Aquarium

FishTank1.gif
Players can purchase aquariums from NPC Fisherman for around 250,000 gold pieces or a small chance to receive as a reward item for some quests. (The Mondain's Legacy Upgrade is required to actually set up the aquarium). Players can fill them with creatures and decorations gained from fishing or aquarium rewards. Fish tanks have a chance to periodically spawn rewards, which may be fish or other items. These items may be kept, traded, or sold. Aquariums were also supposed to expand the rares market through new items or rare varieties of existing items, but few have been introduced.

It takes care to keep alive the fishes and animals, which a fisherman can fish. The NPC fishermen sell the objects needed for keeping aquariums in good condition, including a guide.

Aquariums

Aquariums face in one of two possible directions: south and east. There is a small chance that an aquarium can be obtained from completing a quest in Heartwood.

Pitchers of Water

In order to care for your aquariums water health, you will need to have a Pitcher of Water. I personally keep 4 on hand and fill from a nearby Water Trough when needed.

Fish Bowl

This bowl can be purchased by the NPC Fisherman as well. When catching fish, you will need a bowl for every fish caught. Otherwise, fish that spawn into your backpack will die in about 5 minutes.

Fish Food

To keep your fish healthy, they will need to be fed. 1 bottle of the fish food equals 1 unit.

Aquarium Fish Net

In order to catch fish for your aquarium, you will need one of these half-nets.

Vacation Wafer

Because the water and food health of the fish update on an estimated 48 hour cycle, there comes a time when you will not be there to care for your aquarium. The Vacation Wafer will give you 7 days of vacation time with no updating to the tank needed. During this time you will forfeit all events and rewards.

Tank Set Up & Maintenance

Obviously the first step in setting up your new aquarium is to get your aquarium deed. Again, you can purchase this from an NPC Fisherman or take the rare chance at earning one as a prize via the Heartwood Questing System. Once you have your aquarium in your home, it is time to catch your fish. Catching fish is relatively easy as all you need are the Aquarium Fish Net and a Fish Bowl, both being purchased from an NPC Fisherman. For every fish you want to catch, you will need a net. If you fail at your attempt to catch a fish, the net will return to your backpack. You also need a bowl for every fish that you catch. You can either buy a few bowls and run the newly caught fish home before continuing to fish up more, which saves gold on purchasing bowls, or you can buy as many bowls as you have nets. If you do not have a bowl available when you toss the net into the water and successfully catch a fish, your fish will go into your backpack and die in about 5 minutes.

To cast your net, double click the net and target the water around you. You do not need to be on a boat for this to work. When you cast your net out you will get 1 of 2 messages:

  • The fish were too quick for you.
  • A Live Aquarium Fish leaps into your backpack.

Again, if you fail at your attempt to catch a fish - your half net will return to your backpack.

Fish will live indefinitely inside the fish bowl, and after catching one you can easily see what you have caught. Lower levels in the fishing skill will produce mostly Minoc Blue Fish and Shrimp. The higher your level, the wider variety of fish and underwater life you will catch.

Since the fish will live in the fish bowl, you can either display them simply in the bowl and never worry over care or you can sell them on a vendor.

Now that you have it in a bowl, it is time to add it to your aquarium! Simply drag and drop your fish bowl over your aquarium. You will notice the number count of animals in your aquarium going up. The menu that displays the number of fish is also the menu you will work from when caring for your fish and water.

We will use the menu to the left for our example of how to read the aquarium menu.

  • NOTE: The menu will only update roughly every 48 hours, so before dropping food or water into the aquarium, know that you should always review the menu carefully. This will prevent overfeeding.

Live Creatures: 20/30

There are currently 20 live creatures in my aquarium. The maximum number of creatures is 30. Creatures can get into your tank via 2 means: placed into the tank by owner or grow in the tank over night and appear as an "event".

Food State: Full

This is the state in which your fish are as far as their appetite is concerned. There are five levels of Food State, as shown on the bar below with Full being the desired level.

Water State: Strong

This, just like the food read-out, shows the state of the aquarium's water. There are five different statuses for your water state, with strong being the desired state.

Food Added: 2 Feed: 2 Improve: 4

This line of information tells you how much you will need to feed your fish. When you first examine your tank, if food added is 0, you will need to either Feed the number shown after Feed (to maintain the current level) or feed your fish the number shown after Improve, if your food state is less than Full. Each bottle of food added to your tank will count as 1 Unit of food. To feed your fish, drag and drop a bottle of food onto the tank.

Water Added: # Needed: #

This line of information tells you how much water you will need to add to your aquarium. This line, as with the Food Added line, can change. It shows you how much is needed to maintain and how much is needed to improve. This will vary with your Water State. A Water State of Strong means you have no room for improvement. To add a unit of water, drag and drop a pitcher of water onto the aquarium. For each pour of water, one unit will be added to the tank.

Contents: ##/30 Items. ## Stones

This is simply an informational line much that you would find on any bag or box. To examine your tank, all you need to do is simply single click the aquarium and choose "Examine Tank" from the menu. It is from this menu that you will be able to remove your fish or view different life that might have grown overnight.

Events

An event can be something from a new creature growing in your tank to a change in water or food condition (including "improving" your food state from the optimal "full" state to the unoptimal "overfed" state). It can also be a random death of one of your creatures for "unexplained reasons".

During each aquarium review you will have a chance at an Event or a Reward. You will know if you have a reward or event pending by simply mousing over the tank and looking at the menu. It will tell you if a Reward or Event is available. To collect your reward or to view your event, single click on the tank. Along with the "Examime Tank" option, you will have the option to review an event or collect your reward.

To remove fish from the tank simply examine the tank and go to the page containing the fish you want to remove and hit the remove button with a bowl in your backpack and the fish will go back in the bowl. I don’t think fish die in bowls, however I have not tried leaving one in a bowl for very long, yet. I suspect they do because people sell them on vendors.

Fish Death

The amount of live creatures you may have in your tank at any one time is determined by the health of your tank (which is determined by the state of the water and the state of feeding). If there are more live creatures in the tank than the tank can support (which typically happens when the health of the tank deteriorates when a tank is already at or near max capacity of creatures), then random creatures in the tank will be killed until the number of live creatures goes back down to the new lower maximum capacity the tank now has. In addition, as stated above, there is a chance for a random event where one of your fish can die "by accident". This event can happen regardless of the health and status of your tank (making the shoving of your rare fish into fish bowls or tanks that are always in vacation mode a surprisingly appealing idea).

Rewards

There are many exciting rewards for the aquarium owners from waterlogged boots, fish bone decorations to tiki statues and a special fishing rod. By caring for your tank, you can reap the benefits of all these rewards.

Common Fish

The Common fish are obtained by using the aquarium fishing net on any fishable water.

Common Fish
Albino Courtesan Fish Long Claw Crab Small Mouth Sucker Fin
Albino Frog Makoto Courtesan Fish Speckled Crab
Britain Crown Fish Minoc Blue Fish Spined Scratcher Fish
Fandancer Fish Nujel'm Honey Fish Spotted Buccaneer
Golden Broadtail Purple Frog Vesper Reef Tiger
Jellyfish Red Dart Fish Yellow Fin Bluebelly
Killer Frog Shrimp

Reward Fish

Reward fish are, unlike the other Aquarium rewards, randomly awarded every 10-30 days. They may be unusual colors of other types of fish, or they may be the types of fish below (both in unusual and default colors). Condition of the aquarium does not seem to matter, so long as there is spare room in the tank for at least one more living fish.

Reward Fish
Brine Shrimp Sea Horse
Coral Stripped Flake Fish
Full Moon Fish Stripped Sosaria Swill Fish


  • NOTE: The Stripped Sosaria Swill Fish is the same image as the Stripped Flake Fish.

Decorative Aquarium Rewards

Every two days if your aquarium is in good health you'll be rewarded with special items with the subtag: "aquarium decoration". These items can be placed in your aquariums or locked down in your house. The possible aquarium decorations you can get are determined by the size (in terms of living fish) and health of your fish tank. A tank with only one fish at poor health will almost always give you fish bones and nothing else.

Decorative Rewards
An Aquarium Fishing Net Message In A Bottle
Captain Blackheart's Fishing Pole Shells
Crafty's Fishing Hat Toy Boat
Fish Bones Waterlogged Thigh Boots
An Island Statue Waterlogged Boots

See Also