Fish Sort guide: how to clear every bubble without filling the tray

Read the tags before you tap

Under each tank on the shelf hangs a tag that shows which creature the tank wants and how many it already has. Start every level by reading those tags, because a fish that matches a tank swims straight in and never touches the tray. Three of a kind fill a tank, the tank bursts and a new one drops onto the shelf with a different wish.

Only the fish you tap move, so nothing happens by itself apart from one thing: when a tank for a parked kind opens, the fish waiting in the tray hop over on their own. That is the engine of the game. You are not hunting for matches in the pile, you are lining up orders so that the tray empties itself.

Parking a fish: the tray is a bet, not a bin

A fish with no tank waiting for it goes into the tray, which has five slots. Parking is often the only way to reach a fish buried lower in the pile, so you cannot avoid it, but you can choose well.

Before you park, look at how many fish of that kind you can see in the bubbles. A kind with two or three visible fish is a safe bet, because a tank asking for it is likely to come up. A lone fish of a kind you cannot see anywhere else is the worst thing to park, since it can sit in a slot for a long time. Try never to fill the fourth slot with a lone fish: keep at least one slot free for the fish you will need next.

Empty small bubbles first

Each bubble holds a mix of sea creatures. When you empty one it pops, the pile settles and new bubbles drift down from above. A popped bubble changes the shape of the whole aquarium, which brings fish that were out of reach within a tap.

That is why small bubbles come first. A bubble with one or two fish left costs you almost nothing to finish and gives you the biggest change in the pile. Leaving a half-empty bubble sitting there while you chase a big one makes the board harder to read and the tray harder to protect.

Frozen, foggy and locked bubbles

The deeper you go, the more the aquarium fights back. Frozen bubbles thaw only after you take fish from their neighbours, so take fish from the bubbles next to a frozen one: every fish you take thaws it a little. Foggy bubbles clear the same way, and until they clear you cannot see what is inside.

Some fish show only as question marks until you pick them, so do not count on them when you decide what to park. Bubbles with a padlock open when a key reaches them from a key bubble, which means the key bubble is the one to empty first. Later levels add surprise bubbles with more fish inside than you can see, stones to crack, fish frozen in ice, chained pairs that leave together and tanks that keep their wish a secret. For all of these the rule is the same: spend the first taps on whatever opens things up, and leave the tray for last.

Timer tanks and the locked tanks

A timer tank has to be filled before its clock runs down. When one appears, finish it first, because everything else can wait a few seconds. The level itself also has a gentle clock of five minutes for most levels and four for the harder ones, and it only starts with your first tap. Most levels take a minute or two, so the clock matters less than the tray does.

Two of the four tanks on the shelf start locked. Opening one gives you a third or fourth order at the same time, which makes the tray much easier to manage, because more open tanks means more fish that can leave it. When a level feels tight, that extra room is the cheapest help you have.

Using the boosters

Three boosters sit at the bottom of the screen, and you tap one to use it. The rod pulls fish for an open tank straight out of the bubbles, the sweep moves every fish from the tray to a side pocket where they wait for their tank, and the shuffle mixes the fish inside the bubbles.

Save them for the end of a level, where the pile is deepest and the tray fills fastest. The sweep is the one to remember when the tray is nearly full of fish nobody wants, and the shuffle is for a board where the fish you need are all stuck behind each other. If the tray does fill up, you can continue by clearing it, or start the level again. Your level and an unfinished board are saved in the browser, so you can close the tab and come back to the same board later.

Frequently asked questions

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• Fish Sort — Tap the fish out of the bubbles and fill the tanks