Red Hook Silver Dollar possibly sick?

F

fishfriends

Registered Member
Jul 30, 2007
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Hi everyone. I'm new and promise to introduce myself in the newbie section shortly.

I have a 65gallon freshwater tank with: 2 red hook silver dollars, 2 small red parrot fish, 2 blue guarmies (sp)?, 3 long fin rosy barbs, 1 huge black molly, 2 fish that I can not pronounce but they have spikes on their top fins and they suck up the rocks on the bottom of the tank and spit them out all the time, 2 glass catfish, 3 albino correys, and one 3 inch algae eater.

I added the red hooks a couple of weeks ago. One of the red hooks is not completely silver, he looks more dark grey and seems sometimes to get more silver and other times he is not. When I added him into the tank he didn't look good for about a day (parrots had not been added yet) he was swimming strangley and hanging out by the top of the tank. I cycled the tank and added some aquarium salt and by the next day he was fine. Its been a few weeks since I added the last fish and he seemed to be doing fine. About a week ago the two parrots killed two of my green barbs that I got with the hooks. I can't remember their exact name but the guy at the fish store said that the barbs would be more territorial then the parrots. Anyway, since those fish have died, the one hook has been acting a little strange. The other silver dollar and the parrots often chase him around the tank. Today I noticed that he isn't swimming upright all the time, more on his side. He is however eating. I added some more salt to the tank to see if it would help but its been a few hours and nothing has changed.

Should I put him in a temporary tank? Should I take the red parrots back? Also, any idea why he changes colors so frequently?

Thank you,

Fishfriends

Fish need friends too.
 
You don't think that I should worry at all about the sideway's swimming? Also, I thought that red hooks could deal with eachother. I see the other very silver one chasing the dark one around the tank. He looks like he is stressed out and breathing very heavy. Is this normal?
 
You say that you "cycled your tank". It sounds like it's something you did in a day or so. It takes much longer to cycle a tank then that. So first, are you sure your tank is cycled? How long has your tank been set up?

Have you tested for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate?

Silver Dollars are schooling fish. They do best in a group of at least four and six is preferable. When having just two Silver Dollars, one may pick and harass the other which would cause quite a bit of stress. Other than that, Silver Dollars will change colors often and mine usually swim slowly and kind of sideways at night when the light is off.
 
I'm sorry that I wasn't more specific. I'm new to a lot of these terms. What I meant to say was that I added some "cycle". The tank has been set up for about two months. Before that we had the tank set up for two years. We moved about two months ago and had to place the fish in a temporary tank in order to move it. We haven't lost any fish that were in the tank prior to moving it. Since then we added a few fish but not until after we had the tank set up for over a month.

I'm more concerned with the fish that I have in the tank and wether or not they are going to kill eachother. The only two fish that I've lost in the past year were the green barbs. I came home from work to find that someone in the tank had taken a few bites out of them and basically distroyed thier fins. I tried to save them by taking them out of the tank, but it was too late. Since then it seems like my darker red hook is taking the abuse and I'm not sure if I should remove some of the fish, add more or take some back to the pet store.

What I think you are saying is that it may help my red hook if I add a few more of them?:)
 
Ok, I must be a slow reader and typer. Thank you for the replies. I do not want to over stock the tank at all and was concerned about adding other fish. So, if I add two more you think it would be ok? I'll go back to the store where I got them and see if they have anymore. Can I add regular silver dollars if they don't have any of the redhooks?
 
I believe non-red hooks will school with red hooks. However, I have no experience with such, so we should let someone else confirm that!
 
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