Fish Pond Stardew Valley Guide- Everything You Need to Know
The Fish Pond Stardew Valley is a type of farm building available in the open-ended country-life RPG. In this guide, you will find everything you need to know about the Fish Pond and what it does.
Stardew Valley is a game that keeps ongoing. It is an open-ended structure meaning that it is theoretically impossible to finish. You may think this is a horrific sentiment but others might love the idea. Either way, that is what Stardew Valley is.
One great thing I particularly enjoy about this game is the alternative farming methods made available to players. If you don’t like crowing crops, you can build a Fish Pond instead and start your own Fishery.
Stardew Valley Fish Pond can take up a 5×5 space and on top of the 5×5 space you will need for each Fish Pond, you will also need some resources.
- Fish Pond Build Cost: 5,000g
- Fish Pond Building Materials: stone (200), Seaweed (5), and Green Algae (5)
A Fish Pond can hold and raise different kinds of fish in Stardew Valley like the Night Market fish, Crab Pot fish, and beach forageables like Sea Urchins and Coral. While in the Fish Pond, the fish will produce Roe and other random items. Roe can be sold at a price but this depends on the base selling price of the fish it comes from.
The fish that cannot live in the fish pond are the five legendary fish: Legend, Crimsonfish, Mutant Carp, Glacierfish, and Angler.
Fish Pond Stardew Valley
Fish thrown in the pond can also produce up to the limit of their pond, except for Tiger Trout that can’t reproduce.
A fish you catch from a Fish Pond will always be regular in quantity however, you can still do this without the fishing minigame. Thankfully, it also does not affect Tackle Durability or use up any Bait
Take note that only one type of fish is held in a Fish Pond at a time. If you want to populate the pond and start it all off, you need to right-click on the Fish Pond while holding the desired fish. This will throw the fish in.
Unfortunately, this does not work with any of the Legendary Fish available – but on the plus side, the fish reproduce by themselves, so you don’t need to worry about it once you’ve put one in.
Another thing worth noting is that fishing in a Fish Pond doesn’t empty it, rather, the fish that you’ve in there will continue to reproduce unless you specifically select “Empty Pond”. This will mean you can repopulate it even though it does destroy any fish that are inside at the time.
A pond’s standard initial capacity is three fish. However, several rare fish have an initial capacity of just one fish such as Blobfish, Ice Pips, Ghostfish, Slimejacks, Lava Eels, Stonefish, Sturgeons, Void Salmons, and Woodskips. Others like Tiger Trout, Sea urchins, and Coral have an initial capacity of ten.
Empty Pond
You can empty a fish pond by either using a fishing rod to catch and remove each fish or by selecting the “empty pond” option in the fish pond menu.
Catching and removing all the fish in the pond just reduces the pond population but doesn’t reset the pond. Only the same species of fish can be added to the pond – all quest capacity increases are retained.
Selecting the “empty pond” option in the fish pond completely resets the pond, returning it to the same state as a newly built pond. But all the fish in the pond will be lost. However, this can be avoided if you catch and remove all the fish before resetting the pond.
Quests
In a pond, fish will reproduce at a fixed rate until they reach the pond’s capacity, at this point an exclamation point will appear in the center of the pond, showing that you have a fish quest waiting. And fulfilling a quest raises the pond’s capacity, which can continue up to a maximum capacity of 10 fish.
The fish spawn frequency is species-dependent and can range from1-5 days for most fish except Tiger Trout which doesn’t reproduce. More expensive fish spawn, more slowly. Even if only one fish is present in the pond, the fish will reproduce. You can throw more fish into the pond up to its current capacity instead of waiting for fish spawning.
When population growth is prevented by the pond capacity, a new fish quest is initiated. You’ll have to wait 1 to 5 days for the fish quest to start if you throw fish into a pond to reach its capacity.
Note: Adding fish to the pond does not reset the fish spawning clock, so the next quest will start “Spawn_Frequency days after the last spawning event or completed quest.
The fish quests need you to fetch a specified number of one item and throw it into the pond and if multiples of an item are requested, they are added one at a time – this means different quantities can be combined.
Fish Pond Stardew Valley
When a quest is completed, the fish will jump out of the pond and thank you. You are also granted 20-45 Fishing XP but this depends on the fish spawning frequency.
The possible item is dependent upon the fish species and the pond capacity. When multiple items are possible for a given quest or when the number of requested items is variable, the details of the request selected randomly when the quest initiates and reloading a game save will not change the selection.
Keep in mind that although you remove fish from the pond, removes the quest exclamation fish, it doesn’t reset the quest and as soon as the pond returns to capacity, the same quest item will be requested.
When the quest is complete, the fish population does not immediately increase, rather, the fish spawning clock resets to zero-days, and the nest population increase happens “Spawn_Frequency days later. Meaning that even if a fish quest is completed immediately, the fish population takes more than twice as long to increase each time there’s a quest.
For instance, instead of taking 45 days for an Ice Pip pond to reach a population of 10, it takes about 69 days only if one initial fish is thrown into the pond.
Produce
Fish ponds can produce items in the chum bucket every day, with items being more likely at higher fish populations. The most common item in fish pond is Roe but at high populations, some fish can produce valuable items.
You can collect any produced items by clicking on the fish pond. Uncollected items only continue to the next day if new items are not produced otherwise the new items replace the uncollected items.
The base chance that an item is possible ranges from 23% – 95% and empty ponds never produce items. The game then selects the item that will appear, based on the fish species and population.
The item selection can produce no item especially at low populations – this means that the overall item chance of the item appearing on a given day, can be obtained by multiplying the base chance (23% to 95%) by the “% of items”.
Both chances may vary depending on the fish pond population, as may the possible count of a given item.
How to Fish in Stardew Valley
It can be difficult to know the details about how to fish in the beginning in Stardew Valley. But we’ve got some tips for you.
Use Rod or Crab Pot
You can buy either a rod or a crab pot at Willy’s Fish Shop at the Beach and use either to fish. You can also craft a crab pot with 40 pieces of wood and iron bars.
The items for sale at Willy’s Fish Shop are at your appropriate skill level. So, you will not see the best fishing rods for quite some time. In Spring two of your first year, Willy the shop owner will send a mail for the player. Make sure you read it, otherwise, you will have trouble getting into the Fish Shop.
The only two fishing rods available at the beginning are the Bamboo Rod and the Training Rod and neither can be used to attach bait or tackle. The Training Rod is easier to use than other rods if you are having trouble fishing but can only catch basic fish.
You can put the crab pots into the water with bait inside and after a day, they will have caught some fish or junk.
The Fishing Mini-Game
There’s a fishing mini-game in Stardew valley in which you have to keep the green bar behind the moving fish in order to catch it and at times, the fish moves a lot, so it can be quite difficult.
You can use timed and gentle clicks but if you keep the button clicked for a long time or not at all, the bar will pass through the fish and you can lose it.
The bar on the right side changes colours so don’t let it to the red-colour bottom otherwise, the fish will escape.
At times, a chest symbol will appear, and to get the treasure, you have to keep the green bar behind it however, it can be difficult if the fish is on a completely different side.
Another great tip is to wait till the fish and the chest are close to each other or try to catch the fish till the right-sidebar is almost complete and then try to get the chest. The right-sidebar level will start decreasing so you must be fast. So get the treasure and move quickly to the fish before you lose it too.
When to Fish in Stardew Valley
Some fish in Stardew Fish Pond will only be available to fish in a specific season, time of day, weather, or location. Catch fish in rivers, lakes, and oceans, but note that some species are exclusive to nighttime or rainy conditions.
So, try to fish under many different conditions and always check the required fish to complete the Community Center.
How to Use Bait in Stardew Valley
Here, you’ll get to know the ways you can use bait in Stardew valley. There’re four different baits available in Stardew Valley i.e. the Bait, the Magnet, the Wild Bait, and the Magic Bait.
You can buy the regular bait at Willy’s Fish Shop for 5g each or can craft it yourself, or grow it in a Worm Bin or find it in Fishing Treasure Chests.
You can attach or insert all bait types into a fishing rod or Crab Pot, but each bait is only usable once.
Fishing Rod
Not all fishing rods can be attached to a bait. The only rods that can be attached to baits are a Fiberglass Rod or an Iridium Rod are and you can get both of them at Willy’s Fish Shop, located on the docks of the beach, south of Pelican Town. Fishing rods cause fish to bite faster and the special baits have some additional effects.
Crab Pots
You can obtain Crab Pots by buying them from Willy’s Fish Shop or crafting them yourself. And when you put them in the water with baits inside, they catch fish or trash-like items.
You can also put crab pots in the water areas that aren’t inside your farm. You can also put the crab pot in the mine’s pools but it’ll disappear forever.
When you harvest a Crab Pot, you get five fishing experience points even if the inside is just trash. Don’t despair over trash items! Use the Recycling Machine to transform them into something useful.
You can also get some of the items from anywhere, while others are specific water-type. Broken CD, Broken Glasses, Trash, Soggy Newspaper, and Driftwood, can be gotten from anywhere.
Results of recycling are:
- Broken Glasses – Refined Quarts (1)
- Broken CD – Refined Quarts (1)
- Trash – Stone (1-3) 49% of chance. Coal (1-3) of chance. Iron Ore (1-3) 21% of chance.
- Soggy Newspaper – Torch (3) 90% of chance. Cloth (1) 10% of chance
- Driftwood – Wood (1-3) 75% of chance. Coal (1-3) 25% of chance.
The only place where you can catch Lobsters, Crabs, Clams, Cycle, Mussels, Shrimp, and oysters is the Ocean. While the only place you can get Crayfish, snail, and Periwinkle is Freshwater. Freshwater locations are any body of water except the beach and the mine’s pools.
If your profession is Luremaster, you can use Crab Pots without baits in order to have the same results. Also, the previously mentioned bait types have no extra effect on crab pots.
How to Attach Bait to Fishing Rod in Stardew Valley
Improve your fishing game in Stardew Valley! Master attaching bait to your rod and make the most of your fishing trips.
Using bait with the Fiberglass or Iridium Rods speeds up fish biting, although it’s not necessary for fishing. Moreover, specialized baits provide extra benefits, therefore, it can help you a lot.
The Right Fishing Rod
Note: Only two fishing rods, the Fiberglass Rod and Iridium Rod (available at Willy’s Fish Shop), allow bait attachment.
The Fiberglass Rod unlocks at Fishing Level 2, while the Iridium Rod becomes available for purchase at Fishing Level 6.
How to Attach the Bait
On Computer, attach bait by opening Inventory and clicking (right or left) on the bait if Toolbar doesn’t work. The right-click will select just one and the left-click will select all your baits. After that, you just need to right-click on the fishing rod.
On PS4, attach bait by pressing X (stack) or Square (single), then Square to attach to rod.
Xbox, attach bait by pressing A (stack) or X (single), then X to attach to rod.
On Nintendo Switch, attach bait by selecting with A (stack) or Y (single) and confirming with Y.
Mobile, attach bait by opening Inventory, dragging bait, and dropping it onto the rod.
Watch the video below to know more about Fish Pond Stardew Valley
Conclusion
There you have it, all you need to know about Fish Pond Stardew Valley – from how to fish, to how to attach bait to fishing rod.
I hope this information is helpful.
