General nature: A peaceful schooling fish, but care should be taken when adding this fish to a small community aquarium, it grows to a maximum length of 14 cm (5.5", so it needs to be given the proper amount of room as it grows. This is not one of your small tetras, it is closely related to both the pacu and the piranha and will get rather large for the standard community aquarium
Difficulty to maintain: Relatively easy to maintain as long as the water conditions are right. Mylossoma aureum is a peaceful schooling fish, and as such requires a few of its own species to swim with to be comfortable. A school should be at least 5 - 7 individuals
Aquarium size: Use a larger tank, at least 30 gallons or preferable more for fully grown Silver Dollars
Preferred pH: These fish prefer soft acid water, the pH should be below 7.0 and preferable closer to 6.0
Preferred hardness: Soft water is important, especially if the fish are going to spawn - less that 15 dGH is recommended.
Preferred temperature: Prefer a temperature range between 24oC - 28oC (76oF - 82oF)
Spawning style: Chin-layer
Spawning difficulty: Moderately difficult, require a tank that has water in the upper part of the temperature preferences which is soft and acid. Also they prefer a breeding tank with lower lighting
Parental behaviour: none
Preferred food: Vegetarian, herbivore. They will eat plants kept in the tank as well. They will also go after insects and worms, even small fish that they can fit in their mouth.
Comments:These fish are sometimes termed semi-aggressive, this usually occurs when they are kept in with smaller fish that they can fit in their mouth. They are generally peaceful and swim near the top of the tank most of the time. They can take care of themselves and can be added to a wide diversity of aquarium systems. They fit well in relatively large passive aquariums where the fish are approximately the same size to aquariums with much more aggressive fish such as oscars and large catfish, when they are fully grown.
