Aquarium help

The crabs will eventually eat all of your fish

You could always throw some full size shrimp tails in there. They'll eat that. But it'll dirty up your tank and start to smell.

Your tank is overstocked.

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I have 2 red tailed sharks and 2 small sun perch and 2 crabs. Also 2 angel fish

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way too many fish for a 40 gallon aquarium. Well really its the makeup of the fish.

First off, remove the sun fish. They will eat smaller fish and need a 75 gallon if you have 2 of them. Theyre too aggressive for the others.

What kind of crabs are these? I would consider removing them depending on how big they will get.

Remove the sharks

Angel fish are good in a 40 gallon.

I would really start over with your stock, to be honest. Keep the angel fish and get a school of tetra to go with them. You could do two smaller schools. Tetras are great aquarium fish with lots of movement and colors and they tend to school together. They also get along with angel fish for the most part. Some might nip at the angel fish but angel fish get bigger and will put an end to it.

Scrap the crabs and maybe get some cory catfish. They will get all the food that drops to the bottom and they are fairly active. They also stay very small.

Dont get a pleco. Some call them the sucker fish or algae eater.

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Angel fish are good in a 40 gallon.

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I keep 9 in a 90 gallon. They need lots of room.

Pretty tank

Thanks guys. Here's what it looked like when I first put plants in it.

I have two 48" T5HO bulbs. I use a 5lbs CO2 tank hooked up to a reactor. And, I use dry fertilizer doing the EI dosing method.

The perch have been in for a month a we have had no casualties. The sharks just act stupid but none of the fish fight each other that I've seen. Other than the crabs they have been together for a month. My son wants a bayou tank the wife want colors. I'm slowly trying to go his way.

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The perch have been in for a month a we have had no casualties

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I would get rid of them. Even if they dont kill the other tankmates, they will get way too big for that tank.

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The sharks just act stupid but none of the fish fight each other that I've seen.

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The fish might be young. Territories have not been established and theyre all just kinda in there not knowing whats going on. Once they mature, you will have casualties. A great example of this is the oscars at a PetsMart. They usually have 6-10 juveniles in a tank they all seem to get along fine. Once they start getting bigger, all hell will break loose.

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My son wants a bayou tank the wife want colors. I'm slowly trying to go his way.

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I would listen to your wife(I know, ugh). Not much you can do in a 40 gallon if you want to go the 'bayou' route.

And by bayou, what kind of fish are you talking about?

Perch, bass, gar, and other fish that come to mind all need very large tanks.

The color route would be more feasible because colors come in even the smallest fish.

I think an aspect of tanks that gets overlooked is the decorations in the tank. You can get some nice pieces of driftwood that can really make a tank look great. Natural pieces look cool also like bricks, rocks, stone tablets, pipes, etc. Dont get the fake looking crap at the pet store.