Male or female silver dollar?

[FJB]

Very nice photos and very nice fish!.... and nice tank too.
First picture - 2 female Myloplus rubripinnis ("real" red-hooks), and one male Metynnis cf altidorsalis (same specimen as your earlier picture?)
2nd pic - 3 female of same species (red hooks)
3rd picture - 1 female of same.

Again, they look very healthy and your aquarium in very nice maintenance condition.
In addition - I notice you have very nice plants (amazon sword and Val?) and they also seem very healthy. Not many people keep SD's in planted tanks (my own tank is planted) and some people feel it is not possible.
Your tank show that it is possible. I have posted pictures of my tank before, again showing that it is possible.

 

[Shane templar]

Ha funny you should say that!! I’ve got oscars in there and they done no damage to any of the plants had loads of val growing from only 4 plants 5 amazon swords tonnes of salvini? (Floating plants) added the 7 “silver dollars“ 3 weeks ago and they’ve destroyed pretty much everything!!! ? bought 4 big amazon swords last week put them in plant pots thinking they’ll be ok and nope they’ve munched through them to!!!! And amazon frog it too!!! I the one thing I did buy that I didn’t mind them eating was the elodea and they haven’t touched that ??‍

 

[FJB]

I did notice afterwards that the Amazon swords have been munched on quite a bit. I had assumed the fish had been there longer, but I understand better now. Therefore, it is possible they will eat everything and you will not have a planted tank anymore.
In my case, some of the plants must not be palatable to them, the rest, they munch on some, but the plants grow faster, and over a 2.5 year span have become very dense. I have to get rid of some of the excess plants in there!
Again, very nice fish, even if they eat the plants.

 

[Shane templar]

See the new species of floating amazon sword I got!!! ?

 

[Shane templar]

I only got them on the advice of people on here because of Oscar aggression!!! But they are really nice interesting fish!! They eat anything tbf even dried calci worms garden worms!!! Thought they only ate plants and vegetables

 

[FJB]

They certainly are omnivorous, including invertebrates (worms, crustaceans, insects), and plant stuff (leaves, seeds, fruit, algae). There is quite a bit of variation among the various species and genera on the the proportions of animal and plant material they take, and of course, their ecology is not well known. The few species kept in aquaria are quite adaptable and will eat nearly anything thrown at them. The challenge is to provide a diet that includes everything needed for longterm health. And with these fish, longterm means several decades.

I believe one may have better success accomplishing that they don't eat the plants completely in the longterm (aka, having them in planted tank) if ones first introduces plants that are not very palatable to them, such as java fern, Cryptocoryne spp. (wendtii, ulsteriana), and depending on success, slowly graduate into others including (Anubias, Bolbitis, Crinum, Bucephalandra), and potentially others. At the same time, from the very beginning, it is critical to provide lots of veggies for them to eat, and to feed them a varied diet: I maintain frogbit or duckweed (floating plants) in the tank and replace them regularly; I also hang seaweed (nori) every morning and sometimes lettuce. The latter they used to like, but not as much don't like lately. And then, there is the long list of pellets and flakes they will eat greedily.
Amazon swords leaves are very tender and SD's seem to perceive them as salad. Thus, it is less likely to have success with those until much later in the training process. I have not tried again, after failing with them a while ago. That's why I got exited when I thought your dollars were behaving properly with them for some time now. I don't know about the Vals...

I don't really know much about how to keep them happy and ideally, to have plants as well. I am learning each day as I go, and apparently it is working to some extent. I put a picture for reference.

Good luck!