silver dollors and orandas

Question
I know i have strange tank mates but it seems to work for me I have 2 parot fish that are at least 18 yrs old, I have 2 Orandas that i have had for about 2 yrs, I have 4 cherry barbs and i just added two silver dollors a couple weeks ago. the silvers are nipping at the orandas tails , i didn't know silvers were fin nippers. I also have a rainbow shark i've had about 2 years and he is chaseing the silver dollors all the time so I may get rid of him.. and this is a 39 gal Hex tank. my main Question is are Silver dollors known to nip at fins.

Answer
Hi Sandra,
I have never heard of Silver Dollars being fin nippers. They are usually frightened easily and therefore must be kept in groups since they like to school with several. It could be possible that they are eating the slime coat on the Orandas. I have seen this happen with other goldfish. For some unknown reason some fish will nip and attempt to eat the slime on goldfish. I had this happen to my goldfish when I temporarily moved a small shy catfish into their tank. He suddenly became very brave and started to follow the goldfish around and try to nip at the fins and their sides. I quickly removed him and now I have nothing but just goldfish in that tank. You can never tell exactly what some fish will do. It might be better to move the Orandas into their own tank. It would really be a shame to have their fins torn up by the Silver Dollars. If you could move the Orandas into their own tank it would save you alot of frustration and possibly avoid that chance of them getting so stressed, and with the fin nipping there could always be the chance of an infection as a result.
It appears that you have done quite an excellent job with your fish to have parrot fish that old. That is amazing! I hope my parrot fish lives that long--they are so cute. Anyway, just be careful about the Orandas and don't allow them to continue to get their fins nipped. You can never be really sure how other fish are going to act until you get them in your tank. I found that to be true so many times even though some are supposed to be so compatable they aren't always. Best of luck!
Hope this has helped,
Karen