Stardew Valley Fish Pond TOP 5 BEST FISH
This Stardew Valley Fish Pond Guide will tell you all about which fish are the best for using in the Stardew Valley Fish Pond and why. All top 5 fish revealed.
If you’re playing Stardew Valley, you may be curious about what to do with Fish Ponds, which are a building Robin allows you to make starting early in the game. In Stardew Valley Fish Ponds can hold a variety of fish that produce items for your to sell as well as additional fish that can be used to populate other fish ponds or sold for additional profit.
In this Stardew Valley Fish Pond Guide, I’ll tell you what the top 5 best fish are for your fish pond and why so you can get started making fish ponds a lucrative part of your farm right away.
5. Octopus – Stardew Valley Fish Pond
Octopus is not the most profitable fish to place into a fish pond, but once you’ve populated an Octopus pond, they provide you with a steady income of Omni-Geodes, which can be used to produce other items. Omni-Geodes can be exchanged for Artifact Troves at the Desert Trader or they can be broken open themselves.
There’s a bit of luck involved with the contents of Omni-Geodes, but there’s a fairly good chance of getting items that sell for a fair amount of money, especially if you’re trading them for Artifact Troves. You can also get your hands on extra Iridium Ore from time to time, which is useful if you’re able to set up an Octopus Fish Pond before you have access to the lower levels of the Skull Cavern or the Statue of Prosperity.
Octopuses are very hard to catch. They can only be caught in the ocean, during summer between 6 AM and 1 PM. In addition to that, the catching difficult for octopuses is crazy. It’s one of the most difficult fish to catch in the game. Luckily you only need one to start your fish pond.
4. Super Cucumber – Stardew Valley Fish Pond
Super Cucumbers split the difference between profitability and utility. While not being among the most profitable fish types, they’re still decently profitable (Super Cucumber sells for 500g base vs 300g base for the Octopus).
However, at a full pond they have a 5% chance of producing 1-3 Iridium Ore every day, which makes them one of the best sources for Iridium before the end of the second year. Since you can get a Super Cucumber as early as your first summer, you can use them to get early access to things like Iridium Sprinklers that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to create until much, much later.
They’re also pretty easy to catch. They can be caught in the ocean during Summer or Fall by fishing any time after 6 PM. They’re slightly more difficult to catch than other fish available during that time period, but not so difficult that you’d need to use any special tricks.
In addition to everything said above, Super Cucumbers also turn the fish pond water purple, which is pretty cool.
3. Sturgeon – Stardew Valley Fish Pond
Sturgeon is the first of the top, top quality fish. While most fish types are capable of creating Roe, Sturgeons create their own special type of Roe, appropriately called Sturgeon Roe. Sturgeon Roe, unlike more common types of fish roe, is transformed into Caviar when placed into a Preserves Jar.
Caviar is a premium product that sells for a base 500g, or 700g with the Artisan profession. With a full pond, Sturgeons will leave 1-2 Roe on a daily basis, making them one of the most outright profitable fish pond options available.
You don’t want to sell Sturgeon themselves because you need the pond to be at capacity (10 Sturgeon) in order for it to have a chance to produce a second roe every day.
It should be mentioned that you also need Caviar in order to complete the final bundle in the abandoned JojaMart that unlocks the movie theater.
Sturgeon can be caught at the Mountain Lake any time during Summer and Winter, which means you can set up your Sturgeon Stardew Valley Fish Pond as early as the first Summer.
2. Lava Eel – Stardew Valley Fish Pond
If you want to make money with your Stardew Valley fish pond, it’s hard to go wrong filling one or several of them with Lava Eels. Lava Eels sell for a ridiculous amount. A purple quality Lava Eel with the Angler profession sells for 2100g. Lava Eels also have the added bonus of turning the fish pond water a cool red color.
Unlike Sturgeon, you’re safe selling off your 10th Lava Eel every time it populates for a little extra income, because you only need 9 Lava Eels to get access to its best drops.
Speaking of its drops, it’s drops are really good. Not only can it leave behind 2-3 very profitable Lava Eel Roe that you can easily turn into Aged Roe and sell for a pretty penny, it can also leave behind Spicy Eel, which is arguably the best food in the game since it increases your speed.
Occasionally it’ll leave behind 5 Magma Geodes, which are pretty worthless, but occasionally Magma Geodes have Iridium Ore in them, so it’s not all bad.
Catching a Lava Eel to get your Stardew Valley Fish Pond going can be kind of a chore. You have to go to level 100 in the Mines and fish in the lava pool there. Lava Eel is the only possible fish you can catch there, but it’s pretty rare to get a bite and when you do get a bite, its erratic behavior will likely make you lose the fish.
Expect to spend a day or two pulling up trash from the lava before you actually land that prized first Lava Eel.
1. Blobfish – Stardew Valley Fish Pond
The best fish is also the rarest fish. If don’t specifically know where to find it, you’re not going to find it. It’s only available once a year in a specific location. You have to take the Submarine Ride during the Night Market that happens in Winter from the 15th to the 17th and catch it then.
The Blobfish’s sale price is lower than the Lava Eels (1500g max vs 2100g max), but it produces more money over time because it has a 50% chance to give you 2 roe, while Lava Eel’s chance for 2 roe is only 15% and Sturgeon’s is 25%. Because it so regularly gives out double roe, its income tends to overcome the income that you can get from the Lava Eel pond.
In addition to that, it has a small chance at 9 population or above to produce a Pearl that sells for 2500g, which is the single most lucrative item that can be gotten from the Fish Pond.
Honorable Mentions
Void Salmon, which is the 4th most profitable fish overall and also turns the water purple. It doesn’t make it onto this list because it’s only very slightly more profitable than the Super Cucumber but it doesn’t have the added bonus of early access to Iridium Ore.
Woodskip, which can provide an additional source of Hardwood, which is relatively hard to come by if you’re not on the forest map.
Rainbow Trout, which has a very small (less than 1%) chance of producing a Prismatic Shard.
That about covers it when it comes to the Top 5 Best Fish for a Stardew Valley Fish Pond. Be sure to check out the Games Section for more game guides, and click here for more content related to Stardew Valley.
