Run the fish store you loved as a kid.
Take the cheapest lease in town, scrub it clean and fill it with tanks. Keep the water right, breed fish no one else has, and win over every customer who walks through the door, until your little shop is the best fish store around.
Fish care
Every tank is its own little world
Each tank has its own water, its own fish and its own problems. Nothing goes wrong all at once: it creeps up on you, and the fish show it first.
Water quality
Waste builds from fish, leftover food and anything that didn't make it. Filters slow it and the vacuum takes it out. Let it build and fish get stressed, then sick, then worse.
Soft, hard, warm, cold
Neons want soft water, mollies want hard, and the tap gives you hard. Driftwood softens it, lake salt hardens it, and a heater sized for the tank keeps everyone comfortable.
Feeding
You feed the tank, not the fish: once a day for a few, up to three times for a crowd. Flakes are cheap. Live daphnia costs more, and the fish can tell the difference.
Wellbeing
Hungry or stressed fish look dull and sell for less. Keep them fed, well kept and in a beautiful tank for days and they thrive: brighter, livelier and worth more.
Tank maintenance
Clean the glass, vacuum the gravel, keep the filter's bacteria happy and fit the right gear along the back. Then do it all again tomorrow.
Show tanks and display tanks
Display tanks are for selling. Show tanks aren't: they're your best work, drawing people in from the street and making everyone want what's in them.
Fish husbandry
No two fish are the same
Every fish carries its own genes, true to its species. A betta's fins, a guppy's tail, a neon's stripe: they're all inherited, and some combinations are worth a lot more than others.
Breed for the rare ones
Pair the right parents and raise the fry. A platinum dumbo halfmoon sells for far more than a plain veiltail, so learn what's in demand and breed toward it.
Exotic stock, exotic prices
Some species, like discus, come as breeding pairs. They're expensive and slow to arrive, and their young are worth the wait.
Trade on Fishbook
Other keepers post wanted ads for fish with particular looks and stats. Breed to order, join the local fish clubs and sell where it pays most.
Save a species
Conservation quests ask you to breed the fry of an endangered fish. It's hard, it's slow, and nothing feels better.
Bred for looks
Betta traits
Store management & progression
From a dirty lease to the best store in town
You start with one grimy room, a loan and the rent due on Friday. Sweep the floor, haul out the rubbish, put up your first rack of tanks and open the doors.
- Day one
Lay it out your way
Place racks, shelves, display cabinets and the counter wherever you like. Paint the walls, pick the floors and colour the furniture to make it yours.
Grow into new rooms
Buy the space next door, then the back rooms and the loading bay. Every room starts as filthy as the first.
Stock everything
Foods in several brands, filters, heaters, lights, plants, rocks, driftwood, substrates and ornaments. If a tank needs it, you can sell it.
Win over suppliers
Start on Fish-a-zon's bargain bin. Better suppliers get in touch once you've made the sales and earned the name, and they ship by the pallet.
Help your customers
Beginners want a starter tank, aquascapers want the perfect stone, and everyone wants healthy fish. Net their picks, give good advice and don't keep them waiting.
Build a reputation
Happy customers leave good reviews. Good reviews bring more of them, open higher prices and catch the eye of the suppliers you want.
- The best store in town
Mackerel OS
The computer behind the counter
Every fish store runs on a back-office computer. Yours runs Mackerel OS, and every number on it is live: money, stock, deliveries and the clock keep moving while you work.
Fish-a-zon
Order fish, foods, gear and decor, and track what's on its way.
Stockroom
What you have, where it is, and what needs shelving before it goes bad.
Coral Savings & Loan
The loan, the rent, the bills, and every dollar in and out.
Fish-o-pedia
Care guides for every species, plant and food, filling in as you stock them.
Hammerhead Builders
Buy the next room, then paint, floor and furnish it.
Kelp Mail
Suppliers introducing themselves, bills to pay and quests to take on.
Fishbook
Your store's page, its reviews and stars, and trading fish with other keepers.