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.