Just seeing how many other people feel their silver dollars are a little slow in the pea-brain. To be fair, I have 2 schools of silvers. One school of 6 red hooks that are very large and a school of 7 spotted silvers that are about 1/4 of the size. The red hooks are the main culprits and routinely (1x per day mostly) dart wildly around the tank running into the glass tops and walls before ending up in the middle. I would understand if it were from aggression as they are occasionally scared by my larger cichlids- but Im watching the tank now. They were all sitting in the flow of a power head together schooling peacefully, one bumped into the other- that one took of like a bat out of hell cashing into the tank wall which scared the others so one jumped and hit the glass tops and the other got stuck in a corner bouncing from wall to wall????
Silver dollars: The dumbest fish?
- Thread starter AquaticAustin
- Start date
They are just really skiddish. Probably having you sitting outside the tank makes them a bit more nervous.
Since they are near the bottom of the food chain, nature programmed them to be skittish and wary(rather than hiders). May just be the prime reason they are still in existence today
Agreed. I also believe they need a much larger tank than many people give them due to their sudden outbursts lol. And just guessing here, but it's probably a lifesaving behavior in the wild being a schooling prey fish. Get scared.... Run lol
Oh dont get me wrong I understand them running from other fish, fighting, etc I just think they dont have lot going on up there when one of your neighbor silvers in your school slightly hits your body you do a mad dash into the roof lol. The smaller spotted ones dont really display this behavior despite being the smallest fish in the tank.
I agree with the behaviour helping their survival in the wild, unfortunately in the tanks we provide for them; this can create stressful viewing, when they do decide to bounce off a million things then end up gasping for breath underneath a log or something.
Silver dollars are beautiful, beautiful fish; but their skittishness is too much for me, imo they really do need a long tank in the region of 6 foot + to allow for the madness, in anything smaller its just chaos
but yes they are also thick, mine used to eat oscar poo for fun; then just generally be dopey
Silver dollars are beautiful, beautiful fish; but their skittishness is too much for me, imo they really do need a long tank in the region of 6 foot + to allow for the madness, in anything smaller its just chaos
but yes they are also thick, mine used to eat oscar poo for fun; then just generally be dopey
This is basically how schooling behavior works: contact. Since fish aren't verbal, how do you think schools of fish all turn and dart at the same, seemingly to read each others thoughts?
Slow poke!
........and I only type with my middle and index fingers lol