Fishville Economics: Points, Experience & Levels Part 2

/ Adam Nash

The traffic to my blog from my first Fishville post has been staggering.  How can I resist?  That’s right, it’s time for Yet Another Fishville Post (YAFP).  Come on, you know you want to read more…

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I’ve been a little surprised to see how few accurate blog posts exist out on the web that break down the profit & experience for Fishville.  Based on comments to my original post, I made some mistakes.  As a result, I’m posting this follow up to help address the most common concerns:

  • What about Level 5 (and 6 and 7…). I classify my charts based on the completion of levels, which is a little confusing because in Fishville, your fish is “Level 1” until it completes the level, and then it is Level 2, etc.  As a result, you don’t get the “Level 1” experience until your fish reaches Level 2.  Confusing.  Even more confusing, after completing Level 4, your fish can continue to go up levels… it just won’t be worth anything more.  As a result, I ignore all levels above 4.
  • Why doesn’t my experience number match yours? It’s because I’m including the experience you get from dropping the egg in the tank, not just the experience you get from harvesting.
  • Level 4 doesn’t take the same time as the other levels. Oops.  This is correct.  I still don’t have accurate info on whether the “Level 4” time is the same for all fish (2 days) or different.  For this post, I use the 2 day number, which changes the economics considerably.  (Hint: It’s not worth your time to ever let this happen)
  • Can you post a Google Doc of all your tables & charts? See the end of this post.  First time for everything.

To recap, here are the assumptions for my tables & charts:

  1. I assume harvesting & buying fish is instantaneous. Yes, I know its not.  Fodder for a future post.
  2. All profits are calculated per fish. Same with experience
  3. Total Experience = Experience from dropping egg + Experience from the level(s) of growth
  4. Total Profit = Revenue from harvesting the fist – Cost of the egg

In my last post, I described how your “profit per minute” increases with levels, but your “experience per minute” falls with levels.  A lot of people didn’t understand this, so I decided to try some charts to illustrate.

Here is a chart I made in Google Docs showing the effect of increasing levels on Profit / Minute.  Because there is a fixed cost to buying a new fish, the linear increase in profit per level helps your profit / minute.  Of course, it falls off a cliff once you hit Level 4, and it takes up to 2 days to complete.

Fishville Profit Per Minute Per Level

This means that, from a profit per minute perspective, it’s better to let your fish grow to complete Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 before harvesting.

But there is a catch.  Because you get XP every time to buy an egg, the effect on experience points per minute is the opposite.  Every level you go, your experience points per minute drops!  See this chart to visualize:

Fishville XP Per Minute Per Level

Based on the comments to my original blog post, it’s very obvious that most players continue to ignore the experience points you get for dropping an egg in your tank – choosing instead to focus only on the experience points you get when you harvest the fish.  Big mistake, because this leads you to keep fish around too long.

Since my last post, I’ve also been able to complete my tables for all current fish.

Here is the profit table for Level 1 profits:

Fish Profit / L1 Minutes / L1 Profit / Minute
Sardine 7 3 2.33
Mini Dart Goby 11 5 2.2
Red Spot Cardinal 23 15 1.53
Inland Silverside 16 30 0.53
Bartlett Anthias 21 45 0.47
Swissguard Basslet 17 60 0.28
Pajama Cardinal 34 120 0.28
Blue Green Chromis 46 180 0.26
Shy Hamlet 54 240 0.23
Longnose Hawkfish 78 360 0.22
Percula Clownfish 81 480 0.17
Annularis Angelfish 89 600 0.15
Blue Hippo Tang 124 1080 0.11
Royal Dottyback 99 960 0.1
Hawaiian Hogfish 72 720 0.1
Scooter Blenny 133 1440 0.09
Blue Damsel 195 2160 0.09

Here is the experience table for Level 1 experience.  Note that I included the experience you get for dropping the egg, as well as the total experience you get for completing level 1.  Remember, Total = Dropping Egg + Level XP:

Fish XP / Egg XP / L1 Minutes / L1 XP / Minute
Mini Dart Goby 2 8 5 1.6
Sardine 1 4 3 1.33
Red Spot Cardinal 4 16 15 1.07
Inland Silverside 4 16 30 0.53
Bartlett Anthias 4 20 45 0.44
Swissguard Basslet 4 20 60 0.33
Pajama Cardinal 8 40 120 0.33
Blue Green Chromis 12 60 180 0.33
Shy Hamlet 15 75 240 0.31
Longnose Hawkfish 22 110 360 0.31
Percula Clownfish 27 135 480 0.28
Annularis Angelfish 16 160 600 0.27
Hawaiian Hogfish 17 170 720 0.24
Royal Dottyback 22 220 960 0.23
Scooter Blenny 29 290 1440 0.2
Blue Damsel 39 390 2160 0.18
Blue Hippo Tang 26 52 1080 0.05

As promised, here is a link to the Google Doc with all my tables and charts.  Please post additional info, corrections, or data in the comments below.

Updates:  I’ve now posted additional columns on Fishville:

36 thoughts on “Fishville Economics: Points, Experience & Levels Part 2”

  1. Love the new info!! I mentioned on previous page, what about cost / XP ?? I find (at my level16) that I make more $$$ this way with a low cost/XP fish without spending so much time, allowing me to buy more tanks and then more fish!!!!

    I realize it doesn’t gain as much XP as buying/selling mini Dart Gobi’s ….ALL DAY LONG! but if you look at the amount of time to spend to get more $$$ to buy more tanks to buy more fish, and just wait until max XP is gainable, it paints a whole new picture!!!! Check it out…

    Ahrrr, I’d post the table, but is all jumbled. maybe you can add a column to the chart?? but here example:

    Mini Dart Gobi (age1):
    Cost=7, Time=5, XP=8, XP/Min=1.6, Cost/XP=.875 …..
    Cost/XP/Min=.1750 + 11 Profit

    Mini Dart Gobi (age4):
    Cost=7, Time=20, XP=26, XP/Min=1.3, Cost/XP=.2692 …..
    Cost/XP/Min=.0135 + 65 Profit

    If you plug the calcs in your chart you will see. Like I said, it doesn’t maintain max XP/minute, but who wants to do it that way with the mini Dart Gobi! LOL… with this cost/XP/min, you can pick your return time to get maximum mix of both XP and profit.

  2. For those looking to maximize XP vs time, I think we need to add in the static value of the time it takes to cash in on your fish.

    If one sits by the computer ALL DAY LONG making millions of lv1 mini darts, if we assume a 30-fish tank, it should take at least half a minute. Repeat this a dozen times for the duration of an hour and suddenly the mini darts are a full 6 minutes less efficient than the theoretical max you’d guess you would have after spending the hour.

    On the other hand, the 1 hour fish you’d only have to cash in once, so you only waste 30 seconds in “non-growing” time.

    • DT is correct. Add an extra minute to the turnaround time for selling and laying new eggs. (presuming a full tank of 50 fish). I took the chart a step further and looked at selling point. If you wait more than 18 secs or so (after they level), to sell your Mini Dart Gobi’s you should wait until the next level, otherwise your potential XP per hour drops.

      example Mini Dart Gobi’s (presume 50 fish to tank)

      300 seconds to level
      60 secs to turnaround
      = 360 sec turnaround

      Presume sell all AT 360 secs

      xp per gobi = 8
      XP per tank (x50) = 400

      Turnarounds per hour = 3600/360 (seconds) = 10

      potential XP per hour = 400 x 10 = 4000 XP

      Now what if you waited 20 secs after they fish leveled ie at 380 secs

      Turnarounds per hour = 3600/380 = 9.474

      potential XP per hour = 400 x 9.474 = 3789 XP

      Then look at level two Plus zero secs

      XP per Gobi = 14
      XP per tank (x50) = 700
      level two= 600 secs
      sell time = 60 secs

      total turnaround time = 660

      Turnarounds per hour = 3600/660 (seconds) = 5.455

      potential XP per hour = 700 x 5.455 = 3818 XP

      This just means that the faster the sell/grow time of the fish, the faster you need to be with your selling and egg drops, and watching the game like a hawk.

      I did the chart with the red spot cardinal, and as you would guess the need to sell close to the level up times, is not nearly as drastic.

      It all comes down to how ‘in to the game’ you are.

      • I just noticed that if you compare Gobi’s to Cardinals: given my example above – if you wait 4 minutes after level 1 (ie at 600 secs for Gobi’s and 1200 secs for Cardinals) the potential XP is identical for them both.

      • mini dart gobies are great for one tank but once you get to 2+ tanks red spot cardinals are the most convinient for still providing decent xp imo. gobies are still better if you want to sit at your tank buying and selling constantly…

        also: adam this is a great resource and it has helped me tremendously. thanks for all your hard work!

      • Adam, I’m still eagerly awaiting the promised follow-up with these figures updated to reflect sell time. If you could point me in the right direction, I’ll try to do it myself! Thanks

  3. Great analysis everyone…I knew it wouldn’t be long before I found such a site….I wish someone would do an update like this for farmville.

  4. i haven’t checked in the game, but why did your Shy Hamlet change:
    in the part 1:
    Fish XP / One Level Min / Four Levels XP / Minute
    Shy Hamlet 75.00 240.00 0.31

    and in part 2:
    Fish XP / Egg XP / L1 Minutes / L1 XP / Minute
    Shy Hamlet 18 78 240 0.33

    From 75 to 78

  5. fish size also plays a very real role in determining the time it takes to sell all your fish. a bigger fish results in much less downtime.

  6. Thank you for this! I was in the process of compiling this information myself, so I’m really glad to see that it is already done. 🙂 I must admit that I was forgetting to add the XP for the eggs as well, so my numbers would have been off! Great job!

    My question is… Does anyone have any ideas as to why is the Blue Hippo Tang so disappointing? As one of the last fish to be earned, you would think it would have better stats as a reward for working your way up to getting them, however it is dead last as far as XP / Minute, and the profitability isn’t much better.

    Thanks again for your effort.

    • I knew from an economic standpoint the gobies are about the best in terms of efficiency before coming across this site. That being said, I like to have a couple of swissguard basslets swimming around because I think they’re pretty, and they’re inconvenient for me to tend to as junior fish, so I keep a few adults. Maybe some people would just really like the looks of the blue hippo tang.

  7. Thanx for all this info. I want to get more experience so I can get more tanks, and therefore more profit lately, and your tables have been very helpful.
    I thought I was wasting my time with my virtual farm and my virtual aquarium, but now that I see your tables, and all the amount of time you must have put into it, I don’t feel so bad anymore : )

  8. I noticed that your data is missing the fish “Blue Spot Grouper”. I’ve collected as much as I can, but I’m missing the selling XP for a level 1 sale. I’ll post that as soon as I have it (but I have to wait 2 days because that’s the grow time). Here’s the rest of the info:

    Blue Spot Grouper
    —
    Available At: Level 24
    Grows In: 2880 Minutes (2 Days)
    Sells For: 365
    Costs: 112
    XP Buy: 45
    XP Level 1: ???

    Hope that helps, and thanks again for compiling this info.

  9. My mistake, you do have info on the Blue Spot Grouper (Level 1 XP = 405) on the “Full Table” tab, but it isn’t included in any of the other tables or graphs. Was that on purpose or just a minor oversight or what?

  10. it does not take longer to get to level 4.
    this is a tricky part but you start out at level 0
    lets take the goby:
    after 5 mins he goes to level 1, when you scoll over it it looks like you need 5 more minutes to get to level 1(what is at the end of the meter). but in fact you are on level one. when the meter fills up the star will change to level 2.

    when you get to level 4 (when 4 shows in the star) you are at the max. 6exp for every 5 minutes. level 4 x 6 exp = 24 exp. there is no more than that.

    it takes 20 mins to get to max after that it takes a longer time to get to the next level which will NOT give you more money or Exp.

    you had it right the first time.

    great article. thanks.

  11. Has anyone let any fish grow really old to see if they ever turn into anything above an adult fish? I have a level 16 mini dart goby that still doesn’t offer more than 24 exp. Anyone have anything going beyond that?

  12. Any one knowes who currently are on the highest level ? Is there an official Highscore list ? Where can you see on which level you tank numer 3,4.5 etc. holds more than 30 fish. Zynga has just updated the game with more fish, tanks etc. highest level appear to be Level 70 – Many thanks Fred

    • > Where can you see on which level you tank
      > numer 3,4.5 etc. holds more than 30 fish.

      In the top right corner of your tank is a picture of a tank with a number on it (1, 2, 3, etc) that is your tank number. If you hover your mouse over that icon, you’ll see a ratio, something like “10 / 50”. That means your tank currently has 10 fish and can hold 50 fish.

  14. There’s a fan fish in Fishville called Blue Mandarin. Can you give us an information if this fish gains more XP compared to the gobies.

    Thanks for this wonderful post. It has helped a lot of Fishville fanatics.

  15. Here’s a fish that isn’t in your table:

    Blue Mandarin (only available to Facebook fans of the game)
    Egg experience: +30
    Egg cost: -75
    Time to grow to level 1: 1 day
    Exp gained when sold at level 1: 100
    Gold gained when sold at level 1: 200

    There seem to be a lot of new fish added since December 1.

  16. We need new fish ! tbh, something we can buy with coins and not sand dollars 🙂 – specially for higher levels.. (40+ )

  17. I noticed today that zynga changed the rules: all of a sudden, a tank can only hold a maximum of 40 fish, instead of 50. Needless to say that I am pissed off.

  18. Pingback: Fishville Economics: Points, Experience & Levels Part 3 « Psychohistory

  19. Pingback: Fishville Economics: Points, Experience & Levels « Psychohistory

  20. Did the Swissguard just change from 1 hour to 3 days?
    I typed up a sheet for myself, before I found your nice one, and had them listed as one day and see if there on other sheets. In fact I quickly bought some and was surprised that they were three day not 1 hour.

    Also, I read that you get sand dollars for leveling up. Is this true? Not happening for me.
    Thanks

    • as of now swiss basslet is 2 days for 378XP/level1 (grouper is better @ 405) 😦

      and yes finally u get 1 sand dollar per level up 😀 i already lost 42 sand dollars all thanks to zynga 🙂

  22. Hey, there are many more fishes which the author has missed. but we need to shell out SD’s in order to buy them!

    Note : I’m on level 330 and a gr8 fishville fan since [June 2011].

    [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R0OUIdW8O3g/TxcwKRK9xxI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/_Kv5b7RUdfQ/s640/level+pic.jpg]

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