Astaroth

Greetings all - first post (and first fish tank)!

I just inhereted my first fish tank about a week ago and I've been doing some research on my new fish and their desired environment.

From what I've read, it seems that silver dollars do a lot better in groups of 3 or more than just solo. My tank size is only 30g, so I'm trying to decide if I'm better off with just 1 lonely, shy silver dollar in a roomy tank or 3 schooling silver dollars in a more crowded tank.

The set up I have:

30g tank:

1 4" silver dollar
3 rainbow sharks (2 4", 1 3")
1 2" sucker fish (I haven't IDed the species yet)


The previous owner had this set up for a couple of years so I think the fish sizes are probably stable (?). The rainbow sharks have lots of hiding spaces so they seem to get along ok (fish profile says they should be killing each other). The tank has lots of fake plants, which I think are probably too many - the silver dollar seemed to have a pretty angry encounter with one of the plastic shrubs this morning.

So what do ya'll think, does the current set-up leave room for a few more silver dollars so that they could form a school, or am I pretty much maxed out (other option I'm considering is 6-10 neon tetras)?


Thanks!

Sarcastic

Depending on the type of "suckerfish," (some plecos get large and aggressive, but if this fish is 2 years old, its probably full size) you have some room to spare - and Silver dollars are definitely happier in groups of 3 or more. I had a pair, and added two more, and their behaviour totally changed.

Some Silver Dollars can get huge, you should identify which sub-species you have before determining how many you can add. Why not post a picture and let's see how the lonely guy looks.

Astaroth

thanks for the advice.. i got him 3 little buddies.. they're schooling, but his behavior actually got worse. now even turning on the tank lights results in 5 minutes of them all spazzing out and bashing themselves all over the tank.. new guys are a little less shy though - sometimes the ditch the big guy and go happily swimming around the tank.

unfortunately, I don't have a camera for pics.. it lost the battle against the washing machine.