Fish Ocean
A living reef on your Mac desktop
Frequently asked
Where is the app? Fish Ocean lives behind your windows. Click the 🐠 icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen to open its window; right-click 🐠 for the menu. Opening Fish Ocean again from Launchpad or Finder also opens the window.
Will it slow my Mac down? It's built to be light. It lowers its frame rate on battery and stops drawing when windows cover your desktop, when a full-screen app is in front, or when the screen sleeps. (While a friend's fish is visiting, it keeps swimming at a low frame rate so it doesn't freeze on your friend's screen.) The window shows its live CPU and memory use.
What's free, and what does Full Ocean add? Free: your fish's home reef, from rosy dawn to glowing blue night. Full Ocean, a one-time purchase with no subscription, sets your fish free: it travels through nine habitats, eats plankton and slowly grows over about two months, rests in its anemone, and meets schools of blue tangs.
What is the "Set … free" window? If you're on the free version, your fish may show you what Full Ocean adds. It asks at most three times, and you can tick Don't ask again.
Does it follow my sunrise and sunset? Yes. Day and night follow the real sunrise and sunset for your Mac's time zone, all year, so sunsets come earlier in winter. It's worked out on your Mac from the time zone alone; Fish Ocean doesn't use your location. (Very long or very short days are kept between 6 and 18 hours.)
How does my fish grow? With Full Ocean, your fish eats plankton and grows a little every day, reaching full size over about two months. Fish that had already grown before version 1.3 keep their size.
Is my fish saved? Yes. Its size, age and journal are kept on your Mac, even after restarting.
Friends
How do I swim with a friend? Both of you need to be signed in to iCloud. Click 🐠 → Friends to find your friend code, or use Share Fish Ocean… / Copy invite, which include your code. Your friend chooses Add Friend… (in the Friends section or the right-click 🐠 menu) and enters it, and you accept their friend request. Once you've accepted each other, a friend with Full Ocean can invite your fish to swim with theirs, live on both desktops; the other friend doesn't need Full Ocean.
Who can swim with my fish? Only friends you've accepted: they can invite your fish, and in a group a friend's friends can swim along too. Turn off Allow visits and no one can.
Someone I don't know added my code. You'll get a friend request, and their fish can't visit until you accept. Choose Accept, Decline or Report… in the 🐠 menu or in the Friends section.
How do I remove or block a fish? Removing a friend, or declining a request, blocks that fish. You'll find it in the Blocked list, where Unblock undoes it; after unblocking, they're a stranger again and would need to send a new request.
How do I report a fish? Choose Report… on the request or friend. It blocks the fish and opens a pre-filled email to us. Nothing is sent unless you send it.
Why does a fish show up as "Fish"? Names that are offensive, or that contain links, @handles or phone numbers, are hidden and shown as "Fish".
A friend became a friend request after updating. Since version 1.3, friends you didn't add yourself appear as requests. Accept the ones you know.
My friends can't connect. Friend codes and invites go through iCloud, and live swimming uses a secure connection to our server. Some strict office or school networks block this. Your fish keeps working normally, and the 🐠 menu tells you when friends can't be reached. Try again from another network.
Full Ocean
I bought Full Ocean on another Mac. Choose Restore purchase in the Full Ocean card of the window, or in the right-click 🐠 menu.
I have a Full Ocean code. Choose Redeem code… in the Full Ocean card of the window (macOS 15 or later), or in the Mac App Store under your account → Redeem Gift Card or Code.
The purchase says "Waiting for approval". Ask to Buy is on for your account, so a parent or guardian needs to approve it. Full Ocean unlocks by itself once it's approved.
Start at login can be turned on or off in the 🐠 menu.