Sauron silver dollar

Care at a glance

Overview

The Sauron silver dollar is a round, silver schooling fish for the middle of a large, fast-flowing tank. It needs a little experience and plenty of room.

Caring for the Sauron silver dollar

Keep Sauron silver dollars in a group of at least five, which keeps them settled and confident. They need a large tank of at least 159 gal (600 L), with plenty of room to move as a group. A Xingu-style layout suits them, with smooth rounded stones, sand, open channels of moving water and bright but not harsh light.

They like warm, fast, well-oxygenated water, so drive good flow through the tank. Keep it hot, at 79 to 86°F (26 to 30°C), with a soft, slightly acidic to neutral pH of 5.5 to 7.0.

Their diet is mostly vegetable, so offer blanched vegetables, spirulina and pellets, rounded out with occasional frozen foods. They graze plants, and soft or delicate ones will not last. Stick to hardy species, or lean on hardscape and decor instead.

Sauron silver dollars are mostly peaceful with other fish, but they reach a good size. House them with calm, similarly sized tank mates. They have not been bred in the aquarium, so stock comes from the wild.

Good to know

The Sauron silver dollar is a plant-eating pacu in the family Serrasalmidae. It was described from populations once folded into Myloplus schomburgkii. Its tall, coin-shaped body is crossed by a single vertical black bar that tapers at both ends. Like its relatives, it has flat, almost human-looking teeth suited to chewing vegetation rather than the shearing teeth of a piranha.

In the wild

The Sauron silver dollar lives only in the Rio Xingu basin of Brazil. The Xingu is a warm, clear-water river known for fast, oxygen-rich current running over rock and sand.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Blue hook silver dollar

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• 

  Redhook

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• 

  Disk tetra

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• 

  Sailfin red hook

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• 

  Red-bellied piranha

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• 

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