# Silver Dollar Question



## merovius (Nov 10, 2003)

I have 3 Silver Dollars in my 75. I've seen pictures of them and mine have color and not just total silver. Do they develop the color as they grow? The red and black can be alot darker but the camera flash washes them out.


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

I'm not sure, but those look a lot like red belly piranhas or pacu to me. :?

-Ryan


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

Juvenile fish often have heavy spotting on them though adults don't and on the silver dollars I have seen they don't develop as much red, and when they do it is mostly on the gill plate and the anal fin (and only when in good health). Your fish don't have any red in those areas and have it in other places such as on the lateral line and along with the black markings they have on the caudal and dorsal fins it makes me think they are not the same species.

While it is possible that they are a geographic variant of normal silver dollars, the common name silver dollar is used to describe three different species of fish that all have the same general body pattern which your fish share though each species varies slightly. My guess would be they are a different species, a much prettier one at that.


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## merovius (Nov 10, 2003)

Thanks for the replies.... we bought them from Petco at least 3 years ago in a tank with the silver dollar label. The ones the store has now are total silver and the size of a quarter. Ours right now are just under 4 inches big... They share the tank with a few other fish...

This is "RED" the firemouth....









This is George the Green Severum...









There are also 5 giant danios, 1 chinese algae eater and 1 rainbow shark..


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## BlackShark11k (Feb 16, 2007)

RyanR said:


> I'm not sure, but those look a lot like red belly piranhas or pacu to me. :?
> 
> -Ryan


Not pacu or piranha. Just silver dollars :wink:

There's several species of silver dollars in the hobby, some have color some don't. Yours are just spotted silver dollars, as opposed to just plain old common silver dollars.


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

Pretty firemouth and severum!



artemis1 said:


> Not pacu or piranha. Just silver dollars :wink:


I stand corrected. :lol:

Those are really pretty. Spotted silvers.... how are they behavior-wise? Are they skittish at all? Best of all, they look like they won't fit in our chocolate cichlid's mouth when he gets bigger. :wink:

Thanks!
-Ryan


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## merovius (Nov 10, 2003)

They are active and always moving. I got them to distract the cichlids (never had them before) and they grew to be just as interesting as the Severum and Firemouth. When you feed them they do act sort of Piranha like. They fly about grabbing anything thats in the water. Never bother anyone else though. The camera doesn't do them justice. The attention makes them fade out some. Thanks for the info.


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## merovius (Nov 10, 2003)

Oops, forgot to say they are a little skittish. But the Severum is worse buy far.


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