General tips

  • When Fish Farm 3 is active and in foreground, i.e., when you play the game, the time leap applies: Your fish will hatch and grow 5 times faster than in case of not actively playing.
  • Fish need time and food to grow. They won’t grow if they are hungry. For the maximum growth rate, you should feed your fish every 12 hours.
  • Levelling up works by gaining Experience (XP). The main way to gain Experience is to buy, breed or sell fish. Feeding fish and keeping adult fish will generate small amounts of XP as well.
  • You can tap on a fish to follow its movements.
  • Recolored fish cannot be used to breed for your Collection.
  • Breeding fish is time-consuming but saves you a lot of money: Don’t buy fish at the Shop if you wan’t to earn a lot of Coins. Breed them!
  • Slow fish need to be fed directly by tapping on them.
  • Initially, you can catch one fish per day for free. Depending on your Skills, you might be able to catch more fish for free.
  • Come back and play every day to receive helpful rewards.
  • Catching fish for money (that is, not for free) is still a good deal. You can sell them instantly, and usually earn some Coins and gain XP.
  • Don’t let the Health value of your Aquarium drop negative (there is also a skeleton as a visual clue to warn you)! Feed your fish every 12 hours and change your water once per week — your little friends will stay healthy forever.
  • If not being paid for watching videos, you can try to uninstall and reinstall Fish Farm 3. Please make
    sure to have backed up your progress before!
  • If you want to get some inspiration on how your tanks could look like, just visit the example tanks in the Aquarium Selection screen
  • Need some more information about your fish? Just click the (i) symbol in the Shop or in the Fish Info Window

FAQ

How to earn money

Fish Farm 3 uses two currencies: Coins and Fish-$ (premium currency).
Some fish and decoration items require Fish-$ to be bought or rewarded.
In the Exchange, you can exchange Fish-$ into Coins. By activating the Exchange Add-On via in-app purchase, you can exchange Coins into Fish-$. The exchange rate is 1 Fish-$ to 10 Coins.
When selling fish or items, you will always receive Coins (even if you paid Fish-$).
To earn Coins, you should sell adult fish only.

How to gain XP and level up

Levelling up works by gaining Experience (XP). The main way to gain XP, and thus to level up, is to buy, breed, or sell fish.
Feeding fish and keeping adult fish generates small amounts of XP as well.
XP for keeping fish is generated very slowly, in particular if there are only a few creatures in the tank. This XP is only generated for adult, healthy and well-fed fish.
We show the Collect XP button only if a certain amount of XP is accumulated. Depending on your style of playing it can take hours or days or even more until the button appears.
If you sell your adults instantly you never get this kind of XP. However, the XP generated for selling your adults was much higher.

How to care for your fish

Simply feed your fish every 12 hours and change your water once per week to keep your little friends healthy forever. Once, your fish are sick, you need to pay for the doctor to heal them (or buy the Auto-Doctor Add-On).
Don’t let the Health value of your Aquarium drop negative (there is also a skeleton as a visual clue to warn you)! A negative Health value occurs when your tank is overcrowded. It leads to your fish getting sick slowly even if you feed them regularly and change the water!
Add filters to raise your Health value. Some decoration items raise the Health value too.

Head-up Display (HUD)

The main HUD lets you alter the control mode of Fish Farm 3 at the very bottom: Edit fish, Feed fish, Day/Night mode, Knock mode, and Edit deco.
There are also shortcuts to some in-game operations; they can be hidden in the Settings menu.
At the top, you can see details of your game progress and the fish/deco count of the current tank.
Below these details, there is a “to-do list”, giving you a hint if something important happened within the current tank. You can close the current hint here. To ultimately disable the to-do list, please use the Settings menu.

Shop Window

You can buy fish, decoration, background, gravel, tanks, and aquarium equipment in the Shop.
Items can be purchased for Coins or Fish-$ (premium items).
On the left, items can be filtered by aquarium kind. On the right, the item type can be selected.
Items will be locked if they require a higher level in order to be purchased (the level is shown in the yellow star).
The information window for each item shows further item details.
For plants, you can choose to buy a seedling or a fully-grown plant. A seedling will grow up within 12 hours. All plants look different, the shown image is just an example.

Storage Window

Unneeded items can be put into Storage for later use.
Generally, all items that can be bought in the Shop except tanks can be put into storage. To store fish, some Skill needs to be activated. To increase the storage capacity, activate the respective Skills.
On the left, stored items can be filtered by aquarium kind. On the right, you can filter by item type. If nothing is selected, all items will be shown.
The information window for each stored item shows further item details.
To remove stored items, simply sell them.

Breed Window

Adult, healthy fish from the same aquarium can mate and breed. The fish selection shows why a fish cannot be used for breeding.
After mating, a fish has to wait a species-specific time until it can mate again.
Cross-breeding (X-breeding) requires some Skill to be activated.
You cannot cross-breed different creature classes, for example, breeding starfish with seahorses doesn’t work.
When cross-breeding, you can pick a random result or the displayed example (being more expensive). The displayed example can be altered using the respective button.
You can activate Skills to decrease the breeding time, to decrease the non-random X-breeding price, to decrease the hatching time, and to decrease the growing time.
Generally, breeding fish is less expensive than buying fish.

Recolor Window

You can recolor every fish in Fish Farm 3. Recolored Fish can be cross-bred.
Please be careful if you try to breed collection items — collection fish always have non-recolored fish as their parents.
You can pick a random coloring result or the displayed example (being more expensive). The displayed example can be altered using the respective button.
You can activate some Skills to decrease the non-random recoloring price.

Collection Window

When cross-breeding fish, you can try to breed the patterns (e.g., Mix Type AEQJ 5) in the Collection. When you succeed, you will receive the shown reward. Afterwards, you can buy the collection fish whenever you like.
Please be careful if you try to breed collection items — collection fish always have non-recolored fish as their parents.
Collection fish can be bred from a certain level onwards (shown in the yellow star), as their parents require a particular level.

Skills Window

By activating Skills, you receive various benefits while playing, for example, you can zoom into your aquariums or place more fish in your aquariums.
You need Skill Points (shown in the pink stars) to activate Skills. Skills Points are awarded for levelling up and can be bought via in-app purchase.
Skills might have different levels, for example, allowing you to place more and more fish in your tanks with each Skill level. The text for each Skill describes what you receive when unlocking the Skill or the next Skill level.
Activating a Skill might required one or more Skill Points, the amount is shown above the plus button.
Here is an overview of all Skills:
Aquariums

  • Saltwater – Unlock saltwater aquariums
  • Jelly – Unlock jelly aquariums
  • Ocean – Unlock ocean aquariums
  • Tanks+ – Increase aquarium limit
  • Freshwater+ – More fish for freshwater aquariums
  • Saltwater+ – More fish for saltwater aquariums
  • Jelly+ – More fish for jelly aquariums
  • Ocean+ – More fish for ocean aquariums
  • Zoom – Zoom into your aquariums

Creatures

  • Starfish – Unlock starfish
  • Seahorse – Unlock seahorses
  • Turtle – Unlock turtles
  • Seashell – Unlock seashells

Storage

  • Hoarder – More storage capacity
  • Wet Storage – Allows to store fish

Mini games

  • Catch – Catch fish for free more often
  • Stamina+ – More time to play Shallow Run

Game properties

  • X-Breed – Enable cross-breeding
  • Speed Breed – Reduce the time fish need to rest after breeding
  • Speed Hatch – Reduce the time fish need to hatch
  • Speed Grow – Reduce the time fish need to grow up
  • Breed% – Reduce the price for cross-breeding your favorite child, that is, the child being displayed
  • Recolor% – Reduce the price for your favorite recoloring, that is, the recoloring being displayed
  • Doctor% – Reduce the price you need to pay for the doctor down to 1 Fish-$ per fish
  • XP+ – Increases the amount of experience created by XP-generating operations (e.g. buy, breed or sell fish)

Achievements Window

While playing, you will earn achievements for progressing in the game. You receive rewards for each achievement you master.
Achievements might have different levels, for example, for breeding different amounts of fish. The text for an Achievement shows what needs to be done to earn the Achievement or the next Achievement level. An indicator might also show your progress.
Achievements are connected to the App-Store-depended Achievement infrastructure (Game Center, Google Play Games, or GameCircle).
You can also take a look at the App-Store-depended Leaderboards here.

Friends Window

When signing in to Facebook, you can access all your Facebook friends that are playing Fish Farm 3 (and have connected to Facebook as well).
To have more friends shown here, just invite your Facebook friends that are not playing Fish Farm 3 to start playing (using the envelope on the right, not available on all game platforms). You can also find new friends using magnifying glass on the right.
Alternatively connect to some people on Facebook that play Fish Farm 3. You might find them on our FF3 Facebook page or in the FF3 Friends Facebook group.
You can send gifts to each friend (every 24 hours) and view the aquariums they have published.
To access the gifts you have received, select Gifts.
At the bottom of the screen, you can publish your own aquarium and view random published aquariums of random other players.

Gifts Window

Here you can access all gifts you have received from your friends. You can place these gifts in your aquariums.
Gifts are delivered to you when you freshly start Fish Farm 3, and in certain time intervals afterwards. So, keep in mind that it might take some time until new gifts appear in your gift list.
Gifts you have received cannot be sold. If you do not have friends that send you gift fish, you can catch them in the Catch Game.

Send Gifts Window

You can send the gifts shown here to the previously selected friend.
Gifts will be locked if they require a higher level in order to be sent (the level is shown in the yellow star).
You can send a gift to a friend every 24 hours, that is, each friend can receive one gift from you every 24 hours.

Shallow Run

Shallow Runs allows you to collect Coins, Fish-$ and XP with your fish.
Each fish can play once every hour. All healthy fish are available to play.
You have a limited time to collect loot. The higher the level of the fish, the more loot you can find.
If playing with a premium fish (that is, a fish that cost Fish-$), there is a small chance to find Fish-$ while playing.
You can activate some Skills to increase the playing time.

Catch Game

The Catch Game lets you catch saltwater and freshwater fish.
You can catch one free fish every 12 hours. You can activate some Skills to decrease the time between free catches.
Catching fish for money (that is, not for free) is still a good deal. You can sell them instantly, and usually earn some Coins and gain XP. Furthermore, you can catch gift fish, which are not available in the ordinary Shop.
Once a fish has surfaced, use the pinch gesture to catch it. In the Windows version, you need to encircle the fish. The following video shows the successful catching of fish if you cannot work it out yourself.

Bank Window

Here you can perform in-app purchases to receive Coins, Fish-$, and Skill Points.
You can also access the Exchange to convert between Coins and Fish-$. Additionally, the Black Market lets you exchange to Fish-$.
You might also use the offers for free Fish-$ to receive the premium currency. Please keep in mind that there is no guarantee that all offers work for you! If they don’t work most of the time, just stop using them! Please use the form on the Offerwall to report missing payouts.
If not being paid for watching videos, you can try to uninstall and reinstall Fish Farm 3. Please make sure to have backed up your progress before!
Surveys might contain a screening process, and you will only be rewarded once the screening process is over and the real survey starts. Even if screened out, your answers might allow the survey provider to deliver matching surveys at some later time.

Exchange Window

Using the Exchange, you can exchange Fish-$ to Coins whenever you like. To exchange Coins to Fish-$, simply enable the Exchange Add-On via in-app purchase. The exchange rate is 1 Fish-$ to 10 Coins.

Black Market

On the Black Market, you can exchange Skill Points and Coins to Fish-$ for varying exchange rates.
Please note that the Black Market is not available all the time. You need to play while being online to use the Black Market.

Chores Window

In the Chores section, you can automate feeding and the change of water. You can schedule actions for up to one week. Scheduling will cost some in-game currency. Actions can also be unscheduled, leading to a refund.
The screen also gives you an overview what has to be done in your aquariums in the near future.
Scheduling chores can be helpful to keep your fish healthy if you cannot take care of them regularly.
For your convenience, you can deactivate the purchases Auto-Doctor, the Auto-Feeder, and the Auto-Cleaner Add-Ons from this window, for example, to feed your fish manually.
Keep in mind that the Chores module is not as smart as you are. It will feed your fish even if they became sick in your absence or you fed them manually.
Keep in mind that your aquariums need a non-negative Health value to keep your fish healthy.

Add-Ons Window

There are various Add-Ons to be enabled via in-app purchase to make playing Fish Farm 3 easier. Each Add-On shows information about its usefulness.
Add-Ons are available on all your devices that use the Store account you bought the Add-On with. Use the Restore button if your bought Add-Ons are missing.

Settings Window

Fish Farm 3 stores your progress on your device only. To be prepared for device failures, please backup your game progress to the Cloud from time to time. The backup infrastructure we use depends on your app version (iOS, Google Play, Amazon, or Windows).
Simply enable the auto-backup feature to have your progress attempted to be backed up automatically from time to time (all 15 minutes). If the backup fails various times in a row, you will be notified. Please note that auto-backup is initially disabled after restoring a previously backed-up game (to avoid you accidentally overwriting your latest backup).
Please note that after restoring your progress, your fish will not have been fed since the time you backed up your progress! For example, when restoring after one week, the result will be the same as having left your aquariums untouched for a week.
You can also disable Fish Shadows in the Settings. This might help on low-end devices if your game is lagging due to the computationally-complex 3D graphics. You can also disable reflections for shiny fish in the Settings.
In case of problems, please open a Support Case and tell us about your issue in the e-mail that will open up. Please do not delete or alter the game-related information we have already filled in: we might not be able to help you otherwise.
Fish Farm 3 supports a selection of languages. You can change the language setting here. The initial language is chosen based on your device language. Please note that all languages except English, German, French, and Thai are machine-translated (marked by a robot) only. If you want to have your language in the game, please contact us with your offer to help!
In case there are graphic errors in your thumbnails, your fish or deco items, try using the Recompute Thumbnails button, which will recalculate some graphics.
If you want to start a new game, tap the respective button. This will remove all your progress, including in-app purchases. You can restore your Add-Ons though after starting new.
To have a better view of your fish tank, you can disable the shortcuts shown in the HUD (Head-up Display). As advanced player, you can also disable the (black) to-do list shown at the top of the HUD.

Screenshot Window

Once a screenshot was captured, you can store it in your device gallery.
You can also send your screenshot to other apps on your device. All apps supporting images will be shown when clicking this button (provided they are configured to be shown in your device settings).
In the Android version, you can directly send your screenshot to Instagram, for example, to take part in the Photo Competition. If installed, Instagram will also be shown when using the “other apps” button.

Aquarium Info Window

This window shows important information about your aquarium. You can rename you aquarium, sell your aquarium, sell all fish of your aquarium at once (for example, useful when using this aquarium for breeding only), sell all deco of your aquarium at once, change the water, and add filters, light, background and gravel. Clicking on these items brings up further details about them, including the option to sell, or move them to another tank or into storage.
Furthermore, your aquariums’s Health value is shown in this window. Keep in mind that your aquariums need a non-negative Health value to keep your fish healthy (there is a skeleton as a visual clue to warn you if your Health value is too low). Add filters to raise your Health value. Some decoration items raise the value too.
The aquarium info window lets you work through all your aquariums. You can visit them using the Play button.

Fish Info Window

This window lets you access all details about a fish. You can change the name, check the fish size, check if a fish needs to be fed, check the Health value, and see when a fish is ready for mating. Use the arrows to access this information for other fish of the same aquarium.
Under the fish icon, near the option to sell a fish, you will see the sales price. The heart lets you start breeding, the brush lets you recolor your fish. To instantly grow a fish (or let an egg hatch), use the instant grow button. Furthermore, you can move your fish to another aquarium or into storage. To play Shallow Run, use the Play button.
The (i) symbol brings up additional information for cross-bred fish, or links to some external information about your fish.
If your fish is sick, you can see this in this window and cure your fish by visiting the doctor.
If your fish was recolored, this will be indicated in this window. Please remember that collection fish always need non-recolored parents.
Your fish will grow and hatch much faster when you actively play Fish Farm 3, that is, when the app is open and in foreground (time leap function). The time to adult / time to hatch shown here is the normal time when not playing. If you click on the clock symbol next to the time, you will see the time left while playing Fish Farm 3 (i.e., while using the time leap).

Edit Deco HUD

In Edit Deco mode, you can easily move your decoration items and rotate them in all directions. You can also sell and move your decoration here (or put it into Storage). When selected, the current item will be placed on top of other decoration items instead of on the gravel. For plants, you can also see their size in Edit Deco mode.
In Edit Deco mode, you can also switch between top and front view for a better overview of your aquarium setup. Digging up gravel allows you to customize your gravel.

Photo Competition

Publish your screenshots to Instagram to let others enjoy your beautiful aquariums as well.
We will hold regular Photo Competitions. Simply publish your screenshots to Instagram using the tag #fishfarm3. The best screenshots will be selected by us. Winners will be contacted via Instagram and be instructed how to claim the prize. Please ensure to follow us to be able to receive our messages!
This window announces the current competition and shows the winners of the last competition. You can also view all published screenshots here.

University

The University helps you gaining XP and thus levelling up quickly. On the top, you can level-up immediately and get an XP boost by using in-app purchases.
At the bottom, you can play three mini games and earn XP while playing.
But please remember: The main way to gain XP and to level up is to buy, breed, and sell your fish! The University is not required to master the game.

Graduation

Here you can use in-app purchases to level up immediately. The XP Boost Add-On gives you 50% more XP and thus lets you level up 50% faster. The XP Boost works on top of the XP+ Skill.

Mini Games

Find Pairs
In this game, you need to find all matching pairs within the shown time. Turning a non-matching card more than once is counted a mistake, as you already know the fish on the card.
With higher levels of the game, the similarity of the fish on your cards increases. Additionally, the playing time and the number of allowed mistakes decrease.

Reaction
In this game, you need to identify identical fish as fast as you can. Simply tap on the button as soon as at least two identical fish are shown. Depending on the level, two or three fish are shown to you.
Not tapping the button, tapping the button too late, and tapping the button incorrectly end the game.
With higher levels of the game, the similarity of the shown fish increases. Additionally, the allowed reaction time decreases.

Remember the Order
In this game, you need to memorize the fish shown to you. Please ensure you memorize the fish and not their positions, as the fish will be shuffled before the game starts.
When playing, simply tap the fish you memorized in the correct order. Level 1 easily starts with 3 fish.
With higher levels of the game, the fish count to memorize and fish similarity increase.

Saved Games and Backups

Fish Farm 3 is an offline game, and not an online game. Your game progress is thus stored on your device only. Only you are responsible for your game progress and are the only one having access to it (apart from us when reading/writing it within the game).
If your game progress cannot be written to your device (as no space left or some device issue), there will be a warning message within the game. The only time some of your progress might be lost is when the game crashes. The progress is tried to be saved regularly though, so this loss cannot be for a long period of time (except there were continuous warning messages before).
If you use tools that claim to speed up your device or free unused storage on your device, you use them at your own risk. If these tools remove your game progress, it was your very own choice.
If you remove some memory card from your device, your progress might be lost.
If you uninstall Fish Farm 3 or delete some game-related files on your own, your local game progress will most likely be lost (you can back it up before though).
The backup uses different technologies depending on the App Store (Google Play Games, iCloud, or Facebook). In case of iCloud and Google Play Games, the backup space is your own Cloud space, which we do not have access to (apart from reading/writing it within the game). Please be aware that you might accidentally delete your backup if you decide to do anything to the files that are backed up in your Cloud.
For iOS, Windows and Amazon, there is exactly one backup spot for all your Fish Farm 3 games on all your devices (using the same iCloud/Facebook account). Please ensure you do not accidentally overwrite your precious backup from Device A with a backup from some other Device B or with a backup from some freshly started game on Device A or B.

Known issues

If you think you have discovered a bug or glitch, simply open a Support Case in the Fish Farm 3 Settings menu.
Below you can find some issues that are already known to us but have not been fixed so far:

  • If some of your creatures look weird or just black, try the Recompute Thumbnails button in the Settings menu
  • Your Facebook login may expire after 60 days and you need to login again
  • If you revoke the friends permission when logging in with Facebook, on some platforms, you might not be able to grant this permission when opening the Friends window. In this case, you need to remove Fish Farm 3 as App logged in with Facebook (using your Facebook settings). When you then login again in Fish Farm 3, simply grant the friends permission initially
  • Some creatures (in particular snails, starfish) might get captured in deco items (or very rarely even disappear). If this happens, simply switch your tank, and they should be okay again
  • Fish Farm 3 only runs in fullscreen landscape mode. Running it in portrait mode (e.g., by using third-party tools on Android, or working with portrait displays in desktop versions) is not supported and might lead to errors
  • Visuals of new creatures (big creatures, rays), in particular of cross-breeds, might slightly change in future game versions