How to play

You run a real-time simulated fish tank: fish eat, grow, breed, age, and die — even while you're offline (the simulation catches up whenever you return, up to about three weeks).

The aquarium runs on site-wide Tickets — the same 🎟️ wallet you fill across the rest of the site. A new tank gets a small starter grant of Tickets to buy its first fish; after that, breeding and selling fish is how it pays for itself. Grime accumulates as algae patches, so buy a sponge (Tickets) and scrub by hand. Set the heater and pH to match what your species like. Want coins instead of Tickets? Convert Tickets into coins over at the Store.

Feeding works from a bottle of food that holds a set number of feeds — the green bar is feeds remaining, not tank fullness. You keep one bottle open at a time and buy the next when it's empty. Basic Flakes are free; the fancy bottles cost Tickets and carry effects — Growth Formula (fry mature faster), Vita-Tonic (heals a little each feed), Breeder's Blend (pairs breed far more often), Prism Pellets (fry born with better genes), and Gilded Grubs (a rare chance to gift a fish a trait).

The sand color is always yours to restyle for free, and the aquarium light toggles on or off (off just dims the tank). Light color, though, stays locked until you buy the RGB Light upgrade from the shop — after that you can pick a preset or any custom color.

Feeling artistic? Buy the paint kit (a one-time Ticket purchase) and paint your own tank background right on a little canvas — brush, palette, eraser and all. Your art shows behind the fish on your tank and on its public share page; repaint or remove it anytime, free.

Sixteen species run from the Guppy to the Pocket Octopus — thirteen pixel-art fish plus three emoji exotics — each with its own cost, lifespan and water preferences. The tank holds up to 12 fish.

Fish carry up to three traits (genes): good ones like Golden, Hardy, Radiant, Long-Lived and Fertile, and bad ones like Sickly, Ravenous, Fleeting and Runt. Traits change a fish's health ceiling, lifespan, appetite, breeding and — above all — how much it sells for. Store fish are almost always plain; traits emerge and stack through breeding.

Two healthy adults of the same species, in clean suitable water with food to spare, may produce a baby that inherits and mutates its parents' traits — so you can breed toward a 'perfect' fish. Neglect works the other way: starvation, filth, or hostile water drains health to zero.

You can also breed with a friend. Invite someone you follow (from the Co-op breeding panel), and you each put one fish into a private shared tank. Feed and clean it together — while you're both watching, the tank stays in sync — until a baby hatches. When you end the session both parents go home and the baby joins the host's tank.

Sell any living fish from its card for Tickets. A plain store-bought adult fetches only its base value (a loss on the purchase price); the money is in raising a high-generation fish loaded with good traits. Selling is permanent.

Parasites strike at random — far more often in a dirty tank — and show as red dots on the fish. Untreated, they kill much faster than old age. Sick fish turn green and swim at half speed; elders fade gray. Medicine (120 Tickets) cures parasites and heals to the fish's maximum, but parasite scars and old age permanently lower that maximum.

Every tank runs on four devices — pump, bubbler, filter and heater — from the Equipment shop. The filter slows how fast the water dirties, the pump helps fish heal, the bubbler encourages breeding, and the heater holds your set temperature (without a working one the water drifts toward room temperature). All wear out over time and stop working at 0%; the basic models are free to replace, and paid advanced models last far longer and work better.

Scoring

• The aquarium is a persistent pet, not a run-based game, but lifetime tank records feed the Aquarium records boards on the Leaderboards page: most fish bred, longest-lived fish, richest reef (Tickets earned from sales), and deepest breeding dynasty.

Tips

• Match species to one water profile instead of averaging between incompatible ones — a tank half-hostile to everyone breeds nothing and stays sick.
• Breed for genes, then cash out: pair your best fish under Breeder's Blend or Prism Pellets, sell the plain ones, and keep the standouts breeding.
• Scrub before breeding: cleanliness gates both breeding and health, and sponges wear out patch by patch.
• Share your tank with its public read-only link — visitors can watch your fish live but can't touch the thermostat. Turn on comments to let them leave notes, on your tank and its share page alike. Visitors can also like your tank, and the three most-liked aquariums are featured on the home page.

Frequently asked questions

Will my fish die while I'm offline?

They can — the simulation runs on without you. Fish die of old age no matter what, and of neglect if food and water conditions collapse. Dead fish can be scooped out free.

How do I earn Tickets from the tank?

Sell fish. Breed healthy pairs in good water — ideally with Breeder's Blend or Prism Pellets — to produce high-generation, well-traited fish, and sell the ones you don't want to keep. The better the genes and the deeper the lineage, the more each fish is worth.

What does the tank cost to run?

The aquarium spends the same site-wide 🎟️ Tickets you earn everywhere else — everything in the tank shop costs Tickets, and selling fish earns them. If you'd rather have coins, convert Tickets into coins at the Store.

Is this Plus-only?

Yes — The Pointless Aquarium is currently part of Pointless Plus.

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