The Ultimate Chillquarium Handbook

A little cheat-sheet for new and old players! Money, Collections, Fish Basics, (Fish... Complexes..?) and more!

(includes amazing commentary + captions by yours truly!)

Welcome

Welcome to silly fish game™️. I will be your guide with a guide. Yes, I can hold your hand if you want (or not, up to you).

There WILL be spoilers in this guide, which may or may not include...

• Fish
  
• Fish
  
• Maybe not fish (math)

I have never written a guide before soooooo.,... uhhh,,,.... yeah. I hope this fits silly fish game standards. :0
This is your final warning: I must be silly or I WILL die. Proceed with caution.

If you already know the basics of the game- or don't care about the silly details-,

feel free to skip to the end of the guide, where I provided a little hustlers guide to money laundering + other useful guides.

If you stick around, thank you! Have a good day/night!

­

Pack #1 - 'Freshwater Friends' + Pack Introductions

Here's where your gambling addiction starts. Each selected pack gives you 4 assorted fish. These packs are similar to Lootboxes, (like SOME games..) meaning there is a rarity system.
Don't worry about seperating tanks just yet, as far as I know, most of these fish are not carnivorous. Your friends are safe.


Although I can't directly give you the percent chance of each rarity as of yet- I can closely estimate. Please take note that these are the most basic estimates, and most likely extremely inaccurate. (to be updated)

Rarity	Estimated %
Common	50%
Rare	35%
Epic	14%
Legend	1%
Mythic*	0.1%

( * ) Mythic fish were added in patch 1.1. The update announcement says they "[are] 10x rarer than the legendaries!" and they are not required for achievements! :)


Finally, to your right you'll see a basic fish card! To make this as short as I could, you only need to take note of the lock button, income per day, and the sell price of your fish. You can also rename any fish of yours to give them a bit more pizzazz~


If you want a... deeper dive... of your daily income. You can click this icon on the top right of your screen! you can sort your fish by rarity, color, income and value. This menu also shows your income per time value. (second/minute/hour/day)

This section will go over the Freshwater Friends pack.

Welcome to the first pack in the game! Here's where you'll get you first ever best friends (in game, hopefully not irl). Each pack of the Freshwater Friends cost $10.00.

The more rare the fish, the better the outcome and value of the fish is. The further right of the table, the better the fish.Thankfully, this is so you don't need to rely on RNG to get the 'perfect' fishies.. You should love all of them. The available fish are as follows:

Com.	Goldfish	Neon Tetra	Blue Grass Guppy	Clown Loach	Corydoras	Swordtail
Com.	Wagtail Platy	Acara	Bala Shark	Betta	Dwarf Gouramif	Chili Rasbora*
Rare	Ramshorn Snail	Hillstream Loach	Peacock Gudgeon	Pleco	Cherry Shrimp	Angelfish *	Flowerhorn Cichlid *
Epic	Discus *	Oscar	Elephant Fish	Glassfish *
Leg.	Koi	Whiptail Catfish *
Myth.	Polka-Dot Stingray

• Underlined fish have their income larger than their value.
  
• Bold fish have their sell value larger than their income
  
• Italicized fish are equal in both value and income.
  
• Fish with a * my favourite or are the 'best' fish of the pack.

Pack #2 - 'Rivers and Ponds' + Shops

Welcome to The Shop!

Continuing off the topic of new housing, this section will dip your toes into the shop menus. If you, somehow, have not interacted with the Shop menu in any sense, I will simply assume you obtained rapid onset dementia and I will not blame you.
If you've explored the menu in any capacity- you most likely have noticed that there's a LOT to buy. You can access the shop by either pressing tab on your keyboard, or interacting with the 'Shop' button displayed at the top right of your screen.

The sections of the shop are stored as followed;
( * ) Lights, Pebbles and Decorations (as far as I know) are purely used for decoration and have no effect on your money making capabilities. That being said, I will not go over decor.

The Aptly named Fish tab allows you to buy any and all packs available in game.
The Upgrades tab will be your 'end goal'. Here you will find Fish food, as well as upgrading your current tanks- and buying new ones.

Each Fish Food upgrade gradually increases the XP given per fish food. You can feed your fish by holding or right-clicking your mouse. There are ways to cheese this method. One method I particularly use is to simply hold down your right mouse button, interact with your windows key, drag your mouse to your taskbar, and left click. This endlessly feeds your fish, and you can tab back in any time. In order to stop auto-feeding your fish, simply rightclick anywhere on your tank.

Purchasing and Upgrading tanks range from $100 to $1,000,000,000,000 (one billion) and is one of the most important roles of the game. More space to hold fish = More money making.

This section will go over the Rivers & Ponds pack AND Tanks.

Don't be fooled by the name! You do NOT need to own a river and/or pond to own these guys! As long as you have room in your current Freshwater tank, you'll be fine. Each pack of the River and Ponds cost $1,000 (one thousand).
The available fish are as follows:

Com.	Carp *	Redtail Catfish	Walleye	Green Sunfish	Mudskipper	Northern Pike
Com.	Perch	Rainbow Trout	Snakehead	Sockeye Salmon	Bullhead Catfish	Tiger Trout *
Rare	Axolotl	Tequila Splitfin	Ghost Knifefish	Fire Eel	Assassin Snail *	Ornate Bichir *	Piranha *
Epic	African Butterfly Fish	Amazon Leaffish	Alligator Gar *	Sturgeon *
Leg.	Arowana	Arapaima *
Myth.	Paddlefish *

• Underlined fish have their income larger than their value.
  
• Bold fish have their sell value larger than their income
  
• Italicized fish are equal in both value and income.
  
• Fish with a * my favourite or are the 'best' fish of the pack.
  

ad break

Tired of the ads? well yeah. me too. Anyways, today was not sponsored by Raid: Shadow Legends™️ so I guess we're gonna be waaay over budget if we keep writing. Guide's over. We'll see you next time.



SIKE!


THERE'S MORE!!


MORE MORE FISH GALORE!!!



Jokes aside, we will now transition over to the next three packs in the game. These fish are exclusive to Saltwater Tanks, Meaning that your previous Freshwater cannot hold these fish.

ps dev.. if you read this.. #WeWantCrabs (joke pls dont harass)

Pack #3 - 'Reef Fellas'

This section will go over the Reef Fellas pack.

Say hello to these lil guys. This is your first introduction to Saltwater fish. Essentially they are no different from their freshwater counterparts. If you haven't experimented with tanks, now it's time to start. Each pack cost $200,000 (two hundred thousand).

It is required to own a Saltwater tank, which can be found and bought in the 'Upgrade' tab mentioned prior for $300,000 (three-hundred thousand). All packs from now on require saltwater tanks to host fish.

Com.	Clownfish	Exquisite Fairy Wrasse	Copperband Butterflyfish	Falco Hawkfish	Blue Tang	Moorish Idol
Com.	Neopercularis Hogfish	Pufferfish *	Ruby Red Dragonet	Spotted Ribbonfish	Triggerfish	Flame Angelfish *
Rare	Banggai Cardinalfish	Mandarinfish	Firefish Goby	Lyretail Anthias *	Royal Gramma	Moray Eel	Achilles Tang *
Epic	Black Tang	Cowfish	Banded Coral Shrimp	Sea Slug *
Leg.	Lionfish	Frogfish *
Myth.	Masked Angelfish *

• Underlined fish have their income larger than their value.
  
• Bold fish have their sell value larger than their income
  
• Italicized fish are equal in both value and income.
  
• Fish with a * my favourite or are the 'best' fish of the pack.

Pack #4 - 'Marine Dwellers'

This section will go over the Marine Dwellers pack.

Marine dwellers more like... uhmm.. more.. like... uh,... m... uhm... nvm. .

Also I am still very sad by the lack of crabs in this game. However, I do have high hopes for the future of crab hospitality. With all that stupidity out of the way, the Marine Dwellers pack is overall very standard, with nothing new added to gameplay. The main purpose of this pack is to help with money management and transitioning to the next and final pack of the game.
Each pack cost $50,000,000 (fifty million).

OH!! OH I GOT IT!!!! MEAN DWELLRS! HAH! get dunked. ouuu.. too late. Joke passed.

The available fish are as follows:

Com.	Bluefin Trevally	Seahorse	Flounder	Longfin Batfish	Nassau Grouper	Pacific Lookdown *
Com.	Bluespine Unicornfish	Garibaldi	Hogfish	Surge Wrasse	Rock Greenling *	Sea Bass *
Rare	Viperfish	Chinese Trumpetfish	Lumpfish	Ghost Pipefish *	Red Snapper	Scaly Foot Snail *	Lancetfish *
Epic	Gulper Eel	Mantis Shrimp *	Scorpionfish	Barred Knifejaw
Leg.	Leafy Seadragon	Blobfish *
Myth.	Saw Shark *

• Underlined fish have their income larger than their value.
  
• Bold fish have their sell value larger than their income
  
• Italicized fish are equal in both value and income.
  
• Fish with a * my favourite or are the 'best' fish of the pack.

Pack #5 - 'Giants'

This section will go over the Giants pack.

This is the final and most expensive pack of the game, with a cost of $15,000,000,000 (fifteen billion). These fish are the end goal for all things money. Collectors will also love these fellas for the sheer amount of 'schmunie they give.




Available fish are as follows:

Com.	Swordfish	Atlantic Tarpon	Barracuda	California Sheephead	Halibut	Yellowfin Tuna
Com.	Wahoo	Giant Trevally	Mahi Mahi	Lingcod	Goliath Grouper	Mola Mola
Rare	Humphead Parrotfish	Blue Marlin	Giant Pacific Octopus	Wolf Eel	Manta Ray	Oarfish	Moonfish
Epic	Great White Shark	Hammerhead Shark	Basking Shark	Whale Shark *
Leg.	Colecanth *	Giant Squid *
Myth.	Colossal Squid *

• Underlined fish have their income larger than their value.
  
• Bold fish have their sell value larger than their income
  
• Italicized fish are equal in both value and income.
  
• Fish with a * my favourite or are the 'best' fish of the pack.

Fish Variants & A Collectors Guide

Anyways, now that you've played the game (hopefully) and messed around with packs- You should've noticed a few odd fish 'round town. Maybe some extra special ones, if you're lucky!

These fish in question are Painted, Gold and Rainbow Fish! Similar to shiny Pokémon, these fish have an exponentially lower chance to encounter than their regular counterparts.

To keep a common factor, I will be displaying all possible variations of Carp. Take note of how their value and income increases with the rarity. Also notice how their XP requirement does not change.

Painted Fish

Painted Fish are by far the most common of all the fish variants, having an estimated 1/8 chance. Painted fish often are monochromatic or hue-shifted variants of the default sprite.
Painted fish double the income and value of a fish.

• As of v1.1 of the game, some fish have multiple painted color sprites. Example below shows all possible Painted Axolotls as well as their non-painted counterpart. All colors are believed to have an equal chance of appearing.

(this screenshot is staged and it took me hours to do. what i do to make you guys happy..)

Gold Fish

Gold fish are AMAZING. That being said, they are really easy to get. They have around a 1/512 chance of being pulled. They are an essential way of money-making. Golden fish, not to be confused with gold fish, are actually gold in color... More like a bright yellow, but you get what I mean.
Golden fish have a value and income 10x larger than of their normal counterparts.

There is a exponentially rare event where you could get a 'Golden Pack'. These packs guarantee four assorted Gold fish without fail. Golden packs also change appearance from their normal packs. (Left)

Both Gold and Rainbow fish have a 'pity system'. Similar to a Gacha/Lootbox system, these guarantee the aforementioned fish. The pity system is applied after encountering double-odds. (For gold fish, the timer is 1/1024 and for rainbow fish, the timer is 1/16384) Obtaining either gold or rainbow fish will reset the timer.

Rainbow Fish

These fellas are similar to pre-gen 6 Shiny pokemon, having an estimated 1/8192 chance of being pulled. These sprites have a spectrum changing rainbow effect. One more unique trait regarding the rainbow fish include the spectrum changing the text of the fishes name.

Although these fish are incredibly hard to obtain, they- by far- are the best money makers in the game, essentially multiplying both the income and value of a fish 25x.

Not to flex but i have two rainbow commons as I write this B)

TLDR; Money Laundering Schemes + Hoarding

Yeah, no. I get you. I spend ALL this time on a guide but you want the quick and easy no-brain route. That's fine. I'm not mad at all. (all jokes aside- fr I understand.)

For ALL Packs, I recommend going for Rainbow or Golden versions of Fish. Painted fish are also amazing in money making. The higher the Rarity, the more output they will give.


> > > LEARN WHEN TO SELL YOUR FISH < < <
I prefer not to sell legendary/mythic fish when they are fully grown, it is a fast method to gain cash when you're in a pinch. Especially when you open a new pack. (As long as you have some time to spare!)

Another, simple AFK method is to...
select the fewer clicks setting in the option menu (with the highest food upgrade you can buy) simply alt-tab from the game. Like the method prior, you can safely tab back in anytime- but you can NOT interact with menus. Right click again to disable the auto-feeding.


> > > SELL BABY FISH < < <
I will admit I still have problems with this. As long as you have disposable income, don't be afraid to sell baby fish. Although they give no money in return, it is much easier to get into the sigma grindset with no children- AHEM reroll and lock important fish, instead of waiting hours or days to fully grow a useless fish.

This is also an amazing method for collectors and achievement hunters. In case you didn't know, whenever you obtain a golden fish from a pack, it will make a loud audio prompt. I personally do not know if this also goes for rainbow fish, however. Confirmed that Rainbow fish DO also have audio for when they're pulled!! Happy hunting!

Fish I personally use & My tank setup.

For both my freshwater and Saltwater tanks, I like to keep the setup of;

• First tank is (nearly) always empty. Use this tank to open packs and send baby fish to your other tanks.
  
• Second tank is for money making. Have only high-income fish. Do NOT put high sell-value fish in this tank.
  
• Third tank is for Collectors. If you're a collector, feel free to hold your golds/rainbows/friends in here. Always make sure to keep them locked, too :)

This method is not foolproof, and you can definitely optimize this in any way you see fit.

Some of the easiest fish to obtain for me were;
Early-Game Freshwater: Whiptail Catfish, Discus, Ramshorn Snail
Early-Game Saltwater: Leafy Seadragon, and Cowfish
Late-Game Freshwater: Arowana, Sturgeon, and Arapaima
Late-Game Saltwater: All Squids, Giant Pacific Octopus, All Sharks, and Gulper Eels

Other Amazing Guides + References

Also check out these guides! They're pretty helpful, and encouraged me to make this handbook. Show them some love for me, won't 'ya?




"Living Aquarium Dex" by The BMachine (Google Docs)
^ A Hella neat livingdex for all fish and variants in the game that uses Google Spreadsheets to track your fish. Has an active percentage bar, Amazing Graphics and really easy to use. Updated regularly, and was actually the inspiration to make this guide.


Chillaquarium's Fandom Page[chillquarium.fandom.com]
^ Personally I dislike using Fandom- which is one of the main reasons I made this guide. That being said, I do have to say the community actively working on the fandom page is pretty neat and organized. This hands-down is the best way to get game sprites and other assets, as well as information I piled in this guide. There's some neat stuff still in here :)

[CookiesVsCream]

It's possible I'm wrong about this (and if I am, I'm dumbass for reasons that will soon be evident), but I could've sworn the chances of getting a painted or golden fish (and probably rainbow too?) are increased if you spawn them in a tank containing painted/golden/rainbow adults. If I'm wrong about this, and all the time I've spent opening packs in tanks that have ~70 adult fish in them has in fact been a complete waste, is2g...

[RulerOfTheCrabs]

@Egg I must say that I find your love of the crabs commendable

[Bobert]

One of my favorite guides on steam, although a little out of date it still helps out starting the game with a little bit of comedy

[ylylyl]

it's Chillquarium not Chillaquarium

[Egg]

It warms my heart people still check out this little side project i made :]

@KingHoliday yup! I plan on getting back into the game ASAP to add a new section!! (praying for crabs)

@Bird Person Yup! Without feeding them they still gain 1xp/second - even if you close the game! Keeping the game open to feed them while AFKing just speeds up the process

@A Short Tree i completely envy you ;-; Even still to this day i can only ever pull common golds/rainbows

as for everyone else MWAAAAAAAAAAA i kis u HAPPY (late) 2025!

[KingHoliday]

will you update this guide with the #6 pack as well?

[Bird Person]

Will fish grow up if my game is closed?

[Druid]

I love this guide.

[reworked]

man this guide suck

[delphizer]

Something I haven't seen, if you corral the fish to the bottom edge of the screen and they stay next to your courser making xp gain significantly faster.

I wish there were a value/income sorting.