Halloween Contest Winners

I created a group or clan in Fish Adventure Seasons.  These groups are designed basically for sending gifts to one another, but members can become friends and beyond that, I decided it would be fun if we had a Halloween Contest... so I announced it and there were some incredible results.

Here are some screenshots of some of our best Halloween aquariums and their fish:

The winners would have to be: Shadowfish, Gigi's Fish Bowl and Jediknight.  They took on the challenge and created some marvels.

Shadowfish's Halloween Tank, two views.

Gigi's Fish Bowl, aka Georgann... two views.

Jediknight

And here are a couple of my own Halloween Fish... don't think I deserve to be in the winning group but I have a couple of nice Mermaids and Dragonfish in Halloween colours:

I am partial to mermaids... but my tank is so packed that you barely can see them.

Free your Fish!

I am very much a collector or hoarder by nature, sentimental in the extreme, and I therefore find my tanks filled to capacity at all times, mainly with the gorgeous Mermaids one can breed at Level 15 and higher.  I do see, however, that if you wish to increase your Levels, selling fish is the way to go.  You do not earn the XP by breeding them but by SELLING them. 

Important Point about Gifts

Gifts are important in Fish Adventure Seasons, but if you allow plants to be placed or to fall in front of your Gift Box, you will not be able to receive ANY Gifts at all.    This partly is the fault of the game itself.  Whenever you open a gift, if it is a plant, it will fall into the tank in a random position.  Often, it will fall in front of your Gift Box.  After opening your Gifts, always make certain that the Gift Box is clear of any obstructions.  Plants are nice, but they can be an impediment where gifts are concerned.

Fish Adventure Seasons 101

 (Screenshots of Mermaids, one of the few mythical creatures you can breed in this game.  Most of the creatures are varieties of sea creatures that are found in Nature.)

This post is dedicated to my dear friend, Georgann, who started to play this game because I recommended it!

Basically, as with any of the 'farming simulation' type games, progress is based on your Experience Level.  You will need Coins in order to buy new items, and thus the ability to earn Coins is linked to progress as well.

When you first download and open the game, you should give yourself a 'nickname' that is unique.  Otherwise, you will have a default name that begins with Player and is followed by a series of numbers.

Look at the icons at the bottom of your screen.  There will be a big icon for Shop, followed by Friends, Tank, Breed.  When your level increases, a Club icon will be added.

For now, however, go to the Friends icon and tap on it.then tap on the Profile Tab.  See the little pencil icon?  Tap on that and you will open your keyboard to create a nickname.  Do that.  Now you need to find Friends.  If you know a friend in the game, you can go to Community and perform a Search for the Friend by name.  Otherwise, go to Community and choose some Friends randomly.  There are a number of advantages to having Friends.  One is the ability to visit them to collect Rewards daily.  The other is to allow them to visit you to deposit gifts into your Gift Box.  Gifts are invaluable.  They can consist of Coins, premium Cash in the form of Seastars, Decorations that can be placed or sold and Elixirs.

You can add and remove friends on a daily basis, but when you find Friends who leave gifts for you on a regular basis, those are Friends that you need to keep.  The idea of the Clubs or Clans is to have a group of active players who all reciprocate in regular visits.  Unfortunately, many of the Clubs are not very useful.  My club is Harvest Moon and as I am willing to accept any one, some of the members are not very useful but I have not reached the limit of 50 Members so delete no one as long as they do not cause any disruptions.

To visit a Friend, simply go to the Friends icon, find your List and tap on a name.  You will be transported to that Friend's aquarium.  Here you can clean the tank if it is dirty for 9 points, empty the Coin Shell for Coins and possibly an Elixir (random), and then tickle or pet the fish there for 1 Coin each.  You can feed the fish if they display the fish food icon, although you will not gain points or coins for that.  What it does do, however, is allow you then to earn Coins by interacting with the fish by petting it.  A hungry fish will not be interested in your tickling!

Before you leave your Friend's tank, make certain that you tap on the Gift Box to leave a gift.  You can choose any colour or shape.  I do not think the colour or shape determines what is inside the gift frankly.  I always choose the gold treasure chest and it can contain anything!

If your Friend has more than one tank, visiting each is a good way to increase your XP when your Levels are low.  More likely than not, many of those tanks will need a good scrub with your sponge!

This game is all about Colour.  New species can be unlocked either by advancing to higher levels or by finding new items in the 'Featured' section of the Shop.  This is where high level types of fish are offered temporarily to EVERY player for the most part, usually for premium cash.  The Whale, for example, was featured last week.

When you return home, what you want to do, especially at the start, is BREED and SELL.  The Goldfish are wonderful for this.  They can be bred every five minutes.  Every type of fish takes time to recover after breeding but the Goldfish takes less time than any other species.  After breeding, an egg will drop to the bottom of the tank.  This egg will display the colours of the goldfish that will hatch and it should hatch in 2 minutes.

Speed Option
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You can speed the process of hatching and growing a fish as well as restoring a fish that has been bred to the point where it can breed again by using your premium cash or Seastars.  There is a point, however, where you will be given the option to speed the process free of charge.  To see this, use the general tank menu that is found by tapping on the fish icon on the top right of your screen.  It will tell you the precise time when any fish egg will hatch, any immature fish become adult, any bred fish be restored as well as the current cost of speeding any of these options.

The Speed-up is a way for the game to make money quickly in my opinion.  One can become very impatient with an Egg that will take 17 hours to hatch, as with the Mermaids and it is a temptation to pay to speed the process.  Try to resist.  Your premium cash is better utilised to purchase species that cannot be purchased with coins.

When Should you Spend Premium Cash/Seastars?
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I have mentioned this in passing elsewhere but perhaps it is worth making the point here as well.  Try not to spend your Seastars on Speed options but rather use them to purchase species that do not have any variety that is offered for a Coin price.  The Puffer Fish, for example, is an early option in the Market but ALL colours are sold for Seastars only.  Here I would make another suggestion.  The Puffer Fish will serve as an example.  The following are sold in the Market:

Puffer Fish (yellow and brown): 23 Seastars
Neon Puffer: 44 Seastars
Bloody Puffer: 66 Seastars
G Puffer: 77 Seastars

The Neon Puffer is a lovely blue colour.  The Bloody Puffer is red and the G Puffer is black and white.  Buy the regular generic yellow and brown Puffer Fish for 23 Seastars, then use Elixirs to create the other colours.  The most difficult colour to achieve will be the black or white but it can appear in any breeding experiment randomly.  Do not be dazzled by colours in the Market.  When a new species of Fish is unlocked or offered, look for the variety with the Coin price, purchase both a male and female and then work to breed the colours you like.  This is the wisest course to follow, although it requires patience.  To be honest, though, it works in your favour in other ways, because the sale of fish is oe of the ways to earn valuable XP.  If you purchase the expensive colours instead of breeding them yourself, you waste Seastars that otherwise could be used for new species.

If you are willing to invest limitless amounts of cash on this game, the advise does not apply... but remember: the value of ANY Fish is determined only by species.   Those expensive colours that you purchased with Seastars are worth no more when sold than the less expensive Coin variety of the fish.  ANY Puffer Fish sells for 2500 Coins and gives 15 XP.

It is the icon on the very top right of your screen that will show you every fish in your Tank as well as all the Eggs.  Each will display its gender, name, sell price and the amount of experience that you earn when you sell that fish.  On the right side of the entry are two options:  Move and Sell.  If you have more than one tank, you can move any Adult fish to any of your Tanks.  If you have only one tank, you can move it into the Inventory.  That is essentially a storage space.  Inventory is accessed, oddly enough, through the Shop Menu.  It is the last entry in the Shop Menu.  You can store up to 20 Fish and up to 20 Decorations in your Inventory.

The other menu that will display the fish in your Tank (but not the Eggs) is the Breed Menu.  You will find this by tapping on the Heart Icon on the bottom left of your screen.  Here you will see the Males on one side and the Females on the other.  Tap on a Male and a Female to place them in the appropriate slots on the right side of the screen, then tap on Breed.

Another way of earning rewards of Coins, XP and Seastars is through the Goals Menu.  This is accessed through an icon on the bottom left of your screen.  It looks like a target with an arrow through the middle.

Goals are partly tutorials.  Your first goals will be to breed and sell Goldfish of various colour combinations and to decorate your Tank.  You can find a Decorations tab in the Shop.  There are three colours of Goldfish in the Shop that can be purchased at Level 1 using Coins.  These are Goldfish (yellow), Blue Fish and Red Fish.  Only today, two premium colours were added in the form of Silverfish and Pitch Black Fish.  By breeding different colours, you can create new colours and new combinations.

Remember your primary colours:  Red, Yellow and Blue.  Mixing these creates the secondary colours of Orange, Green and Purple.  Randomly, you may obtain White or Black as well.  The Goldfish have quite a lot of potential for different colour combinations.  You have the body of the fish, the top fin, the lower two fins, and two possible colours for the tail.  Crossbreeding can allow you to add new colours or attempt a new solid colour.  Experiment with the Goldfish and you will know how to create special colours later for other species.

Perhaps it is because the Silver colour is new, but I have been unable to achieve any mixtures with it in crossbreeding so far.  The offspring simply hatches to look identical to the parent, all silver.  The Pitch Black, on the other hand, can be reflected in the offspring partially as a Black Tail, black fins or Black body... with colours from the other parent fish.  I hope this will change to allow us to have partially silver Goldfish, if that makes any sense.

I made a mistake initially when Mermaids were offered as a special item because I was so enamoured with them that I neglected the goldfish.  I could have created the colours I wanted on the mermaids far sooner had I crossbred more Goldfish first!

Although there is no reason why you should not keep some of your Fish, especially if they have a premium price in the Market, one of the primary goals in  this game is to sell fish.  You earn XP as well as Coins by doing so.  Many of the Goals involve the sale of specific numbers of fish.

The Power of Elixirs
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You will not have Elixirs when you begin the game, but they begin to appear quite early.  I believe they will begin to appear randomly when you tap on a Friend's Coin Shell or open a gift once you reach Level 3.  The basic Elixirs that you can receive in this way are: Red, Yellow, Blue and Green.

As I wrote in another post on this site, this game is based somewhat on the old Colour Wheel rules where primary colours can be mixed to obtain secondary colours and so on.  The exception here is the addition of Green, a secondary colour, to the basic Elixir group.

An Elixir will not usually take over the entire fish that is being created but it will dominate the colour scheme for the most part.  I have found the following  to be true:

When breeding two different colours of fish, the offspring either will be identical to the father or to the mother, if no Elixir is used.  This is the most common result.

Less frequently, when no Elixir is used, one part of the offspring will take on the colour of the parent it does not resemble most.

  Example:  You have a father with a blue body, red top fin, red and white tail, and blue bottom fin.  You have a mother with a red body, yellow top fin, red tail and red bottom fin.
The most likely result will be a fish that is identical either to the father or the mother but sometimes, if the fish takes after the father here, you may find that the red top fin has become a yellow one (mother) or that the blue bottom fin has changed to red or even that the tail now has lost the white half.

Another possibility, and this is the one most breeders seek, is that the colour wheel will kick into motion, mixing blue and red into purple or red and white into pink... or whatever else can be done with the primary colours.

Now, if yiou added an Elixir, the colour of the Elixir will be dominant but not necessarily a total change.  In other words, a Blue Elixir could act on ANY part of the offspring to transform it to blue or it could act as a colour wheel combination option, to change red into purple or yellow into green or act on the white to create light blue.

Colour Wheel
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Primary Colours:  Red, Blue, Yellow

Secondary Colours:  Orange, Purple Green
  Blue and Red equal Purple
  Yellow and Blue equal Green
  Red and Yellow equal Orange

Tertiary Colours:  These colours are created by combining a Primary with a Secondary Colour.  You will find these in the Elixir Slot Machine as the Lime Green, Brown, Dark Blue and so on.

Magic Elixirs
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Until you reach Level 10, you will be limited to the basic Elixirs, although you can create ANY colour combination with or without elixirs really, if you are determined and with a bit of luck.

At Level 10, you unlock a gambling game that will appear on the right side of the screen below the other icons.  It is a series of four shelves with 6 elixir bottles on the first and second shelves and three elixir bottles on the bottom shelf.  The bottles take three different forms.  Gold bottles always appear in the top left and their appearance can depend on the number of Elxiirs you are willing to wager.  The white Elixir bottles always appar on the bottom shelf but you can add more on the second shelf by wagering more of your Elixirs.  Usually in the past, when the game begins, there are no gold bottles at all and only three white bottles.  Today, the game begins with two Gold Bottles at the top and a total of 6 white bottles on the second and third shelves.

How the game operates is that the cursor will jump randomly from one bottle to another.  It will stop when you press or tap 'Bet'.  At the very bottom of the screen, you will see the total number of basic Elixirs that you own.  You can bet a combination or colours or only one colour but there is a limit to the number of Elixirs of the same colour that you can wager on one bet.

The brown bottles are the more common colours that are easily obtained by crossbreeding.  Brown, Lime Green and Orange are some examples of these.  There are more brown bottles on the shelves than other types.

The White Bottles contain rarer colours such as White, Black, Pink and Purple.

It is the Gold Bottles that contain the Magic Elixirs.  These are colour-change Elixirs that will cause your fish to flash.  Quite magical indeed.  Among them are Blue Colour-Change, Purple Colour-Change, Yellow Colour Change and Red-Colour Change.  There may be a Green one as well although i have not won one yet.

Two Elixirs usually is the minimum number you can wager to activate the 'Bet' button but today I have been able randomly to wager using only one bottle.  Incidentally, the Elixirs you have won never can be wagered.  The only bottles that will be available for wager are the basic Elixirs.

The first use of a Magic Elixir appears to transform the entire fish that is hatched into the flashing colour determined by the Elixir.  It is only when THAT fish is bred that you can obtain a result that flashes only in one area.  I have bred a purple-colour change Mermaid with the result of a child that had only stars and crown that flashed.  In another result, only the tail flashed.  Usually though, the entire fish will be another colour-change Fish.  The Magic Elixirs are very powerful.  Thank God for that!  It would be sad if one went to all the trouble to obtai n one and then used it to have it overpowered completely by ordinary colours.

When to use Magic Elixirs
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When you decide to use your Magic Elixirs is entirely up to you but I save mine for the Mermaids.  In fact, in one aquarium, I am at Level 12, with two Yellow Magic Elixirs... I am trying to save both if possible.  Mermaides are unlocked at Level 15.  Mind you, there are many other species that are quite dramatic when a Magic Elixir is used.  Even the little Goldfish can be wonderful when the colours flash.

Clubs or Clans
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One of the early goals in this game is to find a Clan or Club to join.   Finding a good Club/Clan can make a big difference as good active members will visit one another daily to leave gifts that randomly contain Elixirs, Coins, Decorations and even Seastars.  Our Club is Harvest Moon.  Any one at Level 4 or above is free to join without invitation.  Level 4 is very easy to reach and the only reason to set a minimum limit is to make certain that the Club only has active players in it.  After all, a good member will go down the list and add other members as their friends in order to visit daily.

One flaw of this game, in my view, is that fellow Club members are NOT added automatically.  You actually have to add them manually.  There is a limit to the number of Friends that you can have.  Unfortunately, when I first began to play this game, I went through the Community tab to add players randomly as friends as I did not have the Club yet.  You can delete friends but there is a limit to the number you can delete in any given time period.  The reason one deletes primarily is to get rid of people who are not playing or who do not send gifts and more importantly, perhaps, to be able to add all Club members to the Friends List.

Elixirs are so much a key element in this game and the only way to obtain them is through the Coin Shells or inside Gifts.  There are Clubs in most of the Frismos games I play and the same system of visiting and gifting, but none of the others are really vital the way the Gifts are vital in this game.

Useful Tools
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I should have mentioned this sooner perhaps.  To see the entire contents of your Tank, you tap on the fish icon with notepaper that is at the top right of your screen.  This will show you a list of every fish in the current tank, its gender, its status and so on.

It is the tools on the bottom right of the screen, accessed by tapping on the gloved hand with extended finger that give you the tools to interact individually with each of your fish.

Tap on the pointing finger to see the following icons:

Fish
Move Arrows
Sponge
Pointing Finger
Bottle of Fish Food

The Fish icon is very useful.  When it is active, you can tap on any fish directly to see its identity and status.  You will have the following options:  Rename, Move, Sell.  The little menu that pops up will let you know how happy or hungry the fish may be as well as its name and gender.  You can find this by using the general Fish List as well but sometimes it is more convenient to tap directly on a fish, especially if you wish to use a specific fish in breeding.  Ofteh the little portraits of the fish in the main list or breeding menu are too small to show the colour of a small area, such as crown or stars on a mermaid.  It is only when the fish is in the tank that these can be seen clearly.  Thus, you can tap directly on the fish, find its name or rename it and THEN access the Breed Menu to breed it.

The Move Arrows allow you to move Decorations either within the current tank or to another tank or into Inventory to store them.  It allows you to move any Fish to another tank or into Inventory.

The Sponge is used to clean either your own tank or a friend's tank when it is displayed as dirty.  You earn 9 XP whenever you clean any tank.

The Pointing Finger icon is used to empty a Coin Shell, place a Gift in a Gift Box, access your own Gift Box or to pet or tickle fish either in your own tanks or in your friends' tanks.  It is the primary action tool.

Finally, the Bottle of Fish Food is precisely that.  When a fish is hungry, a tiny icon showing a bottle of fish food will hover above it.  Use the Fish Food icon in the Menu to feed the fish.

Initial Full Walkthrough
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I started a new game on another device to log early goals and this is the result:

Feed your Fishes  0/2
  Reward: 6 XP, 50 Coins

Empty Your Shell  0/1
  Reward: 6 XP, 30 Coins

Make your Fishes Happy 0/2
  Reward: 7 XP, 50 Coins

Breed a Baby Fish
  Rewards: 1 Seastar, 8 XP, 60 Coins

  You can breed a Gold fish by tapping on the Breed Button on the bottom of the screen which will take you to the Breeding Lab.

Your First Coral /1
  Buy a Pink Coral from the Shop in 1st Tank
  Reward: 2 Seastars, 8 XP, 60 Coins

  The Pink Coral is the Cocoon Coral costing 80 Coins.  It sells for 40 Coins and gives 3 XP

More Fish, More Fun
  Buy 2 Blue Goldfish from the Shop in 1st Tank
  Rewards: 8 XP, 60 Coins

Goldfish coloured in Yellow and Blue
  Breed Yellow Fish and Blue Fish to get desired mix.
  Reward: 5 Seastars, 4 XP, 80 Coins

Goldfish coloured in Red and Yellow
  Breed Red and Yellow Fish until you get your fish
  5 Seastars, 4 XP, 60 Coins

Selling Novice
  On the top right corner, you will see a fish icon.  Tap on it and it will take you to the Sell List.  From there press the 'Sell' Button  0/1
  Reards: 2 Seastars, 6 XP, 80 Coins

When you have completed a few of the first goals, you will go to Level 2 and more Goals will appear.

Now it is time for Red
  Buy a pair of Red Goldfish  0/2
  Rewards: 1 XP, 65 Coins

Time to Have Friends  0/5
  Tap on the Friend Button on the bottom of your screen and from here go to Community Tab and add Friends

  Rewards: 1 Seastar, 6 XP, 100 Coins

Novice Collector
  Empty 5 Treasure Shells in friends' tanks
  REwards: 1 Sesstar, 6 XP, 100 Coins

Cleaning Novice
  Visit friends' tans and help them clean by selecting a sponge Tool from the Tool Menu and dragging it across the dirt until the tank is spotless. 0/1
  Rewards: 1 Seastar, 8 XP, 80 Coins

Novice Gifter
  Leave gifts for your friends in their Gift areas
  Rewards: 6 XP, 70  Coins    0/5

Novice Tickler
  0/15
  Rewards: 1 Seastar, 7 XP, 90 Coins

Triple Coloured Goldfish
  Try to breed pairs of fish containing Red, Blue and Yellow colours
  Reward: 7 Seastars, 6 XP, 180 Coins

After completing a few of these, new Goals appear:

Novice Feeder
  Feed 20 Fish
  Rewards: 1 Seastar, 11 XP, 250 Coins

Novice Designer
  Buy 7 items for your First Tank
  Rewards: 1 Seastar, 3 XP, 450 Coins

Novice Spender
  Spend 750 Coins
  Reward: 1 Seastars, 3 XP, 750 Coins

Better Place for your Fish
  Buy a new Theme for 1st Tank
  Reward: 3 Seastars, 6 XP, 500 Coins

  N.B.  Buying new theme probably will give you the Novice Spender Goal as well.

The next type of fish, which is the Betta, unlocks at Level 3.

When you reach Level 3, you will see new Goals:

Your Second Fish Tank
  Buy your second fish tank
  Reward: 1 Seastar, 8 XP, 250 Coins

Home for Bettafish
  Buy and place 2 Bettafish in second tank
  Rewards: 1 Seastar, 13 XP, 800 Coins

Breed a Baby Bettafish in second tank
  Reward: 1 Seastar, 15 XP, 500 Coins

Stealth BEttafish
  Buy 3 Leptopsammias and place them in 2nd Tank
  Rewrads: 2 Seastars, 9 XP, 500 Coins

Apprentice Designer
  Buy 8 items and place in 2nd Tank
  Rewards:  1 Seastar, 20 XP, 1000 Coins

Apprentice Spender
  Spend 3000 Coins
  Reward: 2 Seastars, 9 XP, 950 Coins

Make the Goldfish family bigger
  Breed 5 pair of Goldfish in 1st tank
  Rewards: 2 Seastars, 5 XP, 700 Coins

The 2nd Tank costs 600 Coins.  3rd Tank unlocked at Level 5.  Fourth Tank unlocked at Level 7.  Fifth tank unlocked at Level 9.

Bettas can be purchased for Seastars or Coins now.  There are two Colours of Bettas that can be purchased for 600 Coins eash.

More new Goals:

Selling Apprentice
  Sell 4 Fish
  Rewards: 2 Seastars, 3 XP, 150 Coins

Why is the first fish the Goldfish?

Although i have been playing games for years and writing strategy guides for almost as long, sometimes the penny takes a long time to drop.  I am ashamed to say that I did not pay sufficient attention initially to the Goldfish in Fish Adventure Seasons.  The reason that the Goldfish are the very first fish to be available is because they constitute a sort of in-game tutorial on colour breeding.  The cost of the Goldfish in the shop is very inexpensive as is the cost of breeding.  Both are only 50 Coins.  There is no other fish that is as inexpensive to buy or to breed.

You begin with the option of purchasing three different colours:  Red, Blue and Yellow.  The four Elixirs that are available as random items when emptying a Coin Shell or opening a gift are: Red, Blue, Yellow and Green.  In other words, you are given the primary colours and one secondary colour in the form of Green.

In my first game, I was given a special offer that allowed me to buy Mermaids before I had unlocked them.  They are unlocked at Level 15 ordinarily.  I was so excited by the Mermaids that I ignored the Goldfish except to complete Goals that involved them.  Now, in a different Aquarium at a lower level, I am experimenting with the Goldfish.

They are rather amazing.  You really do not need Elixirs or the special Colour-change Magic Elixirs to create amazing new colours in this game.

At the top of this post, you will see some screenshots that show the current tank that is filled with the results of my breeding experiments.  The first thing that occurred rather to my surprise was that I had obtained a goldfish with some pink in its body.  I took that goldfish and attempted to bring more pink into the mix.  I then tried to create purple.  Rather unexpectedly, I received one black and red goldfish named Gizmo.  (The game gives the fish default names.)  Breeding Gizmo twice, I received two very different results from the same partner.  The first was a fish that resembled the mother.  The second was a fish that resembled Gizmo.  This is breeding without any Elixirs.  I experimented with the Elixirs as well.  In this tank, I have not reached Level 10 and therefore cannot obtain the special Elixirs but I used the regular ones.  They tend to be a little overpowering generally.  It really is not necessary to use them apparently.  You can obtain almost ANY colour without the use of Elixirs although you have to do a lot of breeding.

Essentially, this sort of inexpensive breeding is something the game encourages as well as the sale of the results.  Sale of fish gives valuable XP.  In the case of the goldfish, you do not earn many coins through sales but every tank has a maximum population of 30 and you do need the space if you are going to do a lot of breeding.

I take screenshots of the breeding laboratory in order to keep logs of my results.  It is a nice little option in the game but results are erased every day to make way for new ones.  If you do not keep your own log, you will have nothing.  With the mermaids, I hoped to see which of the patterns related to the hair, the crown and stars, the top and the tail.  I haven't spent enough time studying the eggs to know, however.  I need to study the goldfish eggs to see which patterns relate to the fins, body and tail.  My next experiment will be to try to obtain the colour white.  That may be quite challenging.  I expect the easiest way would be to use some Yellow Elixirs.

Starting a New Fish Farm

This is a deceptively simple game, relaxing, enjoyable, with gorgeous graphics...   The complexity lies in the breeding, in obtaining specific colour combinations through the use of Elixirs as well as breeding specific males to females. 

Elixirs do not become available until you reach Level 3 but as soon as you begin this game, you should be aware of them.  The way to obtain Elixirs is twofold: either by emptying a shell filled with Coins (whether your own or your Friend's Shell) or by opening a gift left by a Friend.  Until you reach Level 3, you will not find them in the Coin Shells, but as soon as you reach Level 3, they will begin to pop out randomly when you empty Coin Shells.  They will appear randomly in the treasure chests left by Friends as well.

You will be forced to use some of your Elixirs to achieve specific Goals.   Your Goals appear as a target with an arrow through the centre, located on the left side of your screen.  You can use other Elixirs to experiment with colour results but I now suggest that players begin to save a few each day in anticipation of reaching Level 10.  At Level 10, a 'Slot Machine' gambling game is unlocked wherein you can 'pay' with specific amounts of your basic Elixirs to set a board in motion that allows you to obtain rare Elixirs.

Here is how it works:  There is a board that has shelves that are filled with Elixir bottles.  Common Elixirs will appear as brown bottles.  The rarer Elixirs will appear as white bottles at the bottom of the board.  Any 'magic' Elixirs will appear at the far left of the top shelf.  When you open the Slot Machine Menu, there will be no 'magic' Elixirs.  They will become available only if you deposit or wager a specific number of your ordinary Elixirs on the next 'game'.  The more Elixirs you throw into the wager, the more rare and magic Elixirs that will appear   You then have to tap on 'Bet' at the right moment when the cursor is on one of the rare or magic bottles.  2 Elixirs is the minimum wager. 

Initially, I used my 'rare' Elixirs as soon as I obtained them.  I now have put them aside for the future.  I would like to be more knowledgeable about colour results before I potentially waste a valuable white or purple elixir.  When I used them initially, they did not produce ANY rare colours or results. 

I then discovered that one really does not even need a 'white' elixir to produce a white colour in a fish.  I became very excited when I finally was able to produce a Mermaid with white hair by using a simple yellow Elixir on my breeding couple.   So the 'Slot Machine' is interesting and I do believe it is the only way to produce a fish that changes colour magically (using one of the very rare magic Elixirs found on the top left of the display), but you can achieve some interesting results by using nothing more than your basic four Elixirs.

Basically this is advanced strategy, however.  What you need to do on a daily basis is to visit as many Friends as possible, empty their Coin Shells, leave a treasure chest for each in the Gift Box and then care for your own Fish, emptying your own Coin Shell and opening your Treasure Chests in your Gift Box as they become ready.  Everything in this game has its own time gauge.  Treasure Chests left in your Gift Box cannot be opened instantly and you can leave one in each Friend's Gift box only once in any 24 hour period.  Every type of Fish hatches in a specific time period and then grows to maturity in a specific time period.  You can speed this by using premium Cash in the form of Seastars, but it is better to be patient really.  There are no time limits to Goals.  In this game, your Fish neither will sicken nor die if you neglect them.  Your aquarium will become dirty but that has no negative impact on health.  You simply wipe a sponge over the glass to clean it.  Doing so, incidentally earns you 9 XP and 10 Coins.  Cleaning a Friend's tank earns the same.

Cleaning a specific number of tanks can be a Goal as well, which means that you will earn Seatars (premium cash) as well as XP and Coins when the Goal is completed.  It is one of the quicker ways to earn XP when visiting your Neighbours.

Feeding hungry fish in a Friend's tank earns you neither XP nor Coins although it can be part of a Goal as well.  It is emotionally satisfying, however, if nothing more.

The basic actions to perform daily then are:

1.  Visit each Friend to empty his/her Coin Shell and leave a Treasure Chest in the Gift Box.
2.  Empty your own Coin Shell and pay attention to the Treasure Chests in your own Gift Box in order to open them before they expire.  (Yes, this is the only aspect of the game with a time limit.)
3.  Pay attention to your Goals and try to complete as many as possible.  Raising your Level unlocks new types of Fish and new options in the game.
4.  Clean your own Tanks and those of your Friends to earn XP and Coins.  Feed your own Fish and 'pet' them to earn Coins and XP.
5.  Breed fish and sell them when they are mature, unless you wish to keep a rare colour combination for future breeding.  You earn both XP and Coins by selling mature Fish.

Breeding Log
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Tap on the Heart Icon at the bottom of the screen to gain access to the Breeding option.  You then need to choose a male and a female from the same species.  Only adult fish can be bred and you cannot use a 'hungry' fish, so feed all your fish first.  You cannot crossbreed different species either.  Oddly enough, there are two different 'Molly' species.  In the same Menu is a Breeding Log screen but it only is valid for a period of 24 hours, so if you obtain a specific result from an Elixir and two Fish or two Fish and no Elixir and wish to remember it for future breeding, keep your own log elsewhere.

Once you have bred two fish, they need time to recover before you can breed them again.  Every species has a different recovery period.  Again, you can use premium cash to speed the process, although patience is all that is truly required.

Specific Colours
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The Shop will offer a few different colours of every species of Fish, but you actually need only to purchase one colour as long as you purchase both a male and a female.  You then can obtain all other colours through breeding.  This is where new players, including myself, waste real money (Seastars) by purchasing pretty colours of a new type of fish we have unlocked with a Seastar price.  Always choose the fish with the Coin price and then use Elixirs to obtain the pretty colours!

For example, the third breed to be unlocked is the Scolare.  The Swamp Scolare costs 1200 Coins.  The other type is the Devil Scolare that costs 36 Seastars.  You are better served if you purchase two of the Swamp Scolare (a breeding pair) and then use a Red Elixir to obtain the colour that is displayed by the Devil Scolare.

Note here that colour and price have nothing whatsoever to do with ultimate value.  A Devil Scolare that costs 36 Seastars gives you 12 XP and sells for 1250 Coins.  A Swamp Scolare that costs 1200 Coins gives you 12 XP and sells for 1250 Coins.  In other words, the two are identical in XP and Coin value after being purchased. 

Featured Fish
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This is a special menu that changes periodically, offering high level species of Fish temporarily without any Level (XP) requirements.  It was through the Featured Fish option that one could purchase Whales, ordinarily not unlocked until you reach Level 40.  Often, you have to pay Seastars (premium Cash) for any Featured Fish.  They will be unlocked at a higher level of XP in the ordinary course of the game, however, so again, patience is the key here as with anything in this game.

Those Magical Mermaids

I have to confess that the biggest draw of this game for me is in the form of the Mermaids you can breed.  It is here that breeding with Elixirs can be complex, as although there are fish that are of one colour, Mermaids have a variety of colours.  Their hair is one colour but then they all have a crown and stars in their hair which can consist of many different colours.  Their little brassiere or top is a single colour but their tails can be one colour, two colours or even three colours.

My original Mermaids came to me as a special introductory offer from Google Play but ordinarily they are unlocked only when you reach Level 15.  At Level 15, you can buy Mermaids in three different colour combinations as follows:

Red Haired Mermaid (like Ariel) with a red top, a silver or white crown, blue stars in her hair and a tail that is pale blue and green.  Cost: 77 Seastars

Black-haired Mermaid with a purple crown, purple and green stars in her hair, a green top and gold tail.  Cost: 77 Seastars

Blond-haired Mermaid with a red crown, red stars in her hair, a yellow top and a red and blue tail.  Cost: 77 Seastars

Now, here is an important secret about this game, worth remembering:  YOU NEED TO HAVE TWO OF ANY SPECIES IN ORDER TO BREED THEM BUT THEY CAN BE OF THE SAME COLOUR AND YOU STILL CAN OBTAIN ALL COLOURS BY BREEDING!

In the case of the Mermaids, as all cost the same and are premium purchases, you may as well buy two of different colours, but in many cases, when you unlock a new type of fish, there is only one colour that can be purchased with Coins.  That does not matter.  Use the Coins to buy two of them and then use Elixirs to create new colour combinations.

With respect to the Mermaids, as an example, I originally was able to purchase only the red-haired Mermaids with the special introductory offer.  Even so, I was able to produce black=haired mermaids and blond-haired mermaids by using Elixirs.

Furthermore, although the special 'rare' Elixirs are available when you reach Level 10 by throwing your regular Elixirs into a gambling 'kitty' and then tapping on the screen to try to obtain one, the ONLY really rare Elixir that I think only can be found in this gamble is the colour-changing Elixir.

Black is considered rare as is White but I was able to produce a black-haired Mermaid and just now finally, a white-haired Mermaid by using ordinary Elixirs.

The ordinary Elixirs are Blue, Red, Yellow and Green.

It is the following that finally produced the white-haired Mermaid.

Male:  Red hair, silver crown, green and silver stars, green top, pale blue and green tail
Female: Dark blue hair, purple crown,  black and red stars, black top, red tail
Used plain Yellow Elixir
Result:  White hair, beige/pink crown, brown and yellow stars, yellow top and red tail

It is my first White-haired Mermaid, a colour I really wanted.... the only White Elixir I obtained from the gambling machine did NOT produce a White-Haired Mermaid.  In fact, I think it only produced a White Crown.

2nd White-haired Mermaid created as follows from the first White and the female who produced the first white:

Used the first White as the male, has white hair,  beige/pink crown, brown and yellow stars, yellow top and red tail
Female:  Dark blue hair, purpl crown, black and red stars, black top, red tail
Used White Elixir this time
Result:   White hair, silver crown, silver and blue stars, dark blue top, silver and red/brown tail



I have bred a few Black-haired beauties but the most recent was produced by breeding a Brown-haired Mermaid with a royal blue haired Mermaid.  I did use a Dark Blue Elixir I believe.  The brown-haired Mermaid has hair that really is orange-brown and a tail that is purple and teal.  Orange stars, orange top.  Baby has orange top, solid teal tail and royal blue crown, royal blue and red stars in hair.

The real question here where Elixirs and breeding are concerned is: does the ordinary colour wheel that we studied as young children apply?  The Elixir colours are the three primary colours in the form of Red, Yellow and Blue but include the secondary colour of Green as well.

Primary: Red, Yellow, Blue
Secondary: Green, Purple, Orange
   Red and Blue make Purple
   Red and Yellow make Orange
   Blue and Yellow make Green

To make Black, combine all three primary colours of Red, Yellow and Blue in equal amounts.  Red, Green and Blue should make Black as well.

More on White-Haired Mermaid Breeding
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Having achieved the elusive white-haired result, I began to experiment to see what other combinations would create.  I found that it is difficult to keep White Hair, which is what I suspected.  Without using any Elixirs, I was able to breed two White-Haired Mermaids to create a third White-Haired Mermaid, but adding Elixirs changed.  Here are some specific results:

Light Green Hair Male, green and yellow tail bed with White-Haired Female with silver and brown tail created a White-Haired Female with silver and brown tail, using Yellow Elixir (vertE)

BUT:

White-Haired Male with red tail bred with Blue-Haired Female with Red tail created Blue-Harired Male with gold and brown tail, using Yellow Elixir


White-Haired Male with red tail bred with White-Haired female with borwn and silver tail created White-Haired female with green tail, lime green elixir used

White Haired Male with brown tail and White Haired Female with silver and brown tail created White Haired female with silver and brown tail, when White Elixir used

White Haired Male with red tail and White Haired female with gold and brown tail created white-haired female with pink crown and red tail when pink elixir used (PinkE)

Magic Elixir Results
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The Magic Elixirs can be obtained only from the Slot Machine and then, only if you wager enough ordinary Elixirs.  When they appear, they will be in the upper left corner of the board.  The more common Slot Machine Elixirs, such as Lime, Brown and Dark Blue, occupy the majority of the slots.  The 'rare' Elixirs in the form of White, Purple, Pink and Black (as well as some others possibly of which I am not yet aware) will be on the bottom shelf initially but if you continue to add Elixirs to your 'bet', then will begin to take slots in the middle shelf on the right as well.  You have to hit the button while the circle is on the Elixir to win it.  Movement tends to be quick and even quicker where the rare colours and colour-changing Magic Elixirs are concerned.

I did not realise that there was more than one different Magic Elixir.  I now have 'won' a Blue Colour-Change Elixir in one game and a Purple Colour-Change Elixir in the other.

In the game where I won the Blue Colour Change Magic Elixir, I have no Mermaids yet and I really would like to use the Magic Elixirs on Mermaids if possible.  Mermaids are unlocked at Level 15, but in the game that is on my Android Device, a special offer was given when I first began to play that allowed one to purchase Mermaids at a very low price for a very limited time period.  Remember always in such a case that you need TWO of any species if you wish to be able to breed them and, moreover, one male and one female!  The game usually will alternate gender by itself but be careful and make certain in the case of a special type with a premium cash price that you do not buy two of the same gender!  Gender is indicated by the ancient Mars and Venus astrological symbols.

I did use the Purple Magic Elixir as soon as I won it and the results are as follows:

White-haired Male with red tail (PinkE) with White-Haired Female with green and yellow tail, Purple Magic Elixir:  the entire Mermaid flashes purple.  In other words, it is a sold-coloured Purple Mermaid with purple hair, purple top and purple tail, that flashes from a lighter to a darker purple.

In the Birdland Paradise game by the same firm, birds that have the Rainbow colour-change effect cannot be bred.  That is not the case with respect to Fish Adventure Seasons.  The colour change result when a Mermaid that has been created by the Elixir is bred to another Mermaid  appears to be RANDOM.  The first time I bred her, I obtained a Mermaid with no hint of the colour change.  That was with the following:

White-Haired Male with red tail (Sir Alba) bred with Colour-Change Mermaid, no Elixir used: result was a White Haired Memaid with a red tail almost identical to the father.

White-Haired Male with Pink Crown and Red Tail bred to the Purple Colour-Change Mermaid, using a White Elixir resulted in a White-Haired Mermaid with a purple tail.    She is still a baby so difficult to tell if the tail flashes but it rather looks like it does not flash.  It is the same colour as the Magic Elixir that produced the mother but without the colour-change quality I think.  Well, I could not stand the suspense, so I paid 8 Seastars to grow the baby instantly... what I discovered is very interesting.  She has the purple colour-change stars in her hair and a purple colour-change top but her tail is a sold purple that does not flash at all.

I am not going to use Seastars to grow the other one instantly but even in its small size, I can see there is no purple, colour-changing or otherwise on that little Mermaid.  So the colour-change result on any offspring of the original is random.

White is Recessive
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I suppose any one who knows anything about colour would realise this to be the case.  It is difficult to obtain the White-Hair and difficult to keep it.  Most of the time, when I breed a White-Haired Mermaid with a Mermaid with a different hair colour, I do not obtain a White-Haired infant.  I still marvel that I ever obtained the first White-Haired Mermaid, because the male had red hair and the female had blue hair.

Fish Adventure Seasons Initial Gameplay

Fish Adventure Seasons is a game created for mobile platforms.  I am not certain how old it is but it postdates the original Fish Adventures game.  I have not played the latter really because the graphics are old-fashioned and less attractive than its descendant.

This is a free game that can be downloaded either from the Google Play Store or your Kindle Apps Shop.  I have not discovered how, if it is indeed at all possible, an existing game can be downloaded to more than one device.   So far, each of my devices has a new game on it!  This can be useful, however, as every fish farmer can visit his/her neighbours on a daily basis to perform a number of tasks, including that of emptying a shell filled with coins and leaving a gift.  By having more than one fish farm, therefore, one can ensure that one has at least one new gift in the Gift receptacle each day and that one has been able to empty at least one coin shell.

Do I recommend this game?  If you enjoy relaxing mobile games with beautiful graphics, you probably will like this one immensely.  I certainly do.  I did make a few initial mistakes, mainly in terms of being persuaded to spend money on the game when I really did not need to do so, but that is one reason I am publishing a few tips in this post.  It is a free game and you absolutely can play it without spending money.  Both Coins and Seastars (premium cash) can be found randomly in the Gift Boxes (treasure chests) left by your friends/neighbours.  Although some fish are premium cash purchases, you do not need to buy them in order to enjoy the game.

My favourite 'fish' is the Mermaid.  It was not offered as an initial special offer when I downloaded the game for my Kindle, but it was offered as a special initial sale offer when I downloaded the game from Google Play for my Android device.  Three colours of Mermaids will become available when you reach Level 15, so if you are playing the game on your Kindle, you need not despair!  There is a downside to the acquisition of Mermaids early in the game, believe it or not, if you lack patience.  They are quite expensive to breed, costing almost 4500 to breed any pair.  The eggs take longer to hatch than the goldfish or bettas or any other low level fish as well, so it is easy to be persuaded to use your premium cash to speed the hatching of the egg.  A wise player will WAIT.

Initial Gameplay
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You begin the game with a single tank and the ability to buy Gold Fish in the Shop.  There are three colours of Gold Fish that can be purchased in the form of Red, Blue and Yellow.  You can breed them to create new colour combinations.  Some of your early Goals involve specific colour combinations.  Goals are found on the left side of the screen in a target icon.  They will give you valuable rewards in terms of Coins and XP.

At Level 3, I believe, Elixirs begin to pop out of coin shells randomly when you empty them.  These Elixirs are the key to creating new colours for your fish.  Essentially, Fish Adventure Seasons is a fish breeding game so the Elixirs are in fact central.  At Level 10, you gain access to a sort of gambling game wherein you offer two or more of your basic elixirs to the game to be able to obtain a less common colour of Elixir.  Within this game, there are a number of hybrid colours that themselves are considered 'common' and a few that are considered 'rare'.  The rare Elixirs include neon colours, flashing colours and the colour White.

As your experience Level increases, you will unlock new items in the Shop, including new breeds of fish, decorations, accessories and themes.  There is another Shop menu that has temporary offers of 'featured' fish, decorations, themes and accessories.

It is here that knowing something about the game can help you immensely.  'Featured' fish often are nothing more than Fish types that can be unlocked at higher levels.  Sometimes they are offered in colours that are not available in the ordinary Shop but never forget the power of the Elixirs!

In the ordinary shop in the Fish Menu, it is important always to remember the power of the Elixirs as when a new type of fish is unlocked, you often will find that one colour is available as a Coin purchase but the second is a Seastar (premium cash) purchase.  Do not be misled into thinking that the only way to breed this type of fish is by purchasing one of each!  You can purchase two of the Fish that are sold for coins, then breed them into a new colour by using an Elixir.  This is one of the most important tips I can offer to new players.