Do we know the "best" fish pond fish yet?

[I Kinda Fail]

If I'm reading the wiki right, the slimejack have a 40% chance to get 10-50 slime per day instead of roe, and you can turn 100 slime into an egg worth 1-7.5k, I think?

Void salmon can give 1-3 roe with an 83% chance, whatever that means, but some of their other loot is mediocre, like void essence and void eggs.

Super cucumbers have a rare chance to give iridium ore or gems.

Tiger trout have a pretty good chance of giving 2 roe, whereas most fish give either 1, or 1-3.

All the crab pot stuff has a chance to give warp totems... but also a pretty good chance to give trash. Overall I'd say these aren't worth it, unless you need a particular fish, like periwinkle or snails.

Lava eel and blobfish are the obvious top 2 contenders. The lava eel can give magma geodes and spicy eel, to make gathering iridium easier, along with a decent chance at 2-3 roe per harvest. Blobfish have a chance at producing pearls, however, which sell for 2.5k, along with giving a chance at getting some free farm warp totems.

Basically, I'm asking if different fish are better in certain circumstances, or if one fish is always the best? Are slimejack good for someone running a slime ranch? Are super cucumbers great for pacifist runs, as an alternate means of getting iridium? Does the tiger trout's chance at giving 2 roe consistently beat out the lava eel's chance at 1-3 roe? Is one type better for someone who wants to harvest daily vs every few days? Is caviar worth it at all, or less money per day than high quality roe?

As far as I can tell, the wiki's still analyzing all the data. I was wondering if anyone else had started a massive fish farm yet. I was planning on making 20 fish ponds for my farm, and wondering if it's better to have, say, 10 blobfish and 10 lava eels, or 4 of 5 types of ponds, or what? Right now I'm leaning towards 4 slimejack, 8 lava eels, and 8 blobfish, but I'm curious if tiger trout or sturgeon are worth consideration.

[Minty Fresh]

Have at least one sturgeon - the caviar is useful for the missing bundle.

I have a lave eels ponds and, to upgrade it, one of the requests was basalt which isn't something I'd normally have in storage. It took ages to find some - just something to keep in mind if you are trying to get 8 of them.

And you need a lot of seaweed - better do lots of ocean fishing.

[~\\Savarast//~]

I think it will depend heavily on what you want to do. Nothing they provide are that overwhelmingly amazing so I'd figure most people will use the fish ponds to fill in gaps.

Like you already posted fish like Lava Eel, Blobfish, Super Cucumber, Octopus, Sturgeon are all contenders for basically any play through

Slimejack might be useful for a the Slime Hutch but in general thats pretty meh.

Outside those fish, I wouldn't consider any of the others. Even basic Roe comes up enough with the above mentioned that Tiger Trout seems meaningless and anything else other fish drop are either very easy and common to get or at such a low % that why bother?

[Bob]

I think the ponds could use a tad buff, but at the end of the day you can mix and match them in a playthrough that you want to dedicate purely to fishing. Simply adds a decent option to make money while also supplying random items over time with enough ponds.

I assume the idea is that a fisherman would spend a lot of time fishing (of course) or potting, and that the ponds allow you to do less of other activities.

With that said, I think having lava eels for money and a mix of other misc fish for items isn't a terrible idea, so long as you base it around activities you don't want to do much of.

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by Kulgan from Crydee:

Have at least one sturgeon - the caviar is useful for the missing bundle.

I have a lave eels ponds and, to upgrade it, one of the requests was basalt which isn't something I'd normally have in storage. It took ages to find some - just something to keep in mind if you are trying to get 8 of them.

And you need a lot of seaweed - better do lots of ocean fishing.

I don't do the community center on any kind of niche/challenge run. :P I only did the CC 2 or 3 times across like 12 different playthroughs.

And yeah, seaweed isn't THAT hard to gather, but it's still a pain. I'm checking the beach every Saturday to try and forage it, but a dedicated day of fishing at the beach still typically gives me 5-10 seaweed per day. I'd only need 100 for 20 ponds, and I already have like 25 in early Summer. I think the submarine typically gives a ton too, if you're unlucky, and I need to do that to stock up on blobfish anyways.

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by Bob:

I think the ponds could use a tad buff, but at the end of the day you can mix and match them in a playthrough that you want to dedicate purely to fishing. Simply adds a decent option to make money while also supplying random items over time with enough ponds.

I assume the idea is that a fisherman would spend a lot of time fishing (of course) or potting, and that the ponds allow you to do less of other activities.

I think roe and caviar could use a buff. Much like how cheese counts as both an animal product AND an artisan good, if I remember right, it'd be nice if fish eggs counted as fish and an artisan good, so it gets buffed by both the level 10 perk AND Artisan. As of right now, it's actually better for me to take the crab pot skill tree for trash/sashimi/fertilizer, because all my fish ponds will be for is their chum buckets, not providing actual fish. It'd also be nice if we could toss the eggs back into the ponds to make them breed faster, sacrificing profit to max out the pond faster.

And yeah, while the ponds aren't amazing, they do open up a whole world of possibilities in some niche playstyles. I had one challenge run where I could do anything except gain Farming and Fishing XP. So fruit trees and growing wild forage were what I did instead of forage. Now you can build fish ponds and buy fish from Krobus or the traveling cart to maybe find an alternate way of gathering.

It also opens up new types of challenge runs, I guess... A "no mining" run, but you get stonefish, ice pip, super cucumber, and lava eel from Krobus or the cart to farm geodes and bars.

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by ~\\Savarast//~:

Slimejack might be useful for a the Slime Hutch but in general thats pretty meh.

Leave my poor slimes alone. :c I like slime ranching, even though it's pretty mediocre profit-wise.

I'm doing a thematic Four Corners playthrough. My northwest corner is all tapper trees and bees. Southwest corner is 20 fish ponds. Southeast is slime ranching and processing sheds. Northeast is my farming square.

On this particular file, it'll mean harvesting my 4 slime hutches daily, along with breeding purple slimes outdoors. Paired with a few slimejack, I "should" be able to get about 3 slime eggs per day, for 3-15k per day. Not a lot, but a tiny bit of profit is nice while farming purple eggs.

[~\\Savarast//~]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

Leave my poor slimes alone. :c I like slime ranching, even though it's pretty mediocre profit-wise.

I'm doing a thematic Four Corners playthrough. My northwest corner is all tapper trees and bees. Southwest corner is 20 fish ponds. Southeast is slime ranching and processing sheds. Northeast is my farming square.

On this particular file, it'll mean harvesting my 4 slime hutches daily, along with breeding purple slimes outdoors. Paired with a few slimejack, I "should" be able to get about 3 slime eggs per day, for 3-15k per day. Not a lot, but a tiny bit of profit is nice while farming purple eggs.

I really wish it was better implemented, I only really build it because I feel I -must- have one of each building, I like how it looks, and the 1% drop of the slime eggs from Slimes in the dungeons. This playthrough Im thinking I might cut it in half: right for small slimey pen and left a crystalarium farm.

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by ~\\Savarast//~:

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

Leave my poor slimes alone. :c I like slime ranching, even though it's pretty mediocre profit-wise.

I'm doing a thematic Four Corners playthrough. My northwest corner is all tapper trees and bees. Southwest corner is 20 fish ponds. Southeast is slime ranching and processing sheds. Northeast is my farming square.

On this particular file, it'll mean harvesting my 4 slime hutches daily, along with breeding purple slimes outdoors. Paired with a few slimejack, I "should" be able to get about 3 slime eggs per day, for 3-15k per day. Not a lot, but a tiny bit of profit is nice while farming purple eggs.

I really wish it was better implemented, I only really build it because I feel I -must- have one of each building, I like how it looks, and the 1% drop of the slime eggs from Slimes in the dungeons. This playthrough Im thinking I might cut it in half: right for small slimey pen and left a crystalarium farm.

I wish we could customize the looks of buildings. Make all our buildings made of stone like the slime hutch, or make a wooden slime hutch. Like how the cabins have 3 different types, and can be upgraded to improve their looks. I'd love more diversity in the vanilla game. The slime hutch stands out like a sore thumb.

You can also do what I do sometimes, and build the hutch to unlock slime egg drops, then immediately destroy the building. You just spent 10k to get a permanent buff to monster drops.

[~\\Savarast//~]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

I wish we could customize the looks of buildings. Make all our buildings made of stone like the slime hutch, or make a wooden slime hutch. Like how the cabins have 3 different types, and can be upgraded to improve their looks. I'd love more diversity in the vanilla game. The slime hutch stands out like a sore thumb.

You can also do what I do sometimes, and build the hutch to unlock slime egg drops, then immediately destroy the building. You just spent 10k to get a permanent buff to monster drops.

We need SDV2!

[Richard]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

I wish we could customize the looks of buildings. Make all our buildings made of stone like the slime hutch, or make a wooden slime hutch. Like how the cabins have 3 different types, and can be upgraded to improve their looks. I'd love more diversity in the vanilla game. The slime hutch stands out like a sore thumb.

That's what we have mods for. Customize Exterior[www.nexusmods.com] is the best for changing appearance of buildings on the fly.

[josseriot]

So far fish ponds don't seem terribly profitable. But one upside is once the ponds are fully stocked, they produce roe endlessly without additional maintenance. So there's that.

With the Artisan perk I'm fetching around 1050g for aged Lava Eel roe--every other fish I've tried fetches considerably less, with the exception of sturgeon and caviar (I think that fetches 1400g with the Artisan perk). Lave Eels produce roe every four days. I tried fish like Sardine that produce it every other day, but that higher frequency doesn't seem to make up for the low price their roe gets.

I have 6 ponds in my current playthru with 5 that produce roe--Sturgeon, Lava Eel, Midnight Carp, Flounder, and Eel (the 6th one has Squid)--and overall it produces enough roe to keep 14-16 preserve jars full all the time. I could make it more profitable by switching other ponds over to Sturgeon or Lava Eels but I like the variety and I wanted those other fish for making the Seafoam Pudding and the Spicy Eel. It's not hugely profitable on its own, but it's a nice low maintenance addition to my usual mass production of wine, aged goat cheese and pickles.