Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 04:44 pm
Fish Tycoon – Family Game Review
Fish Tycoon is a Family/Entertainment/Simulation game from LDW Software, LLC, first launched in 23rd November 2008.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 1,806+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Fish Tycoon Stand Out
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Fish Tycoon is the award-winning virtual fish breeding game from the creators of the acclaimed Virtual Villagers series.
Starting with $300 and a handful of eggs gathered from the fabled island of Isola, your goal is to unlock the genetic puzzle and discover the 7 Magic Fish of Isola. You will breed and care for more than 400 species of fish, financing your operation by selling your creations to eager customers. A wide variety of aquarium supplies are available to equip and customize your tanks, care for your fish, and magically enhance your aquariums. The game continues to progress in true real time, even when your iPhone or iPod Touch is turned off, so don’t forget to check in regularly to feed your fish, cure their illnesses, and create the next generation of baby fish!
More about Fish Tycoon:
- It’s a virtual pet: care for your fish in your own virtual aquarium.
- It’s a simulation game: maintain virtual fish in a persistent world.
- It’s a genetic puzzle: discover which breeding combinations will lead to the discovery of the 7 Magic Fish.
- It’s a tycoon game: test your business and aquarium skills at the same time!
- Over 400 species of fish to breed.
- Customize your tanks: purchase aquarium ornaments and place them where you like them!
- Real-time game play: new surprises every time you turn on the game!
Winner of these awards:
- "Best Simulation Game" – PDArcade
- "Best Application for Play" – Handango
- "Silver Award" GameTunnel
- "Parents Choice Recommended Award"
- "iParenting Media Award"
Recommended for people who enjoy casual sims, aquarium simulations, fish games, virtual pets, and strategy games.
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This Family game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Fish Tycoon is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 19th October 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Hello fellow Tycoons!
We've updated the original Fish Tycoon to support the latest devices and iOS versions! With over 2 million downloads on iOS, we want to make sure that you can continue playing your favorite apps on the newest devices. Feed, breed, and succeed by unlocking hundreds of species of fish, upgrading your own virtual aquarium to solve the genetic puzzles and rediscover the 7 Magic Fish of Isola.
Revisit the award-winning Fish Tycoon, and be sure to check out the sequel, Fish Tycoon 2: Virtual Aquarium!
https://itunes.apple.com/app/fish-tycoon-2-virtual-aquarium/id1194725957?ls=1&mt=8
Download & Availability
Fish Tycoon is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Favourite game, came back to play it again and it just crashes upon opening, please fix.
We grew up playing this game and was thrilled to see it on the appstore. We love this game its our favorite :).
In the PC version you could see which species had been bred to completion. Hundreds of combinations. In this one, the only available info is which of the magic fish youve bred. It takes away so, so much.
2023 and this is still one of the best mobile games ever made.
After all these years, this game is still amazing. Brings back memories. We remember way back when our dad was addicted to this game Definitely worth the dollar it costed.
To the dweeb that knows a ton of people, go ahead and tell them not to get the game. Fish Tycoon is a fun time killer/patience game. Its not something you can just blow through and it takes practice to get it right. We failed several times when we got it back in 2010, but here we are in 2019 and we have rediscovered our love for it. We never managed to find all 7 magic fish before so heres to hoping we can do it now! Take the time to try this out, because if you like a challenge and a game that makes you try new things then Fish Tycoon is right for you.
We're screaming. This is like OG fish tycoon from our childhood.
We have loved this game for years. We finally deleted virtual families 2 after lots of money (we mean a lot) and now its unplayable due to ads….beginning middle……crash. And same with the new pay-to-play fish tycoon. Lots of money there too. But Im truly happy that you at LDW are still supporting this original Fish Tycoon. We truly LOVE this game. And Im done playing pay-to-play from any developer.
We loved this game as a kid, just a nostalgia buy many, mayears ago. Played it some and enjoyed it. Somehow works on our IPhone 15 pro without an update in 7 years. A most pleasant surprise.
It is possible to breed something like 400-500 different types of fish in the full version of this. But … Unless Im missing something, theres absolutely no way to check on any of them aside from the iOS version? Playing on a PC you can check a list of every breed to see overall progress. Ive reinstalled this every year or two & its not very immersive if the only thing you can even track are seven out of all those hundreds. Im not seeing any way at all, and this it cuts out at least 90% of the game. :(.
We bought this game and like it for the most part. The graphics are beautiful and game play is relaxing. Our one beef is that when we stop time and then come back over half our fish are dead! This is not supposed to happen. So it is frustrating in that aspect. Please fix this bug.
We love this game, this use to be a game we played when we were in elementary school however it def needs some updating. 3 tanks are not enough for all the variety of fish we have, it would be fun to be able to redecorate the store and the tanks with new supplies. This game is very entertaining we love the fact that you can pause the game.
Yes, the game is what others say it is. Yes it can be fun. However the graphics look like the OG iPhone and the crappy coding made us waste a lot of money. Get the Lite version if you really insist on playing. Ive tried both and really there is no difference.
WHY IS THERE SCREENSAVER MODE? We AM IN AN IPAD, NOT A COMPUTER/LAPTOP! Not being mean lol. Also, our fish keep teleporting for some reason. Please fix that thing, its getting annoying.
We love this, but we just recently changed phones now we find we cant continue our game. We worked hard to get what little we got and now Im losing interest cause we have to start over.
We know its been a few years since this was released; and we know theres a fish tycoon two. However, nothing beats this classic format. The retro vibe is so comforting. We genuinely cant stand The new one lol. We wish they would just do a simple update on this version. Make it a bit more practical, work out the bugs, provide an option where you can purchase isola-bucks with real money. Id pay for it. Come on guys, please lol.
We have played this game years ago and we dont remember having to constantly heal sick fish. The point is to breed and sell fish. With a maxed out tank, all the magic plants and everything researched you still spend hundreds of dollars constantly healing sick fish. Waste of time.
It feels as if its multiple phone generations behind. Awful graphics, clunky and doesnt fit our full screen on iPhone X.
Please update to take advantage of the Retina display… Thats the only thing.
We deleted the game and restarted our phone, yet we periodically still have sounds from it.
We use to play this on pc. We saw it as an app, nostalgia won. We bought the app and regretted it within 24 hours.
We bought this for our child and we hate it our child screamed hes 2 so we thought it was normal look on his tablet and he said creepy fishy The fish dead picture looked terrifying do not buy.
We just downloaded this and Im upset we had to pay a dollar for this. The image quality is horrible.
The fish get sick too fast, dies to fast, and dont sell in the fish store. The only way to keep up is sit at our mobile device non stop. Dont have time to do this. It also needs to let the player know he reasonable price for a fish, allow you to change prices, and remove a fish from the store. SO AGGRAVATING!!! Dont need an aggravating app when we just want to relax at night after a hard day.
UPDATE: we absolutely freaked out when we noticed there was a new update out for Fish Tycoon!!! Im actually thrilled to say that we were wrong about the developers – they clearly HAVENT given up on this game! Not only have they updated the original Fish Tycoon, but they also just released Fish Tycoon 2! We cant wait any longer – gotta go check it out! FIRST REVIEW: This app is REALLY cool, and was one of the first fish breeding games around. And it has SO MUCH potential!!! Unfortunately the developers clearly gave up on it some years ago, which really bummed us out. Because of that, you can only have a max of 3 tanks (which isn't anywhere near enough room), the decoration choices are very limited, and there have been no updates & no new content (or new fish!) added since 2011… We REALLY wish the developers would start working on this again because it's different than all the other breeding games out there.
Does nt have the same picture quality like it shows in he App Store.
We've always loved this game since we were little and being able to play it on our phone is great. It's exactly how we remember.
If you're a fish person as we are we highly recommended getting this app. You can map your fishes genetics and get new combinations of fish. Very strategical, nurturing, game.
We love this game . It is such a good way to pass the time.
We absolutely never write reviews for apps, but this one is so good we had to give our thanks to the creators. This game is fun, challenging, and you don't have to spend a fortune to actually play it. You pay the money to buy the app and that's it. No ads, no in-app purchases! To all the reviewer's who are saying their fish get sick and die, that is because you have not really learned the game. Yes, it is challenging. That's what makes it fun! Our only minor complaint is that the graphics are poor quality. Also, it is nearly impossible to tell when some of the light colored fish have ich. We would really like it if you could purchase additional tanks. We feel like you should be able to buy as many as you want. If you have the money, why can't you buy what you want? Also, we purchased this game for our iPhone, but if we want to play it on our iPad we have to buy the iPad version A note to the people who are complaining that their fish won't sell: you are either not pricing them correctly or you are not paying for advertising. As you advance in the game, you have to invest in advertising to make the fish sell quickly. We have found a couple of fish that you practically have to give away, though. But, for the most part, they sell extremely well. Concentrate on breeding and selling the magical fish. It bothers us that people have not taken the time to learn the game and are giving the app a bad rating because of it. There are many very simple virtual aquarium games. This is not one of them! This game is a challenge. It is more than worth the money.
We've started playing this app and it looks fun we hope you guys will read this and we hope you will make the game look better and make breeding to get magical fish easier! We wish there was a 6 star ;).
The original developers are dead. Btw.
Best game ever, will not regret buying. Played this as a kid around the age of 7 and we're still playing, and we're about to be 18.
As a little kid we played this on our computer and loved it since, but one feature added could be taking out loans, to get a head start, then pay them off later.
We have this on the computer too but we beat that version. We would say that the wait is too long, we know the time travel glitch though so it's not a problem. This game is a great time killer. And for all of those amateurs who say their fish die too fast, you are probably breeding really unstable hybrids in low level Enviroment. As for the blurry graphics, we think this is one of those games more meant for an iPad, but we like it on our regular iPhone anyway.
We love this game and you can play it again and again. We just wish we could zoom in.
We love this app, we first downloaded it when we had our iTouch in 2010. But it is concerning that the game has literally not been updated in years. It supports iOS 3. Do the developers still exist? We still play this, can we maybe get an update sometime? Possibly to improve the graphics and add more tanks or things to the store. That would be fantastic.
Awesome game!!!! But please!! Update! It's been since 2011! There is a bigger retina display! Or make a second one, we will buy it.
Make a knew game with real fish names and change.
We love this game!! A couple of things to remember: 1. Find a fish that costs a decent amount of money and breed a bunch of them and sell them. 2. Don't breed two fish thinking you will get the fins off one and the body of the other, it doesn't work like that.
You should buy it now before its $1.99 again!!! This is the best fish game in the world!! Not only do you raise your fish, but you have a fish shop where you can sell your fish too! So all you people that are asking why there hasn't been an update, it's because it's already as good as it can be!! It's gonna be hard making this game better than it already is.
Awesome but magic fish combinations too hard. Also fish environment research to expensive.
We love this game. More things should be added :).
We don't care about the graphics it looks fine to us you should make a pet tycoon.
We've had this game on and off now for about 3 years! We honestly could care less about the graphics, because the game makes up for it. It's well worth a dollar, but seriously don't cheat. We've done it and it just made the game so much more boring. We've decided to start fresh and play this game clean! Buy it.
We bought this app a couple years ago and recently re-installed it. We're hooked again. BUT NEEDS BETTER GRAFIX. Gimme some HD already.
Fun. Easy though. Buy a second set of cheap eggs after you drop the first in the tank, then add growth hormone. You will get 2 magic fish. Breed them for easy money.
We love this game but there needs to be more fish tanks and ways to get money and more research for advertisement and stuff :) thanks.
This game is so awesome. You should get it. But as most people said don' t get the upgrade.
But the prices in the store are WAYYYYY to high.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.3.2
- Size: 43.10 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: LDW Software, LLC
Last updated: 19th October 2017 | Genre: Family, Entertainment | Developer: LDW Software, LLC