Silver Dollars = killers??

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hillie16

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Jul 23, 2004
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I was given a 40 gallon tank by my father in law about 6 months ago. It had two Blood Parrots (I know people don't even like the fact that they exist, but they were in the tank when I got it), and 2 Silver Dollars. I added a pleco, a pictus cat, and 2 tinfoil barbs. My sister stuck in her 3 tiger barbs. The parrots are 5-6 inches, same for the Silver Dollars. The tinfoil barbs were very small when I put them in,, but are now 4-5 inches. All three tigers barbs have been found floating and mostly eaten, the parrots have their fins nipped in a few places once in a while, and this morning one of my tinfoil barbs had a big bite missing out of his tailfin. Tonight....belly up. The silver dollars are the only ones who never have their fins nipped, and from what I've read the blood parrots don't have the right shaped mouth to nip fins, so I'm assuming the silver dollars are my nippers. Am I assuming right? I'm thinking about moving the silver dollars to a new tank. If I do, I will add another tinfoil barb or two to the existing tank. Any suggestions for other tankmates for the barbs and parrots, or should I not add any others? I would like something a little more colorful, or something odd looking LOL, not plain like the silver dollars. The silver dollars will have their own tank just for them.

This is the tank they are in, used a slow shutter speed and no flash so the fish are just blurs.

tank3.jpg
 
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Moving some of these fish into another tank is probably a good idea. They're going to get much too big to keep together in a 40g. I'm sorry I can't help ID the nippers, it could be anyone, and I'd lay my money on the barbs. This may sound silly, but if you have time to sit for an hour and watch the tank, you just might catch someone in action.
If your second tank is a large one (I'm talking three digits here), moving the tinfoils and the pleco into that tank, rather than moving the silver dollars / parrots, might be a good idea since they get quite large (I believe tinfoils can reach 10" or so), and the barbs should, ideally, be in a group, so if you've got the room you could add a few more as you said.
If it's a smaller tank than your 40, I'd suggest maybe taking some of your fish back to your LFS and looking for some smaller fish; there are lots of 'odd looking' (depending on your interpretation) species out there that stay fairly small.
 
The barbs were done though Blink. Silver dollars can be very aggressive fish, I've even seen bigger ones take feeders regularly. The store I worked at had 3 of them that were over 8 inches and they were deffinately not the passive herbivores they are made out to be.
 
Just an FYI... I've seen tinfoil barbs over a foot long. You have way too much fish for a 40g tank IMO. As they continue to grow they will probably get more aggressive, not less.
 
silver dollars have never been too friendly..at least for me anyway :mad2
 
Silver dollars are a popular choice for Chichlid tanks caus ethey can hold their own on the aggression front. If they were trying to spawn that would explain extreme aggression , my LFS were telling me the other day how there silver dollars were attacking the full grown oscar in there display tank when they spawned!
BPs can indeed be fin nippers too BTW
 
superjohnny said:
Just an FYI... I've seen tinfoil barbs over a foot long. You have way too much fish for a 40g tank IMO. As they continue to grow they will probably get more aggressive, not less.
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I only have 4 fish in the tank now, the two parrots, 1 tinfoil, and a pleco. I'm hoping my brother is going to give me the 75 gal tank he has....only 1 tiny fish in it and he is talking about getting rid of it.
 
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