Stardew Valley Fish Ponds - Top 25 Fish

I'll be presenting my picks for the top 25 fish to put in ponds on your Stardew Valley Farm. This will be subjective, but my rankings will be based on gold output, pond aesthetics, fish cuteness and any other arbitrary reasons that come to mind :)
0:00 Intro
3:18 Top 25
5:42 Top 20
8:05 Top 15
11:12 Top 10
14:51 Top 5
20:09 Outro

[@Arrowdodger]

I am a big fan of the fish ponds. I tend to always do Sturgeon for obvious reasons, but Blobfish, Lava Eel, Octopus, and Stingray are ones I almost always also do.

[@CrobatmanIamthenight]

I have the blue discus, sturgeon, blob fish, midnight carp and lava eel

[@shenanigansfckery7753]

Sturgeon is gold

[@DarkMirria1]

Same.

[@mooredmon7898]

You missed something important. Crabs! The first time you fill a fish pond up to ten with crabs, you unlock something with Willy and he gives you a pearl! They're also good for crab cakes.

[@bryans6626]

Crabs also have a chance of producing a nautilus shell - important if you're trying to rush CC before Winter. Mussels are another option, and they max the pond 3x faster than crabs (1 new mussels spawns every day, vs every 3 days for crabs).

[@adambryant4149]

"That is lava, right? How does our fishing line survive that?" How do WE survive that? We're in a unventilated place filled with lava and toxic gasses. We're pretty much dead as soon as we step foot in floor 100.

[@Caffin8tor]

Minecraft logic

[@DarkMirria1]

Video game logic.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

Great video on the output of the pond directly, however I think a big addition is going to be pairing ponds with the bait maker. By keeping a pond of each of the top selling fish reproducing you can have an unlimited number of targeted bait. This means that whenever you go out fishing you will be bringing in the targeted fish way more often, and then during the off-season you can build up your supply. Super cuc and stingray come to mind for sure, but one pond set aside for catfish can turn a rainy day into a huge pay-day which moves the catfish pond up the list for me.

[@johnstonefield1935]

Interesting idea but I think the benefit is pretty low for devoting a pond to. Keeping a "bad" output pond so you can stockpile targeted bait vs keeping a small buffer of the bait as you fish it(I just take the bait maker with me) and having that pond for something else.

[@brianhillman5867]

Just turn the silver star fish into bait, why would you automate something just to turn it back into manual work?

[@AlienGurke]

With Trap Bobber the Lava Eeel is a lot easier to catch. And the best is, its the only fish exists on Floor 100, so every other item you will get wont reduce the durability of the Trap Bobber, means you can use 1 Trap Bobber for 20 lava eel. And you can craft a Deluxe Worm Bin to get infinite Deluxe Baits to have a even higher output. I got like 10 lava eels on one day. lol

[@Pehmokettu]

I have never liked blobfish because the 'funny look' is just a result of implosion. A living blobfish looks totally different. I wish that one day there would be a farming sim /cozy game that has blobfish but it would be the living version and not just the imploded corpse.

[@brianhillman5867]

That farm would have to be in the deepest of oceans

[@owenblount7334]

Well anytime you’re seeing one is after you’ve pulled it up so it makes sense to be exploded

[@froggy8714]

@@brianhillman5867that actually sounds like a really cool idea

[@BabyJormungar]

Recently stumbled onto your channel and its been super helpful! I love the way you present information 15:39 I also want to add that the super cucumber can be found in the nightmarket submarine as well. Which is to say, I didn't know they could be caught in the normal ocean too til just now lmao.

[@gretcheningram2136]

Honestly if you're going to marry Elliot, a squid pond makes sense- it's a loved gift almost every day. Plus you always have a squid for calamari- Pierre's only loved gift.

[@stormbantam8133]

Thank you for this video. I like the fact that you included aesthetics as part of your criteria because I love the coloured fish ponds! I always have a crab fish pond as the crab cakes give a great speed boost that lasts most of the day.

[@ChanceTheCheetah]

I was literally just wondering what I should put in my fish ponds, I alt tab and refresh the page and here you are!

[@SIRKISSHY]

Underrated channel. I'm ready to binge your other videos now that I'm subscribed!

[@fireinacan]

For real! I've really been enjoying her videos!

[@AubreyAngst]

Love that you filled up your watering can with the "lava" 😅 Great video!!

[@user-yp8gg7gw2n]

Normal amount or fish ponds? I have 47 of them. The grind of that was intense (seaweed and green algae) But making between 30 - 60 aged lava eel roe every day is magical

[@christianbatt2626]

You can also fish one lava eel from the pond every 5 days, because the rewards for 9 eels are about the same, and put it in a fish smoker. If you have artisan and angler the fish sells for 2.8 times the base price.

[@fireinacan]

Here's the top 1/3 of all fish for fish ponds in Stardew Valley! 😛 It was real informative though! Your videos have been great; eagerly awaiting the next one!

[@dramaticate1885]

I keep sea cucumber and make lucky lunches with them. I also keep one pond for crabs for an all day speed buff when I got things to do on the farm

[@mymthegreyful]

Excellent information .

[@SH0YU99]

Justice for Stingray!! Another great video, so happy the views are coming in!

[@Coccinelf]

Did you get into account that we can smoke the fish we harvest? Because I'm raking the money with blobfish! About the octopus, I just buy it when I see in the travelling cart hehe.

[@tyceyoder3532]

my favorite fish to put in a pond is a blobfish :) i just really like pearls lol

[@dodorik7114]

same! i love hoarding pearls xD they're so pretty! have u given ur blobfish a golden animal cracker yet? getting two pearls at a time feels so good hehe

[@chibigirl8545]

I like rainbow trout mostly for the trout soup. Behind fish stew, it's one of the easier things to make that give a fishing buff

[@adrs1380]

I love the ponds. I always have at least 5 or 6.

[@madisonkincer2741]

I’m a big fan of your farm layout and aesthetic! I adore it. I’d love to have a screen shot of it for inspiration. I’m also a fan of fish ponds and slime hutches. Fish ponds can be very handy for various reasons. I like to have a flounder one and a midnight carp for sea foam pudding. I also like to have a lava eel pond & stingray. The sting ray gives you useful things often. Slime hutches are just fun, they also give you slime which is nice to get and it’s a passive way to make extra money. I don’t understand the hate they get.

[@Kitadollx]

tysm! I've never taken a screenshot of the whole farm and it feels like it's always a work in progress, especially while I'm experimenting for new video ideas. I've had a couple other requests for farm tours though, so I'll put it on my to-do list

[@emris2697]

I love your fam layout! Would you be able to give me a screenshot of the whole farm so that I can take inspiration from it?

[@matthewksiezak2752]

Fish Ponds are super subjective to both a Players taste and needs. They still take up so much room there's a need to think about what you really need. A strategy I'm still thinking through is getting what you need from a fish pond, empying the pond and then adding a more long term plan fish. This can be an expensive strategy because of fish quest offerings. A cycling strategy of ponds is a must if you're playing on a farm with limited land like the Hilltop or the Riverlands that's a must. Also if you're playing on a console where you're probably playing at a slower rate of play is another factor to consider in cycle emptying fish ponds. For example Flounder is a fish that a console player will probably get early and often; therfore, it could be an early fish pond. The Flounder fish pond value is sea jelly for making fish smokers and the Flounder itself for making seafoam pudding. Given that the Flounder is a commonly caught fish once one obtains the sea jelly one wants for fish smokers, has an adequate stockpile of Flounder, and a fish to replace the pond with one ought to rotate the Flounder out of the pond. Flounder fish pond quests are cheap too so not missing out on emptying the pond. Personally i think, for the casual player, Lobster Bisque is better than Seafoam Pudding because Lobster Bisque lasts longer than the pudding does and Lobster bait in a crabpot quadruples the chances of catching a Lobster in a crabpot. Pair lobster bait with Marineer profession and you'll get a load of Lobster for your Lobster Bisque. 🦞 Seafoam pudding with 1.6 is a thing to use sparingly when attempting to catch certain things like some Legendary fish or the Iridium Krobus given how much easier it is to catch Lobster. SDV is very much a game about working for the privilege of doing what you want and stockpiling materials to do whatever you want; use fish ponds to those ends.

[@alicjak700]

Honestly, I prefer the fish that produce totems - those are really valuable, especially before you can get enough speed buffs to last you the whole day 😊

[@Johury]

My headcannon for lava eel is that they don’t live in lava. The bottom of the cave lake is just covered with fire opals making the water red. Let’s just ignore the forge on ginger island. Edit: meant fire quartz since that their first pond quest

[@digifreak90]

Here's a thought. They normally live in lava (such as the Caldera on Ginger Island). But they're able to live in the pond in the caves because the Fire Quartz heats the water to near lava-like temperatures.

[@user-yp8gg7gw2n]

1:52 HAHAHAHA... Oh i love that. I wish that was in vanilla.

[@eightteentwo]

I have a few things to say about some of these farms as someone currently doing a fish pond-based challenge: -Sardines: Personally, I wouldn't bother with the sardine pond at all if you plan on making a flounder, midnight carp, and squid/midnight squid pond. It's not really worth it. If you want an early-game fishing buff, place a rainbow trout pond and a periwinkle pond instead. -Sandfish: This farm made me hate Golden Relics. No other notes, my challenge just made me hate golden relics. -Pufferfish/Catfish: Hard disagree. Aside from the humorous nature of a smoked pufferfish being more toxic than a raw pufferfish, most fish that only produce roe are just not worth it. -Sea Cucumber: I’d agree if you do not plan on making eel or lava eel ponds. +3 luck is great, the second highest in the game in fact, but the amount of spicy eel you can get from the eel and lava eel ponds are more valuable imo. -Octopus: It’s not just the hardest non-legendary fish to catch - the only fish harder to catch than it are the glacierfish and legend (crimsonfish is the same difficulty). Still absolutely worth getting for the minerals and the ability to trade the geodes for artifact troves and desert totems. -Midnight Carp: I feel the need to clarify that they can be caught starting at 10 PM, so you have a bit more time to catch them than their name implies. -Ice Pip: It’s actually very valuable if you plan on making a bunch of different fish ponds, with frozen geodes being requested by anchovies, albacore, halibut, red mullet, red snapper, sardines, sea cucumbers, tilapia, eels, tuna, pufferfish, and ice pips themselves. Most of those aren’t worth getting, but if you’re insane like me and want every fish in a pond, it’s one of the most useful fish. -Scorpion Carp: My hatred for this fish cannot be understated. It’s okay, but the two issues I have with it are that it’s difficult to regularly catch and it, like the sandfish, requires that blasted golden relic. -Stingray: Mostly irrelevant to this discussion, but this fish is the reason that my challenge is technically impossible. There is no way to get a dragon tooth without getting exp, at least not that I’ve found. -Void Salmon: Again not really relevant to this discussion, but since void salmon produce both void salmon roe and void eggs, it implies that void salmon and void chickens are actually the same species. Just felt like spreading this insane conspiracy theory. -Sturgeon: I actually dislike the sturgeon pond. Caviar takes longer to process than aged roe, which should be a non-issue unless you're doing something like a fish pond-focused challenge where the sturgeon roe can gum up your roe throughput, but it's still worth noting. If I never did my challenge, I’d probably like the sturgeon pond more.

[@Flowmaster925]

stonefish being on level 420 is something i wasnt expecting but enjoy greatly edit: they produce rarely a diamond !? jeez C A got jokes

[@ryurineko]

It's on level 20.. not 420..

[@DarkMirria1]

The regular mines don’t have 420 floors.

[@daveincognito]

I'm on my first run through the game, and I haven't installed any fish ponds yet. I'm seriously considering basic eels, not for the money but for the ingredients.

[@kgxart]

Got my blobfish pond for a while and today they finally produced a pearl :') My second one is sturgeon pond and I wondered if its bugged or something, because I had to wait so long for it to make a roe... Also, I got access to Ginger Island so I'm going to invest in more ponds :D

[@nathanblackburn1193]

Eel is also a good option as you need them to make fried eel and spicy eel

[@EmeralSoul]

Stone fish in the smoker is worth more than any other fish besides lava eels and legendary

[@rosered89]

Smoked lava eel makes for a nice extra penny, too.

[@mugimesh]

Lol i have 2 sturgeons 1 blob 1 supercu 1 lava 1 slimejack, i feel like i wanna add more ponds or beehives, undecided

[@ollie_acorn]

curious how fish smoking would affect the gold stats!

[@Xanderqwerty123]

8:00 I'm sorry, what? 😳

[@blkknight7788]

Lava eal has not giving me meal in 2 season 😢😢😢😢😢