help with silver dollar

msemanuel · 01-26-2007, 04:15 PM

I have 2 silver dollars in my 55 gal. tank with 2 bala sharks, cory cats, a rainbow shark, and a beta. Have tested the water, and everything looks good. But he has this spot on his side, otherwise looks good. could this be caused by one of the other fish? not sure if I should worry or not. So far it doesn't seem to affect him, still eating, swimming. Has anyone seen anything like this before? thanks in advance for any help.

BJP · 01-26-2007, 04:25 PM

Looks like a bite wound with the same shape as a silver dollars mouth to me.

jlogan2664 · 01-27-2007, 10:50 PM

It does appear to be a wound but it looks a bit big to have come from a silver dollar's small mouth. Maybe one of the sharks? Or if you have rocks in your tank, it may have run into one and scraped its side. Silver dollars are also schooling fish that are happiest in schools of 6 or more, however, they can get to be very large (over 10 inches) so your tank is probably not big enough to handle a school of them. Keep an eye on the wound and make sure it does not get infected or the other fish are picking at it. If they are or it does, you will have to remove him to a separate tank and medicate it to get rid of or prevent infection and wait until it heals before placing him back in your tank.

Tommy Gun · 01-28-2007, 01:01 AM

I guess that I could agree with both BJP and jlogan as far as what caused this wound. I dont think it would be very likely that your bala sharks did this, nor the raincow shark, however they are territorial at times and so if your silver dollars are spending a lot of time in the bottom of the tank, then it could have been the rainbow. By the size of it though, that seems unlikely again.

To be honest, this really looks to me like it is from a pleco who wanted to suck on the fish's slime coat a bit too much. But then again, you dont have one in the tank right now, right?

The only other thing that I can see here is that I am pretty sure that your pink and orange fish look a bit listless and not as active as one may like to see!!!!

Ok, bad joke, sorry.

msemanuel · 01-28-2007, 08:49 AM

I do have 1 very large pleco about 6 in. 3-4 years old and 2 otos very small. I haven't seen any aggression in the tank but that silver dollar does spend alot of time in the back of the tank by the heater.
the pink and orange fish may not move alot but they keep their colors.

jlogan2664 · 01-28-2007, 12:56 PM

Even if the silver dollar spends a lot of time near the heater, it's highly unlikely that the heater gets hot enough underwater or the fish came into contact with it long enough to have been burned. The wound does not look like a burn. If you have a pleco in the tank, I'd strongly suspect the pleco as certain plecos have been known to feed off the slime coat of larger fish at night while the fish are resting. Either way, the silver dollar needs to be put in a hospital tank so the wound can heal before it becomes infected or a source for the other fish to pick at possibly making it worse and even killing the fish.

Sniperelite8243 · 01-28-2007, 02:08 PM

i doubt its the heater, my pleco spends most of the day sucking on my 300 watt heater. i agree, it does look like the pleco has been feeding off his slime coat. add 2 or 3 algea wafers a day and see if it gets better. if it is the pleco he sholdnt suck on him any more if he is full.

msemanuel · 01-28-2007, 03:54 PM

that was my first thought that it was the pleco or oto, but I wasn't sure, I have never seen anything like this before. I will have to try the algae wafers. the pleco is so big he can't eat off of the rocks or plants. which means the glass is really clean, I never thought about him not getting enough to eat. thanks for your help.

Tommy Gun · 01-28-2007, 04:42 PM

I agree that this is almost certainly from your pleco. As they mature, a pleco will become less and less dependant on eating algae, and in fact, algae gets harder and harder to find in enough quantities to be sufficient. So, in replacement of that, a pleco will eat more detrius and uneaten food AND it will suck on the slime coat of slow moving fish, which your large silver dollar would most likely qualify as, especially at night.

I would try to suppliment the pleco's diet with some algae tablets (fed at night, in the dark) or some cucmber/zuchini. This will probrably reduce its hunger for your other fish. Most commonly, a pleco or algae eater will die becuase of starvation and no one really would think about it since there could still be come algae visible. A lot of times the pleco will only eat certain types of algae and so we cannot assume that it always has enough to eat.

msemanuel · 01-29-2007, 12:31 PM

Thanks for your help I am going to get some algae wafers this weekend, for now do you think shrimp pellets put in before I turn out the lights will help? I should have thought of supplementing his food sooner. but the silver dollar does look like it is getting better. I really appreciate all the help this forum gives, thank you all.