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/                               \
/        SimAquarium2           \
/       Strategy Guide          \
/        --by rul3r--           \
/             v2                \
/                               \
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Follow these 10 easy steps and you will be rich in no time:

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1. You always start off with a fully grown Southern Platyfish and $100. The Southern Platyfish is one of 3 basic fish. In the shop in the top left corner there will either be the Southern Platyfish, the Guppy and the Pandy Corydora. If the Southern Platyfish is there, buy another one. If it is one of the other two kinds of fish, sell your Southern Platyfish and buy two of the basic fish in the shop. The reason for this is you need two or more of the same species of fish at 100% grown to breed.

Some points to note are at the start, you will want to reach your optimal number of fish for you chosen species as fast as possible. This optimal number of fish can be found in the included excel file.

Don't use growth hormones at the start because the basic filter cannot keep up with the pollution. In between getting to your optimal number of fish, you will want to buy the second filter because the amount of fish you have in the tank will overrun the basic filter.

Once you have your optimal number of fish, you'll want to sell the newly born babies until your fully grown adults are just about to die, then sell the adults and let some babies grow up to be adults. You'll want to have the optimal number of fish in the tank, so for guppies this is 40. When a baby guppy is born it will put you over the optimal number of fish and thus, you sell it. If you have over the optimal number of fish, suffice to say the don't breed anywhere near as much. This technique applies throughout the entire game.

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2. Once you have enough money, buy the underground filter. It gives you the highest comfort rating of any filter, and is good enough to sustain the pollution for your next batch of fish, which will either be the Cardinal tetra's, or the Fairy Cichild.

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3. Once you have the underground filter and have been selling baby fish using the technique mentioned above and have saved up some cash, it is time to move on to your next fish. If you can handle a fair amount of clicking and constant attention, get the Cardinal Tetra's. Otherwise, get the Fairy Cichlid (which are probably a better option in terms of sustaining interest in the game). For either fish, you will need to have enough money to buy two of them**, as otherwise they will not breed. Before you by your next batch of fish, sell the old ones, as the more fish you have of one species, the more chance you have that they will breed, and if you get the Fairy Cichlid's, they are very aggressive and will fight with any other species of fish. Luckily enough, a fish will not fight with its own species.

** Note that there are 28 fish, but only 9 spawn every hour, so you may have to get one of the above species over the other if you are impatient and do not feel like waiting.

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4. Like before, get them up to their optimal number, and use the baby selling technique as described above. I personally prefer the Fairy Cichlid's as they have a much longer lifespan, and require less clicking and attention.

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5. This is when you begin buying items. First, save up enough money for the best filter (Advanced Power Filter). The reason for not going through the filters is that basically, they are all largely hopeless except for the underground filter and the Advanaced Power Filter.

It is probably advisable to get the Moss Ball scenery and the Five Lights Up lighting before you get the Advanced Power Filter, as scenery and lighting both have a positive effect on fish breeding rate.

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6. Once you have the Advanced Power Filter, Moss Ball scenery and Five Lights Up, you will want to save up for a while until you have about $500 in the bank. Now it's time to start using breeding hormones. You need the Advanced Power Filter before you start using hormones as hormones produce an immense amount of pollution. The trick with breeding hormones is to make sure they never hit 0%. This will boost your production rate of fish greatly.

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7. After you've saved up a fair bit of cash(something to the tune of around $10000), you'll want to buy 2 Freshwater Angelfish as soon as they become availiable in the shop. These take ages to grow, and have an optimal number of 29, which means you will be waiting for a fair while before your entire breeding batch grows up, but when you do have 29 adults breeding with breeding hormones, the money you get is incredible.

You can keep the Fairy Cichlid's while your starting Angelfish grow, but as soon as the Angelfish hit's 100% grown, sell all of the Fairy Cichlid's, otherwise the Cichlid's will fight with the Angelfish***. You'll probably want to use growth hormones with your Angelfish. Hormones are expensive, which is why I recommend having in excess of $10000 before buying the Angelfish.

Get your Angelfish to their optimal number (29) and 100% grown, and the money will come pouring in. Obviously, as soon as you have a breeding pair of Angelfish (two fish at 100% grown) you should be using growth hormones. Growth hormones help A LOT.

*** Note that only adult fish (100% grown) can fight and reproduce.

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8. You should be getting an incredible amount of money by now, so it is time to get your final items for your fishtank. First, you will want to get the best lights (Star Lights), as these increse the comfort of your aquarium, making the fish breed more. Then you will want to buy the Swimming Pool scenery, which also increases the breeding rate of your fish. Finally, you will want to get the best scenery (Seashells) to give your fish the maximum possible chance to breed.

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9. By now you should have insane amounts of money, and the best gear, so you can get the best fish if you want. Dolphins are the rarest and most expensive fish in the game. They only appear in the shop 10% of the time, and _ONLY_ if you have the Swimming Pool scenery in use when the shop updates. The shop only sells 1 dolhpin at a time.

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10. Congratulations, you have clocked SimAquarium! :)

*** Note that only adult fish (100% grown) can fight and reproduce, and you can find out when they will begin fighting and how fast they will reproduce in the included excel file.

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^^^ More in depth information can be found in "general_info.txt" ^^^