new fish but none of the other fish were acting up and after checking all levels ammonia, nitrite , nitrate were 0 (nitrate was like 1)

pH is as it normally is about 7.6 he has never minded that though.

Watertemp is also fine a good 79.3 degrees.

Nothing has changed since the incident the other day.

I'm concerned about the health of this fish as he is getting older.

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Andy Sager]

Unfortunately it could be a myriad of things but since you said that he had jumped and hit his head on the glass, that would be my first guess as to the issue. Concussion or just a big headache will make the fish act " off". The key now is to keep the other fish from pestering him while he recuperates. If you can set up a divider and keep him on one side and the other fish on the other, that would do the fish a world of good.

As for it being a water issue, the only way to really know is by testing the water. That said, if all the other fish are having no issues, the water is probably fine and not the cause. Swim bladder issues can be caused by a few different things. Bad water, poor nutrition, overeating, injury, internal bacterial infections, High nitrates, Internal parasites to name a few. If the fish still has the ability to swim upright and not just drifting in the tank or sinking when not swimming, it's probably not a swim bladder issue. The darting around could have been from an attack by the Barbs or a confrontation with the Gourami.
Now for the bad news...... Most Silver dollar species have an average lifespan of about 10 years in an aquariums when kept under ideal conditions and health. What you might be witnessing is also the beginnings of the end for this fish as he's not being kept under ideal conditions. Dollars are schooling fish and really should be kept in schools of 6-10 fish. They come from warm soft acidic water. He's currently being kept with species not regularly found where they are from. While all these things are things some fish adapt to, it's been shown that they often reduce the expected lifespan of the fish. There is no exact clock for this.
So for now, I would definitely get a divider to help reduce any unwanted aggression from the other fish.

Hope this helps.