40 Gallon Stocking Question

[abrichy41]

Hi! My tank is freshly cycled and I’m adding my first qt’d fish to my display. Now that they’re headed out of QT, I’d like to start qting the next round of fish.
That being said, I need opinions on my complete list of fish I’d like to add.
Currently I have
x2 Clowns
x1 Yellowtail damsel

I’d like to eventually add
x3 more damsels
x3 cardinalfish
x1 baby bristletooth tang
x1 diamond goby
x1 wrasse
And potentially a royal gramma
Is this list possible in a 40G tank?

 

[UnderseaOddities]

No keep it lite at first(too many damsels may cause territorial aggression,ime I would keep what you got now yellows are friendlier then 3 lined or 4 lined or kupang or beau Gregory your clowns may go gang gang on him but if they pick a corner or overflow,hob or coral there should be enough territory


In the weeks to come I would recommend buying

4 turbo snails
6 bumblebee snail
12 blue leg dwarf hermits
For diatoms and micro

Then add macro algae and a sponge or 2

You get the diamond goby or a ywg good addition to any tank

Get a pistol shrimp buddy for your goby, the goby + prawn pair is one of the most satisfying symbiotic relationships get 2 if you're feeling froggy

Buy a kenya tree frag 4inch for 49.99

Buy a mushroom rock(6-18 head) or get a 10pk frag pack online for
80 to 300$

Maybe throw in a chocolate chip star or a harlequin and


Boom budget system under 300$

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Or you could get 4 neon cleaner gobies
A hector's goby
Royal gramma
2 cleaner shrimp

 

[Anchor]

Pass on more damsels.
No tangs unless you intend to rehouse them within a year. the bristooth family is the smallest and the comon ones get to 7+inches.
cardinals are a possible depends on which ones..
Diamond gobies get to 6 inches. If you use sand, I personally would consider a shrimp goby with a pistol shrimp.
Wrasse is dependant on which one.. 6 lines are good pest killers but tend to get fiesty as they age.. Fairy and flashers are active.and all need a cover.

You are basically making a large nano tank.. stick t smaller species of fish.


Royal gramma is a good choice.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Or engineers goby
Lawnmower bleny
1 Fireshrimp or 2 banded coral shrimp
6 cleaner clams or a flame scallop

 

[Anchor]

OH, research your choices before you buy.. Not advocating the site but there is good info on LiveAquaria.com

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Or take the yellow back if theirs is an aggression issues(clowns start east side west side beef) ask to trade in yellow damsel for 9(or facevalue)$ off a wrasse

 

[Anchor]

Or engineers goby
Lawnmower bleny
1 Fireshrimp or 2 banded coral shrimp
6 cleaner clams or a flame scallop

Whoa horsey.. its a new tank..

Pass on the coral banded shrimp for me..
Pass on all clams for now..

Tell us about your tank more.. Lights filters etc.. And is this your first tank? Salt tank..

 

[UnderseaOddities]

So many options but for a 40 you started out good I think from what you're telling us... cuc then clowns then macro algae then inverts like nems shrimps, stars, then softies then lps then sps then nps should be the curve I wish I started this way

 

[Anchor]

heheh. Engineers Goby will get to a foot long..

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Best advice I could give is research and seed the reef with macro instead of impulse buy fish and corals buy macro to seed your reef...I wish I did this then graduate to softys to lps to sps, the macro works as a food source, biological filtration and sanctuary for microfauna you should also look into the works of takashi amano and the idea of biogeochemical cycling by having the most surface area in the tank by having alot of rocks,macroalgae and a deep substrate for optimum nutrient uptake in gas exchange after we seed our tank and Its microbial rich with has a more active bio filter leaving more room for error and can be more forgiving at first

 

[hds4216]

I think your list has too many fish. I would drop the damsels, four damsels in a 40g is almost certainly a recipe for aggression/death. I would also drop the tang, it really belongs in a larger tang, even as a juvenile.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Whoa horsey.. its a new tank..

Pass on the coral banded shrimp for me..
Pass on all clams for now..

Tell us about your tank more.. Lights filters etc..

Youre right @Anchor More advanced!I'm not gonna assume the guys experience level I'm just throwing out a few ideas

 

[UnderseaOddities]

But can be done in 40g breeder I kept a somewhat similar setup sumpless skimmerless in a peninsula style setup with mostly softies and macros

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Flame scallops are taboo to alot of people but if you're gonna keep maximas or crocea flame scallops(9$ feed phyto)and cleaner clams are a good start(2$ a piece used as fresh food for eels and moorish idols) everyone has to start somewhere I kept them before the time of internet and used plain ro(10tds) in 2006 with no problems.. if you keep these guys it will teach you how to keep their bigger more finicky relatives

 

[Anchor]

I have also had similar experience.., My problem was putting a Golden Domino damsel in with a paired set of Occelaris clowns., the Damsel was almost 3 inches and the pair female was 2 and a half.. but the brute turned out to be the male clown.. at barely 2 inches he beat on that damsel. For the record., Clowns are sorta related to damsels. Damsels are pretty cheap but can be very aggressive, especially to each other..

 

[polyppal]

Hi! My tank is freshly cycled and I’m adding my first qt’d fish to my display. Now that they’re headed out of QT, I’d like to start qting the next round of fish.
That being said, I need opinions on my complete list of fish I’d like to add.
Currently I have
x2 Clowns
x1 Yellowtail damsel

I’d like to eventually add
x3 more damsels
x3 cardinalfish
x1 baby bristletooth tang
x1 diamond goby
x1 wrasse
And potentially a royal gramma
Is this list possible in a 40G tank?

Thats a lot of fish for a 40g... Personally I would only add about 2-3 more total, and thats if you have good filtration.

The bristletooth is too small for a 40 and they eat like pigs, poop like crazy, and grow very fast as juveniles so unless your rehoming it within several weeks and you have great filtration its prob not a good idea

A sixline or other small wrasse would be nice, and would hold its own against the Damsels and Clowns. Goby would be -ok- too. Cardinals are fantastic in small groups

More damsels might either a) get along as a school or -more likely- b) thunderdome eachother until there is one left standing.

It would be fine to finish your fishstock in the next QT, by the time quarantine is over the biofilter would likely be sufficient to support the other fish.

 

[Anchor]

Flame scallops are taboo to alot of people but if you're gonna keep maximas or crocea flame scallops(9$ feed phyto)and cleaner clams are a good start(2$ a piece used as fresh food for eels and moorish idols) everyone has to start somewhere I kept them before the time of internet and used plain ro(10tds) in 2006 with no problems.. if you keep these guys it will teach you how to keep their bigger more finicky relatives

I agree but until we know this guys experience level.. all our suggestions wont mean much.. as to photosynthetic animals.. we need to know his lighting a bit.

Filtration can be minimal and will help dictate what kinds of animals he can keep.. Water change schedule etc.

And I dont want to highjack this guys post any more than we have already..

 

[abrichy41]

I agree but until we know this guys experience level.. all our suggestions wont mean much.. as to photosynthetic animals.. we need to know his lighting a bit.

Filtration can be minimal and will help dictate what kinds of animals he can keep.. Water change schedule etc.

And I dont want to highjack this guys post any more than we have already..

Okay, so if you can’t tell I want that go big or go home.
Fish wise, I have something worked out for a bristletooth/kole tang with my LFS, as they get too big/aggressive we do a switcharoo.
I have a 40G breeder with the new FijiCube diy AIO kits filled with a bunch of marine pure biological filter gems, along with a fijicube nsk-70 nano skimmer. And the return pump is filtering at about 400GPH.
I have two red sea reefled50’s that are setup (not currently on, f the uglies) that have a or ranging between 90-300.
I plan on doing 20ish% water changes about twice a month, or until I get corals, then they’ll dictate how soon or often to replace nutrients.
This is my aquarium so far, with hopes to add rock wall to the back glass on both sides of the aio box to make a softy wall (Zoas on one side, Xenia and/or mushrooms on the other)

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Okay, so if you can’t tell I want that go big or go home.
Fish wise, I have something worked out for a bristletooth/kole tang with my LFS, as they get too big/aggressive we do a switcharoo.
I have a 40G breeder with the new FijiCube diy AIO kits filled with a bunch of marine pure biological filter gems, along with a fijicube nsk-70 nano skimmer. And the return pump is filtering at about 400GPH.
I have two red sea reefled50’s that are setup (not currently on, f the uglies) that have a or ranging between 90-300.
I plan on doing 20ish% water changes about twice a month, or until I get corals, then they’ll dictate how soon or often to replace nutrients.
This is my aquarium so far, with hopes to add rock wall to the back glass on both sides of the aio box to make a softy wall (Zoas on one side, Xenia and/or mushrooms on the other)

A tang is just too big for a 40 it's like animal cruelty my man, even though it was sold in a 40g or 29g if you bought off a janky petstore it needs like 50 min 75 and that a still a poor quality of life...lfs and chains are out to get your money they'd sell you a shark to put in a 30g if u had enough money... I wouldn't buy much into what they say... they're more than likely doing a 15 to 25 percent water change a day to keep up with bioload and add fresh.... some asian lfs not to be racist it was their technique first and we adopted in the us, is to run bare bottom and dose formalin in bare bottom display and copper in minute amount so the fish appear healthy until you take it out of theirsystem(which is shady you can't tell if a fish is Ill until you get him home.... for now I would suggest no tangs unless you buy a baby baby and upgrade him to a 55 75 or 120 in a month then to a 150 175 200 when hes full grown... my advice save the heartache and the quality of life for the tang not to be a tang police and maybe get a group of neon cleaner gobies a cleaner shrimp and focus on your clowns and yellow maybe throw in a Gramma or bicolor blenny and call it a day


Now if you have good filtration you could theoretically house the tang temporarily until you get something bigger