I haven't played the Palm OS version of Fish Tycoon, so I don't have anything to compare the Pocket PC version's game play to, but now that I've played the game for many hours, I have noticed a few things that, if changed just a bit, could significantly improve game play.

1. After several generations of fish breeding, the tank can get very crowded. Since fish move around, it can be very difficult to count them (especially when there are babies, teens and adults in the same tank). We are limited to 20 fish in each tank, so it would be really nice to know how many fish are currently in the tank. I know there's a variable for each tank to track the number of fish there (otherwise you couldn't tell when it was full). Maybe you could add that information to the text line when you click on a tank tab: "You are in Tank 1, which has n fish" It would save a lot of time and effort trying to make sure we don't have our baby fish eaten because there wasn't enough room for the offspring of our breeding efforts.

2. Explain Ick and Fungal treatment more clearly (maybe in the tip the first time a fish gets sick). It appears to me that the treatments work on a single fish (like the insect spray in Plant Tycoon). If that's the case, it would be much easier to treat the infected fish in the isolation tank, which is not possible now. That way, it would be far easier to medicate the correct fish, especially in a crowded tank.

3. Provide an explanation for that nice little musical tone that occurs once in awhile. At first I thought it had something to do with the fish getting older, but that didn't seem to be the case. Then I thought maybe it marked certain events, but I couldn't determine what event. Then I noticed that it happened even when the game was paused, which completely threw me. It's cute, but what's it telling me?

The Ick treatments will also just work if you blast the tank with the stuff. the instructuions talk about 'every half an hour' but I find no such delay necessary.

I noticed that about the isolation tank, too. Having owned many aquariums with real fish in my time, you should always isolate the fish for medical treatment anyway. It would just make it more realistic to treat them in the isolation tank.

You do know that you can move your baby and teen fish into the for sale tank if you need more room but can't buy the second tank yet. They can't be sold until they are full grown, so you don't have to worry about that.

Why are the effects of the chemicals not consistant? When I speed the growth of my fish, sometimes they grow very fast. Sometimes it hardly speeds their growth at all.

Is there some place I can find a list of what the 7 look like? How do I know if I am close or just chasing a dead end?

Are there any tricks to learning the immensly complicated formulae for breeding the 500+ breeds?

I have played about 400 hours (I'm sure I'm still a newbie) and have only found 3 of 7.

The effects of the chemicals involve some 'fuzzy logic'. Fish won't respond quite the same each time they are used.

3 of 7 Magic Fish is not terrible! There are some charts out there that detail which fish lead to which hybrids. I've also seen a chart with several hundred fish documented on it.

Maybe someone will post one of these...

Arthur

does anybody know what fish are not dead ends?

the haplochromis is not.
the B. splendins is not
the the yellow platy is a good avenue
the pseudochromis i think must be a dead end

(sorry I may have spelled some of those wrong. i don't feel like pulling out the latin dictionary. I breed fish for a living and love this game. I wish the hybrids were more realistic though. but, it is the easiest breeding tank I own.)

Wow. I was always concerned when I was designing Fish Tycoon that fish breeders and enthusiasts might play and potentially be upset at the many 'liberties' that were taken with the breeds, and breeding in general.

Now I'd have to look up the real species names you listed and see the picture to remember who they are in the game. In general though there are not too many dead ends. A better way to describe them would be 'more and less direct routes' to the Magic Fish.

Arthur

it would be absolutely wonderful if someone would either post or email a chart detailing the breeding for the magic fish! i've re started the game 4 times, played over 1000 hours, and i can only find 5 of the seven magic fish! any help would be wonderful!
xiztanz@hotmail.com

In some ways you are better off with no -fish- experience. Some of the magic breeds are very counter intuative. That is - the fins don't match the fish.

Why not use the common names for the fish? Why call the puffer/boxfish a grouper? Wouldn't have been just as easy to call it a puffer?