Best fish for fish pond

[0-0]

Is it Lava Eel, Blobfish or Sturgeon? I am currently running Blobfish and Sturgeon but is Lava Eel better?

[BCD]

Sturgeon roe is really bad. It punches above its weight, as it were, it's more valuable than that of another fish with a similar price tag, but caviar takes longer to produce than aged roe (6000m against 4000m, according to the wiki) and blobfish and lava eels blow it out of the water. If someone can find the pun here for me, I would be grateful.
As for blobfish and lava eel, lava eel is generally better and worth more (760 vs 560 base price. For the record, caviar is worth 500 and ice pips sell as well as blobfish) and you should probably prioritize it, and even the annoying things they ask for expanding the pond are the same. However, the stuff they give you besides roe are different, so you might prefer the blobfish offerings if you really really want pearls.
Blobfish can give you the very rare pearl, which sells for 2500, and 5 farm tokens. Lava eels can give you 5/10 magma geodes, 5 gold ore and 5 spicy eels. Personally, I definitely find the blobfish more exciting here and, in spite of the bad odds, got a few pearls from them (which I stupidly hoarded cos it's rare and I didn't need the money). Whenever I got geodes or gold ore from the lava eels it was just disappointing, though the dish they offer is a favorite for skull cavern runs. Personally I also didn't need it cause spicy eels drop from monsters and it's easy enough to get them from the desert merchant, but I'm sure it can be handy if you like to go to the skull cavern more often than I do (not very).

[0-0]

Yea, I think you are probably right but Sturgeon is not entirely useless. It has a few advantages:

1. Sturgeon is the easiest one to find and catch. It is one of the best option if you want to start your fish pond early game.
You can get Sturgeon any time between 6am and 7pm from mountain lake during summer or winter. It is not that rare and the fishing mini game is not that difficult. You can get quite a few of them in a day.
Lava Eel requires you to reach mine level 100. It is rare to see and its fishing mini game is the most difficult among the three.
Blobfish you won't be able to get it until winter Night Market.

2. Sturgeon is the only source of caviar. Other fish gives aged roe. Right now there is not many uses for caviar but you do need one to complete the missing bundle.
Caviar takes long to produce than ordinary aged roe and does not sell as much as aged blobfish/ lava eel roe, but the difference is minimal when it comes to end game and you already has a lot of money. (That being said, caviar is still the fourth most expensive aged roe.) I think keep one pond of sturgeon to give me access to caviar is more important than the money.

Therefore, I think Sturgeon is useful have in the fish pond in both early and late game and can be one of the best fish for fish pond.

[BCD]

Originally posted by 0-0:

Yea, I think you are probably right but Sturgeon is not entirely useless. It has a few advantages:

1. Sturgeon is the easiest one to find and catch. It is one of the best option if you want to start your fish pond early game.
You can get Sturgeon any time between 6am and 7pm from mountain lake during summer or winter. It is not that rare and the fishing mini game is not that difficult. You can get quite a few of them in a day.
Lava Eel requires you to reach mine level 100. It is rare to see and its fishing mini game is the most difficult among the three.
Blobfish you won't be able to get it until winter Night Market.

2. Sturgeon is the only source of caviar. Other fish gives aged roe. Right now there is not many uses for caviar but you do need one to complete the missing bundle.
Caviar takes long to produce than ordinary aged roe and does not sell as much as aged blobfish/ lava eel roe, but the difference is minimal when it comes to end game and you already has a lot of money. (That being said, caviar is still the fourth most expensive aged roe.) I think keep one pond of sturgeon to give me access to caviar is more important than the money.

Therefore, I think Sturgeon is useful have in the fish pond in both early and late game and can be one of the best fish for fish pond.

Fair enough. I did something similar when these ponds were just introduced and had half of mine to sturgeons and half to blobfish (not lava eels because catching them is indeed a pain in the ass). Having done that, I'd argue that the difference in income is visible (the base price is very similar, but caviar takes 33% longer to make), though I really wasn't hurting for money at that time. It's not like the pearl hoarder can yell at people for not making their farms 101% efficient...
In my next farm though I kept sturgeons only for a short amount of time. I made like 3 caviar (one for bundle, one for hat, one for useless hoarding/potential fair display) and then switched out to blobfish and lava eels ASAP, which I personally found more satisfying. It might just be that the extra time annoys me in some really stupid way honestly, I probably wouldn't have bothered to switch out the sturgeons if caviar didn't take longer to make.
Another difference is that I never went for an early fish pond. My money and resources were tied up in other projects, coop, barn, house, the barrels I needed to process the roe in the first place, and so on. I think I built my first pond somewhere between late fall and mid winter. I put a sturgeon in the pond, got very few caviar out of it and oh wow look at the time, it's the night market! What a great opportunity to catch some blobfish!
But that's just me. You do you.

[happybjorn]

Define best?

Lava Eel is the most profitable, but tons of things are more profitable than fish ponds.

There are lots of other useful fish for ponds, 'cause they can give you stuff you want.

[HackerMan1738]

Sturgeon mostly because the caviar can be worth a lot if it is sold in big quantities

[Whirl]

People put way too much stock on how to make the most money in Stardew Valley.

[@ndy]

only 3 of Cockle, Oyster, Shrimp, Crab, Lobster or Mussel
it will give you 5clay a day

[MP]

Originally posted by Whirl:

People put way too much stock on how to make the most money in Stardew Valley.

This. It's meant to be a chill slice-of-life game and here you go minmaxing it to the last detail. What are you, a JoJa CEO?

[ChrillBill]

Originally posted by Whirl:

People put way too much stock on how to make the most money in Stardew Valley.

I guess that's just one way to play the game but I do wonder sometimes "gee what's the rush?" when I read some posts on here. I usually just invest in whatever fish I find interesting. Same with crops. I actually like to switch it up a little from year to year (in game) :)

[0-0]

Originally posted by MihaP:

Originally posted by Whirl:

People put way too much stock on how to make the most money in Stardew Valley.

This. It's meant to be a chill slice-of-life game and here you go minmaxing it to the last detail. What are you, a JoJa CEO?

This is a game. It can be played in many different ways. I respect people who want to play it in your so-called chilled way, but I also respect people who want to use their farm more efficient. Discussing an optimal way of using a fishing pond does not mean we are JoJa CEOs and being JoJa CEOs (if it exists) does not mean we are bad persons. JoJa is only being portrayed as the evil side in this game but, to be honest, it really does not do many bad things to the village.

I understand seeing us discussing things like this might annoy some people. I deliberately use the word "best" instead of "most profitable" so that maybe I can hear some interesting ideas other than making the most money. It did not suppress me that the first few answers all come across the most profitable option. Even if you don't want to admit it, a huge portion of the game is about making money. And making more money does not make it not fun or relaxing.

So guess my point is don't criticize people for not playing the game in the same way as you. If you want to share your opinion, you can do it in a more friendly way.

[BCD]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

Originally posted by Whirl:

People put way too much stock on how to make the most money in Stardew Valley.

I guess that's just one way to play the game but I do wonder sometimes "gee what's the rush?" when I read some posts on here. I usually just invest in whatever fish I find interesting. Same with crops. I actually like to switch it up a little from year to year (in game) :)

Personally? I tend to finish all my games just about immediately after grandpa's ghost makes his appereance at the end of year 2. It's self-imposed, but at that point I don't feel like I have anything to work towards, so I have tried to do the most I can within that 'time limit'. I don't really mean the most money here, though, I don't actually care that much about that (pearl hoarder). My attemps at 'efficiency' show in stuff like buying a pig in mid year 1 fall, who will do just about nothing but eat my hay until next year, but I managed to get red cabbage off the travelling merchant and if I get one truffle then I can complete the community center by the end of year 1 and unlock the movie theater in spring. In the same way there are people who really enjoy making money.
Also, when the question is "what's the best fish roe" without further qualification you don't get a specific criterium for determining that, and since by and large the point of that product is to sell it it's pretty reasonable to interpret "best" as 'the one that sells best', even if you want to keep some sturgeons (or, in my case, blobfish) around in spite of that. I'm honestly kinda surprised people have pinned me as a money-focused minmaxer lol, I don't think it reflects how I play at all.

[ChrillBill]

Originally posted by BCD:

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

I guess that's just one way to play the game but I do wonder sometimes "gee what's the rush?" when I read some posts on here. I usually just invest in whatever fish I find interesting. Same with crops. I actually like to switch it up a little from year to year (in game) :)

Personally? I tend to finish all my games just about immediately after grandpa's ghost makes his appereance at the end of year 2. It's self-imposed, but at that point I don't feel like I have anything to work towards, so I have tried to do the most I can within that 'time limit'. I don't really mean the most money here, though, I don't actually care that much about that (pearl hoarder). My attemps at 'efficiency' show in stuff like buying a pig in mid year 1 fall, who will do just about nothing but eat my hay until next year, but I managed to get red cabbage off the travelling merchant and if I get one truffle then I can complete the community center by the end of year 1 and unlock the movie theater in spring. In the same way there are people who really enjoy making money.
Also, when the question is "what's the best fish roe" without further qualification you don't get a specific criterium for determining that, and since by and large the point of that product is to sell it it's pretty reasonable to interpret "best" as 'the one that sells best', even if you want to keep some sturgeons (or, in my case, blobfish) around in spite of that. I'm honestly kinda surprised people have pinned me as a money-focused minmaxer lol, I don't think it reflects how I play at all.

Well I wasn't necessarily refering to something in this thread, it is just something that I have thought about when I have gone through some topics on this forum. Really? By that time I find myself to have plenty of things left to do :p On my very first farm it wasn't until year 9 I had finally gathered all the obelisks for example. And this was my first playthrough without mods. Guess that shows how different we all play this game huh o.o Which is totally fine by the way. Some players also likes to challenge themselves, set up different goals and such.

(Btw, you can bet Grandpa wasn't very pleased when he first showed up on my first farm xD)

[BCD]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

On my very first farm it wasn't until year 9 I had finally gathered all the obelisks for example. And this was my first playthrough without mods.

Haha, I think I should qualify what I said. I don't feel like I have anything to work towards. By year 3 I have become satisfied with what I have built in my farm, and don't really want to add to it. The obelisks are pretty cool, but they are so expensive that they feel too distant a goal for me to engage with, so I never got to build them. So, for the record, I'm not some kind of crazy moneymaking God who manages to get the wizard buildings up by year 3 lol.

[MP]

Originally posted by 0-0:

If you want to share your opinion, you can do it in a more friendly way.

An opinion can be shared. It is up to you whether you take heed or not. Now return the soapbox to the JoJa market.

[ChrillBill]

Originally posted by BCD:

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

On my very first farm it wasn't until year 9 I had finally gathered all the obelisks for example. And this was my first playthrough without mods.

Haha, I think I should qualify what I said. I don't feel like I have anything to work towards. By year 3 I have become satisfied with what I have built in my farm, and don't really want to add to it. The obelisks are pretty cool, but they are so expensive that they feel too distant a goal for me to engage with, so I never got to build them. So, for the record, I'm not some kind of crazy moneymaking God who manages to get the wizard buildings up by year 3 lol.

Ah, I understand. Can't say I found the obelisks very useful when I finally got 'em,
but they are pretty and... They are available for purchase so I just gotta have 'em o.o