payara tank and silver dollar questions

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ColeFishing

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 5, 2012
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Ohio
So i'm going to use my old 75 gallon tank for my red tail payara. I love him to much to risk him getting eaten by my catfish or beat up by my CK. So here are the stock plans.

1x Redtail payara
4x Silver dollars
1x ropefish
2x striped rapheal catfish
1x four line pim

I'm set on having the payara as the main fish but i want to add dithers and some bottom dwellers. i own everything on the list except for the silver dollars. I've done some internet research for SD's but i really only come up with stuff like "eats all your plants", "loves to eat plants" and "they can hold off aggressive fish". But since I've never kept silver dollars before i have some questions.

1) What species of silver dollars should i get?
2) is four enough, too much or too little?
3) Im going to use my 10 gallon to grow plants for the SD's to eat, what type of plants would be best to grow for them?
4) even if there big enough, will they be ok with the payara?

the tank has PFS and a 3d background, but i plan on aquascaping it with river rocks and some medium sized drift wood pieces.

Thanks for any info you can spare!
 
Unless your Tat is small the pictus is probably gonna be eaten.
 
The tat WILL eat the silver dollars if they can fit into his mouth. Dollars are a natural prey item in the wild for payaras. If they're too big to fit in his mouth, they'll likely nip at him. The pictus is at risk as well.

Bad combo IMO.
 
ColeFishing said:
pim is 5" and payara is 6.5" and i haven't had a problem yet and I know both fish have a similar max size. pim: 8"-10"
RTP: 10"-12". so do you know any good larger dithers? i'd like to keep to SA fish though. ropefish is the only exception.
Click to expand...

If the dollars are big enough to not get eaten and timid enough to not nip the payara, they'll work. Just be careful.
 
Chicxulub said:
If the dollars are big enough to not get eaten and timid enough to not nip the payara, they'll work. Just be careful.
Click to expand...

well my payara can be mean sometimes. usually if some one nips him he nips back. the only exception where two cichlids but he got nipped by a CK and the payara nipped it back and i haven't had any disputes between the two since. ill give it a try, but if the SD's are to nippy for the payara then ill but them into my 30 until i can sell them or return them. my lfs sells some that are like 5" and i might just pick up a few of those.


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ColeFishing said:
pim is 5" and payara is 6.5" and i haven't had a problem yet and I know both fish have a similar max size. pim: 8"-10"
RTP: 10"-12". so do you know any good larger dithers? i'd like to keep to SA fish though. ropefish is the only exception.
Click to expand...

The RTP has the potential to get larger than 10-12 inches. The max size for them is generally listed as 18 inches but they grow very slowly and it seems no one ever keeps them after they pass the 12 inch mark. Also, the pim is going to be in danger not because it's overall size but because of the body shape. Since it's somewhat long and slender it makes for an easy target for payara.
 
Push said:
The RTP has the potential to get larger than 10-12 inches. The max size for them is generally listed as 18 inches but they grow very slowly and it seems no one ever keeps them after they pass the 12 inch mark. Also, the pim is going to be in danger not because it's overall size but because of the body shape. Since it's somewhat long and slender it makes for an easy target for payara.
Click to expand...

yeah i know in the wild they can get to 18" but I've never seen any past 12-14. also I'm going to wing this. if the dollars get eaten then they were just feeders and if the payara gets nipped then it's good bye dollars. i have the dollars in the 75 now and they are 1.5"-2". im going to let them grow a bit before adding the others.


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