Spotted Silver Dollar

S

scott

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Mar 12, 2003
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I just got four silver dollars at PetSmart. One has spots. They didn't give me a different fish did they? I know its not a Pacu but could it be something else?

Oh, and I heard the salesman informing a customer to "cycle" her tank for a week by running her new penguin bio wheel filter and then she could add fish because the bio wheel held all of the bacteria. It "removed" ammonia, nitrite, and to my astonishment nitrate as well. At least I never have to do a water change again. But wait, there's more. The lady "knew all of that" (frustrated intonation by lady) but should she install a UGF.

Anyway, how bout them silver dollars?
 
Yeah, I put silicone ear plugs in every time I walk into the lfs. You learn to block it out in time. As far as the silver dollars go, it is perfectly okay that one has spots. I've never had one that didn't develop them. They will also develop a colored edge to their fins after a while. It's normal, and most of the silver dollars I have ever owned have displayed that sort of coloration after having them in my tank for a while, even if they started out with as much variance in color as a stainless steel refrigerator door... I think the spots are lovely myself....
 
Thanks PBQ. I have three all ready and they strangely enough resemble crumpled tinfoil more than stainless. They just don't have that all encompassing shine. Should I polish them? I hear SCJohnson Wax makes a nice silver polish. Anyway thanks, I was curious about the spots.
 
There are several different species of silver dollar out there. Red Hooks, Schomburgki (single black vertical bar), spotted, and plain. Sorry I can't give all of the scientific names, but I'm away from my sources and on a dialup connection, so Googling isn't an option, either. But you can find most of them in the Baensch atlases.

In addition to the spotted species (which has a shallower body shape and stays slightly smaller than most of the others), however, there is also a parasitic disease which creates much smaller black spots/bumps on the sides of infected fish. There is no treatment for this disease, but it doesn't hurt the fish at all. I have several Schomburgki that I have had for 6-7 years with this problem, and they have grown just as large and are otherwise as healthy as the ones that didn't get it.
 
A wealth of info as always Harry. I have them in a Q tank right now but I didn't notice the spots were raised. I will look though. It definately has a slightly different body shape though.
 
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