Modding:Fish data

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This page explains how the game stores and parses fish data. This is an advanced guide for mod developers.

Data format

Fish

You can edit fish data by editing the Data/Fish data asset.

This consists of a string → string lookup, where...

• The key is a unique string ID for the fish.
• The value is a slash-deliminated string with the fields listed below:

The value consists of two different formats: one for crab pot fish and one for fish that can be caught with the fishing rod.

If the value of the field at index 1 is trap, the fish can only be caught using a crab pot, and it uses this format:

index	syntax	example	content
0	<name>	Lobster	The fish name.
1	<type>	trap	Must be trap to indicate a crab pot catch.
2	<chance>	.05	The percentage chance that this fish will be caught as a value between 0 and 1. Only applies if a fish listed earlier in the file isn't selected first.
3		688 .45 689 .35 690 .35	Unused.
4	<location>	ocean	The type of water body where the fish can be caught. The vanilla values are freshwater or ocean; mods may add their own region.
5	<min size>	2	The minimum and maximum size of the caught fish in inches for fishing stats. In non-English languages, this is converted to centimetres by multiplying by 2.54.
6	<max size>	20

Otherwise it's a fish that can be caught while fishing and uses this format:

index	syntax	example	content
0	<name>	Pufferfish	The fish name.
1	<chance to dart>	80	How often the fish darts in the fishing minigame; between 15 (carp) and 100 (glacierfish).
2	<darting randomness>	floater	How the bobber behaves during the fishing minigame; one of mixed, smooth, floater, sinker, or dart.
3	<min size>	1	The minimum and maximum size of the caught fish in inches for fishing stats. In non-English languages, this is converted to centimetres by multiplying by 2.54.
4	<max size>	36
5	[<min time> <max time>]+	1200 1600	The time of day when the fish can spawn. The min time is inclusive, max time is exclusive. May specify multiple ranges.
6	[<season>]+	summer	Unused; seasons are taken from Data/Locations instead.
7	<weather>	sunny	The weather when the fish can spawn; one of sunny, rainy, or both.
8	<locations>	690 .4 685 .1	Unused; locations are taken from Data/Locations instead.
9	<max depth>	4	The minimum number of tiles from land that the player must cast their rod such that the chance for catching this fish is not decreased. If the player casts closer to land than this minimum, they will accrue a penalty of (depth multiplier * chance) percentage points for each tile below this minimum.
10	<chance>	.3	The base chance for catching this fish once it has already been determined as one of the possible fish to catch at a tile. After applying buffs from fishing level and the Training Rod, this value is clamped to 0.9 before applying other buffs such as from the Curiosity Lure and Targeted Bait.
11	<depth multiplier>	.5	A multiplier used when penalizing the player for not casting their rod at least max depth tiles from land.
12	<fishing level>	0	The minimum fishing level needed for this fish to appear.
13	<first-catch tutorial eligible>	true	Indicates whether the fish can be selected for the first-catch tutorial.

Aquarium fish

Fish in fish tanks can be edited via the Data/AquariumFish asset.

This consists of a string → string lookup, where...

• The key is a unique string ID for the aquarium fish, which must match the non-qualified item ID of the item being deposited into the tank.
• The value is a slash-deliminated string with the fields listed below:

index	field	purpose
0	sprite index	The index of the sprite in the LooseSprites/AquariumFish spritesheet, starting at 0 for the top-left sprite. The fish sprites are 24x24px.
1	type	The fish type, which influences their behavior. Possible values: value notes eel These fish have a clamped minimum velocity greater than 0, regardless of their behavior in Data/Fish. cephalopod These fish have no minimum velocity. They favor moving downward in the tank rather than upward. crawl These fish always stay at the bottom of the tank. They move horizontally along the tank bottom. These fish have no minimum velocity. ground These fish always stay near the bottom of the tank. They are closer to the glass than all other fish types. They move horizontally and vertically, but favor moving downward towards the tank bottom. These fish have no minimum velocity. fish front_crawl Used for crawling fish whose sprites extend past the floor. They are closer to the glass than all other fish (besides ground fish). Otherwise, it has identical behavior to crawl. static These fish always stay at the bottom of the tank. They do not move within the tank. float
2 3–5	idle animation dart animation	The animation used by the fish when it's idling (2) or darting (3–5). This is specified as a list of space-delimited frames, where each frame is the sprite index in the LooseSprites/AquariumFish spritesheet to display. Each frame is displayed for 125ms. For example, Stingrays have their idle animation set to 70 70 70 71 71 72. The dart animation is split into three fields: start (3), hold (4), and end (5).
6	texture	The asset name for the texture containing the fish's sprite. Defaults to LooseSprites/AquariumFish.
7	hat position	The pixel position of the hat on the sprite, specified as an object with X and Y values. Custom fish in aquariums can wear hats, just like vanilla sea urchins.

Spawning Fish

Fish spawn data is stored in Data/Locations. Fish can be added to a location by editing the Fish field in the location's data entry. Distinct fishing areas can be defined within the same location (for example, a pond and a river within the same location that have different fish spawn chances) by editing the FishAreas field. These fishing areas can then be referenced by ID in the Fish field. See Modding:Location data for more information.