Finside: Idle Aquarium

A cozy, true-to-life idle aquarium game.

Start with a 1 gallon tank on your counter. Cycle the water, plant some java moss, and add your first cherry shrimp. Every plant and animal is a real species that behaves like the real thing: bettas eat shrimp, shy fish need plants to hide in, schooling fish want a group, and new water has to cycle before anything can live in it.

Your tanks keep living while you’re away. Babies hatch, plants grow, and coins pile up in the treasure chest, so check in a few times a day. Hunt for rare colors, fill your Aquadex, raise multiple tanks, and adopt a cat or two to watch the fish.

A planted 5 gallon tank with a school of small red fish, colorful livebearers, shrimp and a ramshorn snail among tall grass-like plants, driftwood and a plant on a rock ledge

A blue betta named Corbin in a 10 gallon tank with cherry shrimp, a leaf hammock near the surface and a cat watching from outside the glass

A 20 gallon tank at night with a Bolivian ram, a gourami, a pleco named Speckles, a loach and a tiki decoration

The Shop’s For bettas section, with a betta hammock, a ping-pong ball and a floating betta log

What’s in the tank

27 real species of fish, shrimp and snails, and 13 real plants
Tanks from 1 to 20 gallons, with room for up to 8 at once
Breeding and rare color forms, 12 betta colors, and color varieties of shrimp and snails
Animals with moods: each one shows what it likes and what would make it happier, and a risk meter warns you before you mix species that don’t get along
Real care: cycling, water changes, algae, illness and medicine, trimming plants, and CO2 for a planted tank
Caves, hammocks, driftwood and ledges your animals actually use, and plants that grow on wood and rock
Day and night that follow your clock, rooms with weather, and cats that wander over to watch the fish
On the phone apps, notifications when fish get hungry or babies hatch
No ads, no accounts, no tracking

Coming soon

40 gallon freshwater: bigger fish and room for a real aquascape
Saltwater at 40 gallons: clownfish, corals and frags, with salt and top-offs to manage
Your own public aquarium: the end goal, where your fishkeeping turns into exhibits for visitors

Play

iPhone: in testing through TestFlight
Android: in testing

Version 0.6.1. Finside is in early development.

Questions or feedback? Email finside-game@protonmail.com.