Player guide

Pearls are for the special stuff. You can spend them on:

• Pearl fish. 16 of the rarer species cost pearls, from 12 (Mandarinfish) up to 120 (Napoleon Wrasse).
• Pearl decorations, like the Treasure Chest (12), Sunken Castle (30) or Shipwreck (40).
• Rooms around your tank in Ambient mode, 60 or 80 each.
• More fish spots once the coin ones are used up, 30 each.
• Premium Egg, 12.
• Changing a tank's water type after the first free change, 30.
• Breeding two pearl fish, or raising the hatch rate of a rare pair.
• Coins, if you're short. Shop → Pearls → Coins: 10 pearls for 1,500 coins, 30 for 5,100, 60 for 11,400.

• Achievements. 20 of them give pearls, 229 in total.
• Weekly Tasks. The free track gives pearls at levels 10, 20 and 30. The Premium Track gives a lot more.
• Wishes & Collectors. Some wishes and the harder collector orders pay pearls.
• Expeditions sometimes bring one back, more often on longer trips.
• Rare visitors. If a visitor you already own stays, rare ones leave a pearl.
• Bonding. Each fish gives 7 pearls on the way to Best friends.
• Tanklet+ gives 40 pearls every month.

The arcade games don't give pearls.

Every fish in a tank earns coins every hour. Rarer fish earn more. Happy, healthy fish earn more, and a sick fish earns half. A fish in a tank of its own habitat gets 10% extra.

Fish in Storage don't earn anything.

Yes. Your fish keep earning while you're away, for up to 8 hours per absence (24 with Tanklet+). The coins wait in a pool until you tap Collect. The pool has a limit, and you can upgrade it with coins.

No. Fish never die in Tanklet. If you forget about them they get hungry, grumpy and eventually sick, but a bit of care always brings them back.

A fed fish gets hungry again after about 6 hours, so two or three times a day is plenty. Flakes are free. Treats cost a few coins, and a fish's favorite food makes it happier.

Don't overdo it. Leftover food makes the water dirty.

Clean changes the water and brings water quality back up. Algae grows on the glass over time, and you wipe it off with your finger. Both matter: bad water hurts your fish's health.

Clean the water first, because medicine only works when water quality is at least half. Then open the fish and treat it, or use Heal All. Medicine costs coins, more for rarer fish.

Fish you breed or hatch start as fry and grow into adults over 2 to 5 days, depending on rarity. Fish from the shop arrive fully grown.

10 to start. Tap Expand tank to add more spots, up to 16. The first four cost coins (800, 2,000, 4,500 and 9,000) and the last two cost 30 pearls each. Spots are per tank.

When a tank is full, new fish go to Storage. You can move them back anytime.

Yes, up to six. Your first one is a Community Tank that takes any fish. New tanks cost coins, and you can make them eco tanks for one habitat: Freshwater, Saltwater, Coral, Deep-Sea or Mangrove.

It only takes fish of that habitat, but in return they earn 10% more coins, breeding gives rare colors more often, and fish bond faster.

Yes, with Change Water Type in the tank switcher. The first change for each tank is free, then 30 pearls. Fish that don't fit go to Storage. Your very first tank can't be changed.

Open the Breeding tab and pick two fish from the same habitat. They can be different species. Both need to be healthy (not sick, at least half health). There's a coin fee based on rarity, then you wait.

If a hatch fails you get shards instead. You can spend a few pearls to raise the success rate.

Two of the same species always give a new color of that species. Two different species of the same rarity is a coin flip. With different rarities the baby is more likely to be the more common parent.

Sometimes a baby mutates, and once in a while it turns into a rarer species you've already unlocked. Breeding in an eco tank makes mutations twice as likely.

Shinies only come from eggs, not breeding. The Premium Egg has the best odds. All egg odds are shown in the shop before you buy.

With Tanklet+ you get a second breeding slot.

Go to Me → Friends. You'll see your friend code (like ABCD-EFGH) and an invite link. Send either one to a friend, or enter theirs. You need to be signed in to iCloud.

Nobody, until you choose. You can set it to Friends (anyone with your code) or Everyone (it also shows up in Explore), and pick which tank to show. Other players see your fish and decorations, a name the app made up for you, and your level. They never see your fish's names or your other tanks.

Pick one of your fish and send it to a friend's tank for 8 hours. When it comes back it brings coins, more if your friend fed it. You can send one fish at a time, and a tank can host up to 4 guests.

Yes, once a day per friend. It helps their fish and gives you a few coins.

Each Monday you get new Weekly Tasks. Finishing them fills a 30-level pass with coins, pearls and shards. The pass never resets, so there's no rush.

The Premium Track is a one-time purchase that adds a second row of rewards. You buy it once, not every season.

Each season lasts four weeks and is themed on one habitat. You get extra tasks, faster pass progress, and a season egg with that habitat's fish. The game shows a preview a week before a season starts.

Holiday collections are only on sale for a few weeks and come back at the same time every year. Halloween runs mid-October to early November, Winter from December 1 to January 6. Anything you bought stays yours.

All three games are free, under More → Arcade.

• Shark Dodge gives coins, up to a daily limit. Your first run each day also gives an extra Bubble Claw try.
• Bubble Claw has 5 free tries a day and can win fish and decorations, including plushies you can't get anywhere else. Miss four times in a row and the next grab is guaranteed.
• Reef Match has 200 levels plus a daily challenge. It gives food vouchers for treats, and exclusive decorations at levels 10, 20, 30 and 40.

Your level goes up as you collect new species, one level for every two. Higher levels unlock more fish in the shop and longer expeditions.

Send one or two healthy fish off on a trip of 3, 6 or 10 hours. They come back with coins, and sometimes a pearl. Fish from the right habitat, fish you've bonded with, and playful fish have better luck.

Every day your fish make two small wishes, like a favorite food or clean water. Do them before midnight for coins. Every Monday three collectors ask to see certain fish. Nothing leaves your tank, you just need to own them.

Say hi to a fish every day and feed it its favorite food. Bond levels go from Acquainted to Best friends, and moving up gives small rewards, including pearls.

Yes, and blind players have helped shape it. In the tank every fish can be swiped to and reads its name, what it's doing, and its hunger, health and mood. The tank overview reads water quality and the glass, and has a Wipe the glass action. Algae spots can be wiped with a double tap.

The arcade works too. Shark Dodge plays sounds for each fish coming from the left or right and slows down. Reef Match reads each cell and lets you swap with actions. Bubble Claw tells you where you're aiming and what you grabbed.

If something doesn't read well, please tell me. I usually fix these quickly.

• Double coins from your fish
• Offline earnings for up to 24 hours instead of 8, and a bigger coin pool
• Fish fed and tanks cleaned for you while you're away
• A second breeding slot and a second expedition crew
• 40 pearls every month
• The Gilded Lantern decoration

Monthly, yearly or lifetime. Everything else in the game is free, and there are no ads.

No. Caring for fish, collecting, breeding, eggs, friends and the arcade are all free. Paid things make it faster or more comfortable, not different.

No. Your tanks sync through your own iCloud. Sign in with the same Apple ID on the new phone or iPad and they'll come over.

Yes, in both portrait and landscape, on iOS 17 or later.

Yes, home screen and lock screen widgets, with a button to feed your fish without opening the app. Expeditions and hatching also show a countdown on the lock screen and Dynamic Island.

Yes. Achievements show up in Game Center, and there are leaderboards for Shark Dodge, Reef Match, days together and best-friend fish.