Fish

**Fish** are one of the two main types of living beings that can be placed in Tanks, alongside Plants, and are the only way of making money in FishCo. They can be bought from the store as eggs, and most can be sold for a profit if placed in a Sale Tank. All fish can also be flushed to dispose of them.

All fish have a health bar, a hunger bar, a size rating, a gender, and a happiness bar, all of which can be viewed by clicking on the fish. The hunger bar of a fish will constantly go down, and can only be raised back up by the fish eating. Most fish have a preferred type of Food, but some, like the Zebra Cichlid will also eat smaller fish. If the hunger bar reaches zero, the fish will start starving to death.

The health bar goes down when a fish is starving, when they have a Disease, or when they are being attacked. If none of the above conditions are met, then the health bar will recover to the fish's max health on its own. If the bar drops to the bottom, the fish will die.

When a fish is dead, it can no longer be sold, but still takes up space. The only option is to flush it.

The amount of space taken up by a fish, regardless of age or whether the fish is alive or dead, is determined by its size. Fewer large fish can be kept in one tank compared to the number of small fish that can fit in the same tank, though larger fish generally sell for higher prices.

Fish all have a happiness meter, which can be increased by some Plants (though other plants only increase the tank's cleanliness, and do not make fish any happier). Happy fish can be sold for a greater sum of money, while unhappy fish sell for less and are at much greater risk to catch Ich.

## Behavior

### Predation

Some fish will eat other tank residents if they grow hungry. Fish will restore their hunger meter upon eating another fish, as with any other food source.

Predators can **not** eat fish that are more mature than them. For instance a teen Oscar cannot eat an adult Dwarf Gourami, but will eat the same gourami upon growing into an adult. Predators exclusively attack fish that are the same age as, or younger than them.

Predators will also not eat dead fish under any circumstance. Even when starving.

It should be noted that predators prefer to eat normal food over other fish, and only eat other fish when they are hungry. As a result, it is possible (though not recommended) to house predators and prey together without the prey fish being eaten.

The following fish are predators:

* Zebra Cichlid
* *Angelfish* (Only eats its own fry)
* Jack Dempsey
* Oscar

### Aggression

Though it is not as common as predation, some fish will attack other fish without eating them. This will reduce the second fishes' health until it dies.

Aggression is similar to predation, but there are a few key differences:

* Predation is dependent on the predator being hungry, while aggression is constant.
* Predators will eat eggs, while aggressive fish will leave them alone, only attacking the newborn fry that emerge from them.
* Predators kill prey in one hit, while aggressive fish batter their victim with several attacks until dead, leaving more opportunity to spot incompatible fish and separate one to another tank.
* Predators can easily be distracted with food, but aggressive fish may ignore it until after they've killed their victims.
* Aggression leaves a body behind, taking up space and making the tank less clean, while predators eat their prey whole.
* Predators only eat size 1 fish, and their own fry, whereas aggressive fish will attack several size 2 fish as well.

The only two aggressive fish in the game are:

* Tiger Barb
* Betta

### Age

Fish start off at the egg stage and soon hatch into the fry stage. From here they grow into the teen stage, and eventually the adult stage. The adult stage carries the highest price and is the only stage that can breed, while the egg stage cannot be transferred or sold at all (though it can still be flushed).

Fish in the egg stage cannot move or eat, and their hunger stat never goes down until they grow into fry. They will not be attacked by aggressive fish, but may be eaten by predatory ones. Perhaps oddly, their happiness is still affected in the same way as every other life stage.

If a fish dies, their age will change to "Dead." Much like in the egg stage, they cannot move or eat, while their hunger meter is frozen and will no longer decrease. Dead fish will not be eaten or attacked at all, by any other fish. Strangely, just as with the egg state, their happiness will continue to shift up and down depending on the plants and algae present in the tank, despite the fact that they are dead.

### Breeding

If two adult fish of opposite gender are placed in a Breeding Tank, they can breed to produce eggs. This is essentially the same as buying the eggs, except that its completely free.

If there is room for two or more fish, breeding will produce two eggs. If there is room for only one, it will produce one egg. If there is no room, the breeding button will not work.

If the player moves another fish into the breeding tank while the breeding is ongoing, no eggs will be produced.

## Trivia

* There are only two fish in the game to share a price: The Zebra Cichlid and Marble Hatchet.
	+ Although they are not the same price, the Rasbora is half the price of the Clown Loach, and is also half its size, meaning they share the same price per inch.
* Being dead does not have an effect on a fish's happiness.