Too many?

[clpotter72]

How many inhabitants should I have for a 40 gallon saltwater rank? I currently have:

1 engineer goby
1 tiger goby
3 damsels
2 clowns
1 yellow tang
1 cleaner shrimp
1 Sally crab
1 turbo snail

I have a skimmer and a canister with two water jets.

I would like to add more corals to color the tank up. Any suggestions? Already have some mushrooms.

Struggle to keep snails alive as well as emerald crabs. Not much luck with those.

Have led lights.

Thanks for input.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The tang and the damsels need a much larger tank. The rest would be fine if you have a sump for more water volume. Otherwise you are going to have many problems and sooner than later. The clowns and gobies would be fine, but that engineer goby will get pretty big and more than likely destroy your aquascape.

Your water parameters would be helpful, as far as the snails and emerald go they are typically very easy to keep, as long as they have food or there isn't something in the water killing them. Typically copper is a big killer of them. Also the emerald crabs become fish killers when they get big.

 

[Sapelo]

+1 your tang needs a bigger tank.
Over time, your 3 damsels are likely to become 1, they don't play nicely together and especially in a tank of your size

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

As mentioned, the tang has to go. Minimum tank size for a yellow tang is 75g. Also, the engineer goby will get up to a foot in length and will make a huge mess in your tank.

 

[KingTriton1]

Way to small for a tang

 

[aznflyfisherman]

The tang will crap all over your tank..will create large bio loads as well...

 

[MondoBongo]

Struggle to keep snails alive as well as emerald crabs. Not much luck with those

struggling to keep snails alive is not a good indicator. they can be a very good bellwether for water quality issues, as they tend to be much more sensitive than fish, or even many other inverts. unless something is eating them, i would start looking in to why you are having difficulty keeping them alive.

as numerous others have mentioned previously in this thread, ditch the yellow tang. even in a 75 gallon tank, they're not going to good citizens. the difference i have seen in mine moving from a 75 to a 160 has been night and day. he's like a completely different fish. much more relaxed, and far less aggressive to other fish. i wouldn't want to think what he would be like in a 40 gallon.

similar with the damsels. they don't do well in groups in small tanks, and over time will likely kill each other off. clown fish are in their group, so they may also end up with aggression between them.

 

[Reef Frog]

The Sally Lightfoot crab is very likely killing the snails. And it is likely quite able to eat any sleeping fish under 5" if it's big enough. They are cool. Spooky fast. But not reef compatible as they say. It's like putting Jack the Ripper in a girls' school.

As for your coral question. Zoanthids are a great choice to add some color to the tank without having to sweat too much over parameters and such.