Introducing Angel Fish/Boring Silver Dollars

paul83

I have a fairly new tank. Just wondering how long I should wait to put Angels in as I've read they aren't the best to put in a new tank. Also thinking of offloading my Silver Dollars as they are very boring, besides feeding time and wasting tank space. Does anyone have any positive experiences with Silver Dollars?

kitten_penang

put and aro in there and it will be less boring but you'll need a bigger tank though

Inga

won't Angel fish get along with the Silver Dollars? Wouldn't it just be a nice balance with both species?

LisaC144

How many Silver Dollars do you have? I had 5 for a while and found the very entertaining. Their schooling behavior was impressive, IMO. I did end up giving them to the fish store because I wanted to plant my tank and they would have mowed all my new plants down.

Byron

Paul83, hello and welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.

You didn't mention tank size, so may I ask, how large is the tank? Angels should be in a group (4-5 or more) except for a mated pair, which means a 4-foot tank minimum. And they like plants to feel secure--their vertical stripes indicate this need, so they blend in with their surroundings.

And plants brings us to silver dollars, which as Lisa mentioned will eat plants, so not a good tankmate with angels (to answer a subsequent post). Interestingly, these two fish are very similar in requirements, behaviours, spawning on leaves (except SD show no parental care as angels do), requiring a quiet tank with minimal water flow, plants (even though SD will eat the soft leaved ones) and hiding spots. Both are somewhat shy retiring fish. But as their size is comparable, they are best in separate tanks.

You are correct, angels are not good in new tanks. Once the tank has cycled, and then become somewhat established (matured), say a few weeks after cycling is achieved, consider the angels. Get them all at once, they do much better on the aggressiveness if they are together from the first and roughly the same size. They will establish a social structure with a dominant fish, but once this occurs any newcomers to the tank may well be hounded to death.

Byron.

paul83

I do indeed have a 4 foot tank but I have pretty much reached capacity now so if I do introduce Angels, the Dollars will have to find a new home.