rondaisak

We have 2 silver dollars in a 25 gal tank with one large sucker fish. We have had for (we are trying to remember) guessing 6 years. One is a little larger than the other but both are bigger than a silver dollar coin. About a month ago we noticed that the smaller of the two is leaning - left side down, right side up. The degree of leaning varries. It is eating and swims around fairly normally but with a lean. The lean is more prominate when it is at rest.

I have looked as closely as I can and do not see any problem as far a fin damage or any spots. They did have a fungal thing last summer but we treated the water and it cleared up.

Does anyone have any idea what might be the problem or if there is anything we can do to help.

Thank you very much and have a great day!

SereneReyn

this is going to sound really stupid... i'll readily admit that, but i've heard of fish leaning like that, due to insufficient light. i don't know exactly why, or anything, and i would think that if you've had him that long and it's only now developing that that probably isn't it (and probably isn't anyway)... but has algae grown over your top glass or anything? have you replaced the bulbs lately?

i'm certain that someone else has something more helpful to offer you. i'm sorry for sounding crazy. good luck!

rondaisak

Thank you for your comment. After I posted my question I noted that it was leaning in the other direction. To me this would limit the posible physical ailments but not sure.

People are certainly effected by lack of light. We have a small tank light that we do not leave on much as my husband thinks it stresses them out when the lights are on. They do avoid eating while being watched. So maybe they are shy.

With the shorter days there is certainly less indirect sunlight so maybe this is the case. We will leave the light on for a while and see if it helps. We will let you know if we see any difference.

Thanks again for your help and have a great day!

Ronda

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore. ::th

susitna-flower

Do you do weekly water changes? Your tank is at its maximum stocking limit, and you should be doing 25-50% changes every week. Actually if your "sucker fish" is a common pleco, it should not be in a 25 gallon tank, to trade it in for a Bristlenose pleco would free some space in your tank, lessening the bio load and making your tank healthier.

The profile here on fishlore for silver dollar fish states they do best in a school of 6, any thing and they exhibit that shy behavior you described. However since they are fully mature, I just don't know if it would help at this time to add to their "school"....

rondaisak

SereneReyn, We have kept the light on all weekend and they are both upright and seem to be doing great! Thank you for the advice.

susitna-flower, thank you too for your comments. We originally had more fish but these two have killed anything else we have put in, this includes other silver dollars as wel as suposidly capatable fish. They are very large now so we do not even try any more. The sucker fish is a pacasamus, not sure how to spell so I just said sucker, not sure if that makes a differnce. With just the 3 fish we thought we were good as far as the number of fish for the size of tank. We do not clean everyweek but will consider the partial change more often. Have recently learned that the tank water is very good for watering plants so maybe we will starting watering our plants with tank water and then filling with clean.

Thanks to both for your help, we appreciate your taking you time to help us out. Take care and happy fish - n.

COBettaCouple

Glad to hear the silver dollars are doing better. Your Pleco will need a larger tank soon. They grow up to 18" and produce heavy amounts of waste; they also experience growth stunting causing damage to internal organs in smaller tanks. A 55-75g tank is a recommended minimum for them.