# advice wanted for silver dollar who has lost an eye



## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

HI all my OH has a tank with 4 danios, 1 angels fish, 2 goby's a plec and 3 silver dollars, on saturday we thought one of the dollars was dead he was missing an eye a side fin has been almost eaten away and most of his tail fin has gone to. 

Just wanted some advice really, i didnt think he would survive all this but apparently he is a fighter. we have taken him out and put him in another smaller tank on his own (he looks lonely) 

what are the chances of his eye healing and him living a normalish life? also how long will it take for his fins to grow back (assuming they do) 

will he have to stay seperated or can he go back once he's healed? (im hoping hes ok) 

this morning he was still alive in his tank and he has been eating. 

the dollars have been in the tank for about 2 months but they were the newest fish in. the other 2 are fine been keeping a close eye on them. 

sorry for the essay. hope someone can help.


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## kell_boy (May 30, 2010)

Is the other tank fully cycled? 

I would also say 3 silver dollars is a bit to few, these guys feel secure and groups and will fight less if kept ideally in groups of 5 or 6


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

by the other tank i assume you mean the one he is in now? no its not just a spare tank as we couldnt keep him in there. we weren't told this hence only having 3, they seemed to be fine as a 3some, the other 2 now stay close to the danios and angelfish.


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

personally i wouldnt house the dollars with the angels, they are so strong and fast when they hit like 6-7" long, i had 8 in my 6ft tank and they smashed my heater and thermometer, and would occassionally knock themselves out cold if they were spooked during a water change :gasp:

anyway, onto the ill guy, i wouldnt separate if at all possible, it could stress him more than staying in his normal tank. the water needs to be kept as clean as possible, the cleaner the water, the faster he will heal. plus if hes in an uncycled tank the ammonia that will build due to having no bacteria in there will do more harm aswell.


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

thank you, i dont think it was the angel i think it was a goby. i couldnt leave him in there poor thing as i dont know for certain which fish it was.

so would you recommend putting him back in?

there is only one angelfish his 2 friends died, and he seems happy on his own.


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## kell_boy (May 30, 2010)

lauralucy said:


> thank you, i dont think it was the angel i think it was a goby. i couldnt leave him in there poor thing as i dont know for certain which fish it was.
> 
> so would you recommend putting him back in?
> 
> there is only one angelfish his 2 friends died, and he seems happy on his own.


yes pout him back in immediatly, ias goldie said from what you have said the other tank isnt cycled, when ammonia and nitrites start building up in the spare tank water, it will kill the fish faster and it wont heal, why have the other 2 died.

If he can heal he will live a perfectly normal life with one eye.


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

ok will he not get picked on again? the angelfish that died were smaller than the one thats left no idea how or why they died but it was a good few months ago and they died about a month apart to. dollar is still alive this morning and seemingly hapy (not that i know how to tell anyway) :lol2:


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

what size tank are these fish in? do you know your water test results for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? how long have they all been in together?


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

hi they are in a 120 litre tank, all levels are normal. they have all been togethe about 3 months.


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## BornSlippy (Jan 11, 2010)

lauralucy said:


> hi they are in a 120 litre tank, all levels are normal. they have all been togethe about 3 months.


What do you mean by normal can you post your water test results? It sounds more like bad water quality than other fish attacking it especially if the angels died in a similar way, it may also be an injury due to the fish hitting off decor. Your tank will also be overstocked when your fish are fully grown, silver dollars need lots of free swimming space and will spook easily causing more injuries.


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

i can post them when i get home. how could it lose an eye thorugh bad water? it looks more like it has been eaten.


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## BornSlippy (Jan 11, 2010)

lauralucy said:


> i can post them when i get home. how could it lose an eye thorugh bad water? it looks more like it has been eaten.


High levels of ammonia/nitrite will basically dissolve fins/eyes etc.

If you could post your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/ph that would be a good start.


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

ok that makes sense but why only one eye of one fish? strange.

will do


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## CPT BJ (Oct 30, 2010)

How big is the silver dollar? The eye could have been picked out by the angel and what species are the gobys?


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## lionfish (Jul 15, 2009)

Do you know what species the Gobies are ? Gobies are in general a brackish water fish ( although there are exceptions like the Australian Desert Goby ) . If they are one of the brackish species they will require the addition of salt - your angel especially will hate this , so setting up a seperate brackish tank may be the way forward or return the Gobies to the shop you bought them from .


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

hi i think they are knight goby's we were sold them as tropical fish about 7 months ago and they have adapted to the water with no salt in. 

the silver dollar is about the size of a 50p

i know people say angels are aggresive but ours doesnt seem to be inquistive yes but doesnt seem to bully anything.


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

wow, thats a very small tank for the fish you have. personally i wouldnt have either the angel or the silver dollars in that tank. a single angel may be ok as an adult but it depends on the height of the tank as they grow very tall.

the silver dollars will need at the very least a 5ft tank, when adults they will easily be 6" both in height and in depth, they are very very fast, extremely skittish, and are very stong. they need room to flit around the tank, and no delicate tank mates who can come to harm through their boistrous swimming. angels arent good tankmates in my opinion. i had my dollars in a 680L tank, they did ok in there with no other tankmates apart from bottom feeders, but when i swapped them out into my 450L when i had a tank change round, they really went downhill, beat themselves up on decor and tank sides, and would spook so easily it was cruel, so i rehomed them to someone with a tank nearly 6ft long.

i wouldnt say the eye was due to water conditions, but if its fins had broken down due to poor water quality the other fish would have started to pick at it as they all do with sick tankmates. i cant imagine in a tank that small that the water parameters are ok, or if they are for now, they soon wont be when everything begins to grow.

what are your water change schedules? how much and how often is a partial water change done?


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## BornSlippy (Jan 11, 2010)

lauralucy said:


> hi i think they are knight goby's we were sold them as tropical fish about 7 months ago and they have adapted to the water with no salt in.
> 
> the silver dollar is about the size of a 50p
> 
> i know people say angels are aggresive but ours doesnt seem to be inquistive yes but doesnt seem to bully anything.


Knight gobies are a true brackish goby and are unsuitable for a freshwater tank in which they will not live their full lifespan. They are also very peaceful which makes me think your fish may be what are often called "marbled or jade sleeper gobies" which are much more suited to freshwater tanks and can be predatory. I think they are actually a type of gudgeon.


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## kell_boy (May 30, 2010)

BornSlippy said:


> Knight gobies are a true brackish goby and are unsuitable for a freshwater tank in which they will not live their full lifespan. They are also very peaceful which makes me think your fish may be what are often called "marbled or jade sleeper gobies" which are much more suited to freshwater tanks and can be predatory. I think they are actually a type of gudgeon.


Agreed, I kept these with my green spotted puffers, When it transferred to marine as an adult puffer, the knight gobies lived very well at these conditions, meaning, they can tolerate very high salt levels, I would say an adult will thrive around the 1.0015 mark. Although mine later in life where kept at 1.022


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

hi sorry ran out of time last night to test the water levels.

this is the type of goby in the tank









if this helps and its not a peaceful fish it ate the tetras!


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## kell_boy (May 30, 2010)

Yep thats a knight goby, full of character i loved keeping mine, and yes they prey on small fish they have large mouths and will eat decent meaty foods, you might find they wont take flake, but they will take good frozen foods like bloodworm etc and river shrimp they love them, mine actually bullied my puffer when food came!


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## lauralucy (Aug 18, 2010)

they also like algae tablets, strange fish. they do have big mouths.


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## BornSlippy (Jan 11, 2010)

lauralucy said:


> hi sorry ran out of time last night to test the water levels.
> 
> this is the type of goby in the tank
> image
> ...


You are confusing peaceful with the ability to eat a much smaller fish. I wouldnt think a knight goby would attack your silver dollar but I would fully expect it to eat very small fish such as a neon.


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