Animal-World > Freshwater Fish > Characins > Silver Dollar Fish

Silver DollarFamily: Serrasalmidae

Family: Characidae

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Metynnis argenteusPhoto © Animal-World: Courtesy David Brough

     The Silver Dollar looks just as its name implies, round and 'covered with silver'!

     These are named "Silver Dollar" because their body shape is almost round and is very compressed laterally. Generally they are a silver color with slight green and blue tints in the right light. There are also hints of red, especially the anal fin of the male which is edged in red. In some habitats they will have small dots on their sides.

     The peaceful Silver Dollar is a choice fish for many aquarists who want a community aquarium with good sized inhabitants. The Silver Dollar, though very peaceful, gets rather large and needs a good sized aquarium. They are a lively fish and like to hang out in schools, so get several if you can!

     These fish are happiest in a large shallow aquarium with peat filtered water, dark gravel, and lots of plants and hiding places. The Silver Dollar does like to eat plants! So get plants that are not so tasty like java fern and hornwort, or you can use plastic plants.

For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Freshwater Aquarium

Distribution:      The Silver Dollar was described by Ahl in 1923. They are found in South Americain in Guyana, Orinoco, western Amazon, and the Paraguay Basin.

Status:      The species is not listed on the IUCN Red List.

Description:      The Silver Dollar is a very deep bodied fish with a round almost disk like shape that is very compressed laterally. They are a silver color with slight green and blue tints in the right light. There are also hints of red, especially the anal fin of the male which is edged in red. In some habitats they will have small dots on their sides.

Size - Weight:      These fish get up to 6 inches (15 cm).

Care and feeding:      Since they are herbivorous the Silver Dollar will generally eat mainly vegetable foodstuffs including a variety of plants, lettuce, cress, chickweed, and large vegetable flake. A good spirulina formula would be beneficial.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:      These fish will swim all over but mainly in the middle of the aquarium.

Acceptable Water Conditions:      Hardness: to 15 ° dGH
     Ph: 5.5-7.5
     Temp: 74-82 ° F (24-28 ° C)

Social Behaviors:      The Silver Dollar is a good peaceful fish recommended for all community aquariums.

Sexual Differences:      The male has a longer anal fin which has a red tinge on the front of it.

Breeding/Reproduction:      Suggested water conditions: 79-82 ° F (26-28 ° C); pH 6.0-7.0; below 10 ° dGH.
     The Silver Dollars are easy to spawn, they will do so in a school. Place clumps of plants on the surface so they will spawn in between them. The female will lay up to 2000 eggs which will fall to the bottom and hatch after 3 days.

Buy Silver Dollar From LiveAquaria.com

The parents will not eat the eggs so there is no need to remove them. The fry will attach themselves to a surface and eat small plankton. See the general description of how to breed Characins in Breeding Freshwater Fish.

Availability:      The Silver Dollar is readily available and is reasonably priced.

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Latest Comments
While raising my water temp to around 85degrees (treating Ich), I noticed some breeding behavior was triggered and my 2 males started to suddenly fight. Always schooling together in the past, the temps urged them to become territorial apparently! O.o Mike 2010-02-03
I have one silver dollar. It's 1 in long, male, and lives peacefully in my 10 gallon tank with a 1 in gold pearl angelfish female, and a yellow glo fish male. Today I'm going to get as female for Ron my silver dollar, and well, hope for babies. Tyler 2009-11-17
I have had a silver dollar for a 8 years, is true. I bought them at Walmart. I don't know how old it was at that time, but they are older than two of my children. 8 years and they look so healthy and I love them. They are about 5 inches long. Raul Rosales 2009-02-17
Hello! my name is Ethan and I am from Long Island, NY. I have a 20 gallon tank that is half full with 2, 3 inch Silver dollar fish. They get along great with my Gold barb, Zig zag eel, Dwarf African clawed frog, my Albino cherry barb (which passed away yesterday), Black neon tetra, Black line rasbora , Cory doras cat, Black skirt tetra, Violet crowned tailed betta, Emperor tetra, Upside down catfish, Head and tail light tetra, and Pretty tetra. My tank is half full because I used to have fire belly newts which need land so I have to have some land for them. [but now the newts are deceased, so I don't really need land anymore.] The silver dollars are very peaceful fish, and get along great in my community tank. The only thing bad about them, is they are a little skittish. They are only babies now, and I can't wait until they are adults. They are both males. I found out how to tell the difference on other web sites. The males have a slight red botttom fin. from, the big "E"! Ethan 2009-01-15
I have a silver dollar fish that is 12in. long and have it in a 55 gal. tank with oscars. Did not know they grew that big, so now what to do with the silver dollar. kerry burks 2008-12-30
Some of the coolest comments:
I have 9 Silver Dollars in a 30 gal tank. I Love them because they out live all other fish you have. I think I have had them for about 5 years or so and they are about 4.5" long right now. Over the past five years they have had their share of viruses and sicknesses due to water quality as well as introducing "dirty" fish into the tank that may have had Ick and other problems. It seems like I always have them on a medicinal regiment of Metafix, stressZyme, stressCoat and every now and then Erithromiacin anti-biotic powder form (also used in humans). Sicknesses: Here are my suggestions...Erithromiacin is good when your silver dollars have cloud eye and even tail and fin rot and redness in odd areas. It does not damage your water although you cant use a filter with it (I still keep my Ammo Chips in though). The down side is all the water changes you will have to do. Its annoying if you have a big tank, but why do you have a big tank if you can't stand up keep. My thoughts are to transfer some water from the regular tank and add treated water (not straight from the tap) into a smaller tank and transfer your silver dollars into the smaller tank to treat them in a sort of quarantine (just as long as you DO NOT have a parasite, if you do leave the fish where they are because you need to kill the parasite in the normal tank). If you have Ick I suggest Aquari-sol. It is a liquid solution that is better for fish with sensitive skin and it doesn't change your water green, make sure your doses are the right measurement, you do not want to poison your fish. IMPORTANT: I put in some aquarium salt and raise the temp to about 79-80'F when treating fish with medicine. It is always good to have some salt in your tank. Just remember the only way to get rid of salt in your water is to do water changes so do not over salt your tank. Place some (depending the size of your tank) in after every 3-5 water changes. Plants: DO NOT BUY PLANTS. The silver dollars will eat all of them no matter how much you feed them. Even plants suggested by this web page will not work with your silver dollars. Obviously if you have baby silver dollars they can not eat your plants as quick but they still will. IMPORTANT: The lack of plants will mean that there is less Oxygen in the tank. I put in a long Air Stone and the silver dollars love to swim through it. Its fun watching them get used to it at first they are cautious then the pack leader will test his or her might and try to get through them. Eventually they all go through the bubbles. Im sure they like the way it tickles. Food: Romain lettuces is a must. Highly nutritious for you and your fish. It also makes your mind up when you're thinking about testing a new plant in the tank. Just put a piece of lettuce in the tank and a few hours later you will know not to get plants. They love Shrimp pellets. They nearly choke on them because they shove the whole thing in their mouth and suck on them like cigars. You will NOT need to dump a considerable amount in order to get one into each ones mouth. I have 9 and usually dump 15. It's bad but I do not do it regularly. You can also just throw a few in while the lettuce is in as a treat only to those who grab them first. I use flakes but don't like to do so. Too many flakes gets you PLANARIA (flat worms). I have Planaria and it is impossible to get rid of them. Important: They will eat/pick at small fish like tetras (when the silver dollars are larger). Only because they think that they are fish flakes. I also had a three inch butterfly fish that floats on the top of the tank. It also sleeps on the top and at night the silver dollars would swim up and bite it thinking it is food. It then died and they are all over it... All I found was a fin floating. Useful information: Too many decorations will not be good for your fish. They may like places to hide but if you place driftwood in your tank they are likely to run into it and hurt themselves. Sometimes this will lead you to believe that your fish are sick but it may just be that they ran into something. I have not tried this but have been thinking about it...I believe if you paint or tape an aquarium scene (the paper on the outside that has pictures of plants and whatnot) they will be less likely to crash into the glass. The glass fools them sometimes. They are not as smart as us and something to tell them stop may be useful. Tank Size: Bigger is better, they love to swim or just hang out but when they get bigger they start to get black stripes on their side. That means they're stressed and a bigger tank is needed. At this point you will have to battle sicknesses regularly because they are more susceptible to sickness when stressed out. I have 9 in a 30 gal but they deserve to be put in a 55 gal now. I also do not have any other fish in my tank. I hope the information I have left is useful. This information has been learned the hard way through my experience with the fish. They are a joy to have and if they get any bigger I'm going to have to stop myself from getting my fishing pole. Charles Damanis 2010-01-20
I just bought a silver dollar 2 weeks ago. It didn't like being alone, remaining still in one corner and doesn't even notice the food that I aim at it. I was worried so I bought another one the next day, just a bit smaller and problem solved. They mostly stay together, always arguing and fighting but never to the point that either of them or any other fish gets hurt. They are living in a 50 gallon tank with two Raphaels, one featherfin catfish and three angelfish. They learned to eat from the angels that always go to the front glass during feeding time. After a week they imitated the angels and learned to eat from the top of the tank and became a little bit less skittish. I just love them so much and hope they grow bigger in a short time. Calvin 2008-09-12

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