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.