The "Miracle Of The Fish" Sudoku

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
Yesterday's puzzle looked impossible and was a masterpiece. Today's puzzle is just a masterpiece. It's by rubenscube, the Dutch mathematician who also designs levels for Super Mario Maker. It's called Aquarium and it's one of the most remarkable sudokus we've ever seen. Give it a try at the link below:
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Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Along thermometers, digits must increase from the bulb end. Cells with grey squares must contain even digits. Adjacent digits along a green line must differ by at least 5.
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[@rubens_cube]

Wow, that was a really quick feature. Thank you so much for all the nice words! I am really grateful for the overwhelmingly great feedback I have gotten and it is an absolute honor to hear all the names of who recommended this puzzle, thank you all so much! The idea here was to go for the maximum number of swordfishes (I think the plural is swordfishes), which is 27. I am really proud of actually getting that to work! Once again, thank you so much for the feature and the amazing compliments, it means a lot to me that so many people enjoy my puzzle!

[@pouletbelette]

Nice idea, well executed!

[@David_K_Booth]

The swordfish are all tessellated together as though in a Maurits Escher print. It's a lovely idea and the economy in the symmetry-breaking is very elegant.

[@whatsleep17]

Such a great puzzle. It fits together so beautifully. Many bows for you!!!

[@d4r4butler74]

Thank you!!

[@AdventCloudStrife]

You've made a phenomenal puzzle. Thank you for this!

[@Coldsuu]

It's interesting to note that in the finished grid there's a meta-swordfish on the boxes, because there's a triple swordfish on every cell in the puzzle, you wind up with 3 identical box-types dispersed in another swordfish pattern. It's obvious that it would happen if you think about the logic but pretty cool to look at, especially since the disambiguator is a simple 3-cell whisper line.

[@Ruddigore]

Bit disappointed that rubenscube only managed to fit TWENTY-SEVEN swordfishes into that puzzle. 😁An utterly brilliant Sudoku and solve

[@stormd]

Is it mathematically possible to fit more than 27 swordfishes in a puzzle? I don't think it is.

[@rubens_cube]

@@stormd No, every swordfish contains information on 3 digits, since there are 81 digits in a Sudoku we have at most 81/3 = 27 swordfishes

[@onijester56]

@@rubens_cube Slacker. Come on, defy the laws of mathematics and Sudoku to fit just one more swordfish into the puzzle. But, seriously, that was awesome. Good job, Ruben.

[@rubens_cube]

@@onijester56 If you accept it, there are 3 more "sowrdfishes" on the entire boxes going on. Every box appears 3 times in the puzzle ;)

[@victormanjarinsala2253]

Technically, because for example a 7 always needs to be followed by an 8 in the curved thermos, you could argue that there's a 7-8 combo swordfish as well. Probably more like this, but I can't remember now xD

[@elaadt]

That's not an aquarium. It's a can of sardines! Lovely puzzle. Very elegant. Once you get that when all cells have the same basic setup, you must have swordfishes all the way down. Then you can work the entire logic on one box and duplicate it afterwards. The genius bit here is using that length 3 whispers line to unravel the puzzle.

[@cooldad007]

This is one of those rare Sudoku’s that makes you wonder how it exists, how someone discovers it, sets it as beautifully as this and finally gives it this perfect title. A truely brilliant puzzle that was a joy to solve. Thanks to Ruben for setting it and to Simon for featuring it!

[@btestware]

Yes, some Sudokus are "invented", but this is beyond that. It could only have been "discovered".

[@th.nd.r]

My goodness gracious!!! One of the best videos on the channel surely!! 27 swordfishes?!?!? All resolved by just one German Whispers line of length 3?!? Wow wow wow. Beauty of a puzzle. Take an absolute bow rubenscube. And Simon, your solve of it and your explanation for how it all works and your enthusiasm for these puzzles really makes these videos what they are. Also, brilliant musical performance! In honor of a puzzle with 27 swordfishes, there are two Radiohead songs that I think would be fitting to perform: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, and Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box EDIT: I also just now realized that today is the 27th! 27 swordfishes for the 27th!

[@Gwommy]

When every number is a "swordfish," that means that there are only 3 unique 3x3 squares.

[@danielwynalda6700]

Yep. Which in effect causes a swordfish of those 3x3 squares

[@HunterJE]

"I don't know how many swordfishes it is" believe it would be 27, since each position in every 3x3 box is part of three swordfishes (or, alternately, each digit is in three swordfishes)

[@HunterJE]

Plus optionally a 28th "meta-swordfish" on the whole boxes (which are in the same set of three arrangements, themselves arranged in a swordfish)

[@ChrisPalmer16]

Yup I love the meta swordfish on boxes

[@Jonas.Nilsson]

So the "meta-swordfish's" restriction is that you can't put any number that you placed in the boxes outside of the box?

[@aziidio]

@@HunterJE That’s three metaswordfishes then, isn’t it? ;)

[@HunterJE]

@@aziidio I suppose so!

[@SheilaMertens]

Wow, this has to be among the best of CTC. I took slightly longer than you (cough), but after I finally solved it (ok, almost 2 hours) and resumed the video after the ´lets get cracking´ it was a sheer joy to watch you solve it. And as an added bonus, I think I finally got the hang of the swordfish technique. Never too old to learn! Love, Sheila.

[@PuzzleQodec]

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give a man this puzzle and feed him for a lifetime.

[@rubens_cube]

Hahaha, this is my favorite comment!

[@longwaytotipperary]

😄

[@davidrattner9]

Awesomely said qodec!!!

[@davidrattner9]

@@rubens_cube masterpiece from you !! Keep up the amazing setting.

[@achad1607]

You know the old saying: "Give an employee a fish and you have a grateful employee. Teach an employee how to fish and you have chronic absenteeism." How about, give an employee a swordfish and you have an amused employee. Teach an employee a swordfish, and you have chronic tardiness from attempting to solve such puzzles well into the evening.

[@spelldaddy5386]

Honestly, if I had just looked at this puzzle with no other information, I would have been overwhelmed and would not have attempted it. That said, the video title gave me a tip off, and I have actually wanted to improve my fish scanning, so I gave it a whirl. Unbeknownst to me, I submitted myself for a real treat. I spotted one swordfish after another and it all unraveled into a stunning puzzle. I feel fortunate to have been able to solve it at all, let alone in 40 short minutes

[@Angelo-zu8tn]

Very happy to see this one getting featured! It was an awesome experience to solve this one. It is stunning how there are actually 27 swordfishes in this puzzle and that this gets created simply by repetitions of the same 2-cell thermo, 3-cell thermo and an even clue!

[@Adrian_Grey]

I think this is the most satisfying puzzle I've ever solved. The way all those swordfishes came together in neat triples in every row, resoved by that tiny little german whisper... *chef's kiss*

[@MattYDdraig]

39:15 Swordfish, swordfish, everywhere... Wow. Neat trick and the disambiguation once the full set of triples were identified was clever too.

[@victormanjarinsala2253]

This might very well be my favorite sudoku. Ever. Period. Once you get the gist with the swordfishes... it just keeps on giving. Not very hard, but SO clever!!! Solving this was easily the best half hour of my day.

[@rubens_cube]

Thank you!

[@4evafcn]

how many swordfishies are you placing in there? rubenscube: YES

[@flobiish]

All of them. 27. The max possible.

[@pardox28]

The aquarium is so jammed full of swordfishes, that alternative titles of the puzzle could be "Sardines" or "Shooting Fish in a Barrel."

[@stevieinselby]

Yo dawg, I heard you like swordfishes in your swordfishes... Really pleased to find all *27* swordfishes (I really wish the plural _was_ swordsfish) without even noticing the hint in the title! Surprised to see that Simon didn't explore some of the geometry of the puzzle more. Once you've got the triples, you know that a 3 on the tip of the stubby thermos _must_ be preceded by a 2 ... and the swordsfish means that _whenever you get a 2 in a stubby bulb, it must be followed by a 3._ Likewise, an 8 on the tip of a bent thermo _must_ be the tip of a 5-7-8 thermo. Also noted that within each box, the possibilities for every number form a 3-cell diagonal line (when treating it as a toroid) - ie, they are either on a diagonal or some transformation of positions 1,6,8 - and the 3×3 boxes repeat en bloc in exactly the same pattern.

[@jtaragaki]

Thanks for the Mike Oldfield intro! I was able to see him live in Los Angeles in 1980.

[@marcelbouwman5182]

Tubular Bells, first notes and you know.

[@davos6129]

This was extremely fun to solve because you get to do a ton of setup by filling in the swordfish triples everywhere and then the whisper line resolves it like a well oiled machine

[@BleachWizz]

Around 15:00 - doesn't the double sowrdfish automatically gives you the 3rd sowrdfish? Because in a swordfish you couldn't place the digit in a row so it gets restricted in the columns, but now you have 2 rows and 2 columns on each box that can not contain the digit you observed. So the remaining square in each box must form a sordfish on themselves.

[@balkthor]

It does indeed, which is how I ended up with 13 swordfishes - so far. 1,1,1,2,3,5,7,8,8,8,9,9,9

[@purple4395]

Yes, but sometimes that's not easy enough for Simon so he finds it out with another way

[@dhanishsrinivas]

Cant the 3rd number be different in each square.say a 735 563 352 Here 3 and 5 were part of swordfish but the third number is not necessarily a swordfish

[@BleachWizz]

@@dhanishsrinivas the important thing is: you find 2 sf with 3 you know where the 3rd sf of 3 is. Same with 5's, if 2 are found the 3rd is locked

[@dhanishsrinivas]

Oh ok in that sense. I mistook as 2 numbers in a triple swordfish. Yes if you get 2 swordfish of the same number then you know the 3rd swordfish.

[@sake9164]

What an awesome puzzle, "come and get your swordfish here". Enjoyed it.

[@raistlin_dourden]

That was fantastic. I realized that if ever you find 2 separate swordfish of the same number, there must be a 3rd which can be placed immediately.

[@MegaTrain]

Awesome puzzle! Note at the end in the 2-digit thermo you CAN conclude the 3 is directly under the 2; they are “linked swordfish”, if that’s a term. Since each 3 must have a 2 above it, conversely, each 2 must have a 3 below it. There are a few other linked fish as well, including each 5 forcing a 7 and 8 on the 3-digit thermo.

[@yaycupcake]

I solved this puzzle just a few hours before this video! I'm really excited that it's on the channel. It was one of my favorite puzzles recently since it's not hard by any means (assuming you're familiar with swordfish logic) but it's also never a dead giveaway. It's just the right difficulty for me to feel some amount of challenge while also not being so hard that it makes me not want to bother finishing. Plus the symmetry is super fun. Honestly my only regret is that I didn't even notice the puzzle name while I was playing. I was just picking puzzles out of Discord semi-randomly and didn't bother to read the name. It might have been even easier if I had noticed the name!

[@spreekstem]

Tubular Bells! Always a special treat when you play the guitar. 🤗 [edit after watching:] again a brilliant puzzle and a brilliant solve. I think the last puzzle Rubenscube made also was built of modules, wasn’t it? It was a beautiful aquarium. Loved it.

[@Roobly]

It’s impressive how simple rules and symmetry can create such a beautiful puzzle. And the way everything hinged on that German whisper once swordfish(es) were done... so epic!

[@afanofosc]

Love you Simon. My brain can't handle you leaving a box to fix cells elsewhere when all the rest of the cells in that box you just worked on can also be resolved right then and there. 🙂

[@rosiefay7283]

I wished something else. Once you have located a swordfish and know what 3 numbers x, y, z are in it, and you have located number x in one cell, that gives you the other two x's. Once you locate a y, that resolves the whole swordfish.

[@Coyotek4]

25:49 ... what an amazing display of overlapping swordfish! Incredible puzzle!

[@peterdiener6490]

A very satisfying puzzle indeed. Also, thank you Simon for the Tubular Bells intro. One of my favorite albums of all time.

[@averygaron994]

Fascinating puzzle. Even after pencil marking all the swordfishes, it was still nontrivial to get from the german whispers line to resolving everything else

[@erikkubonhalvorsen4347]

Probably the most fun sword fish Sudoku ever :) Well done on creating a masterpiece. Once you spot the first one, the solve is done in 10 min, but the most fun 10 min you'll have in a Soduku.

[@positivelyacademical1519]

This was great. It’s worth noting that once you manage to triplicate the puzzle with the 27 swordfish, you can logically prove the existence of exactly three unique boxes; and by the rules of sudoku these can only be arranged on the grid as boxes 1-9 in two distinct patterns ABC//BCA//CAB or ABC//CAB//BCA. As soon as you break into the correct pattern (here the former), solving it is even more… well perhaps ‘magical’ is the best word for it.

[@caliopefinn5121]

once you solve the swordfish there was still a fair bit of fun logic to unwind them, a brilliant bit of art in our puzzles. much love to our community for encouraging these creations and showcasing them.

[@extrageneity]

I saw the video after this one, in which Simon said to go back and do this one without letting anyone spoil it for you. I did so, having not yet watched this video, and now as soon as I'm finished with my next work meeting I'm going to go sit and watch it, not because I need help with the solve, but because I'm excited to see Simon's appreciation when the swordfishes keep coming. CTC's ability to turn sudoku into an aesthetic experience has really changed the way I think about puzzles in general.

[@joelstevens5670]

Insanely brilliant. It was like an essential guide to catching and untangling swordfish and solving it was enormous fun. A massive thanks to Rubenscube for setting what is simply one of the best sudokus ever to feature swordfish (it was quite a catch) and well tackled Simon! ;)

[@PathOfShrines]

Wow! This really is a phenomenon of a puzzle. Got the basic grid in under 20 minutes and then got stuck for a few placing the digits; 32:30 all told.

[@wmfthehorseman]

That was crazily brilliant. The whole thing unraveled beautifully! Well done to rubenscube for this gem of a puzzle!

[@LehaLehan]

This video is like ABC of swordfish technic,thank you very much Simon and Rubenscube

[@hobytube]

Have you considered doing an annual awards show on your channel? I’d love to know what are considered the best puzzles of the year, with separate categories voted by viewers and constructors.

[@rontyson6118]

I'd watch every minute of that. :)

[@Meni_Rosenfeld]

Everyone: Code 62 (Hi-Five) is amazing! So many swordfishes! rubenscube: Hold my beer.

[@pixllo]

Incredible puzzle, the repetitive pattern creates swordfish after swordfish... I had lots of trouble finding said swordfishes (I always do, it's my nemesis) but knew immediately this was the way to go, so I can still say the setting was spot on. The positive feedback loop from it was incredible. And then the german whispers disambiguated it brilliantly. Loved it. Thanks for the puzzle

[@Waggles1123]

Since you were able to solve rows 4/5/6 without any logic from the columns or the german whisper (after you got the 9 and 4), the grid instantly collapses as "copies" of the same 3 boxes, and the german whisper disambiguates the order in the rows 7/8/9 and that sets the order in rows 1/2/3. When you think about it, the entire puzzle is a swordfish on the boxes as well.

[@gab5692]

i love that because they’re all swordfish boxes that there are only three different versions of a final box ! which is simply stunning as well.

[@KyleBaran90]

It was only a matter of time until someone made a puzzle like this. Brilliant execution

[@Matthias.Abaddon]

I know this is an old video, but I've done some casual sudoku in my life, didn't even know about extra rules, thermometers, etc. Once you showed the first "swordfish" i jumped in to play along and picked up rather quickly! I'm not a puzzle person really but I found the harmony in the solution very pleasing. I kept staring at that green line because I just knew it would be the catalyst to the solution. Love it!!

[@bobblebardsley]

Is it true to say that once you have two (mutually exclusive) swordsfish on the same number you automatically have a third because there is by definition only a swordfish of remaining possible positions for that digit to go into in the other 3 columns/rows? ie no need to use the thermos to prove the position of the third swordsfish on 1s and 9s.

[@futurefox128]

Yes indeed

[@bobblebardsley]

@@futurefox128 Thanks! I thought so but when Simon never used that logic I started to doubt it :D

[@TomGalonska]

Yes. The proof: Each swordfish eliminates 3 rows and 3 columns, 2 swordfish are either exactly the same or completely mutually exclusive, so 2 different swordfish eliminate 6 rows and 6 columns. Now you just got 3 rows and 3 columns left to put the number in, and the only way to fulfil the sudoku rules now is to put them on the intersection of those rows/columns -> creating a new swordfish. Maybe a bit wordy, but to kinda quote Blaise Pascal: "If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter"

[@patrickgaskill]

The Aquarium, or, “The Goodliffer’s Delight”

[@or3213]

This was one of my most enjoyable Sudokus! I love coloring things. The phase of resolving the numbers after putting all swordfishes in place, was also very fun.

[@AdventCloudStrife]

26:09 for me, with the benefit of not having to narrate a youtube video. You started that "intro to variants" series a bit ago. I think this puzzle would be a phenomenal starting point for an "intro to techniques" series, along with that puzzle a while back with the given pencil marks that teaches you x-wings. Absolutely fantastic puzzle.

[@psiphiorg]

That was such a clever puzzle! It's amazing that the nine otherwise-identical boxes can be disambiguated by a single three-cell German whisper line. Complex, yet there was always something that allowed me to make forward progress. My time was 30:13.

[@alexanderallison7131]

27:02 - very happy with that. Excellent swordfish

[@Paul-cn3ij]

Had to pause the video having seen Simon get very excited about there being 7 swordfish. I've got news for you mate! After finding the third one, I'm glad I assumed that there would be 27. Great puzzle.

[@taniabn]

My pattern seeking brain was very pleased while solving this puzzle, I think it is my favorite sudoku of all time

[@minamagdy4126]

Fun fact: the symmetry of this puzzle is such that it can be pencilmarked entirely in one box before considering the disambiguating whispers clue. The pencilmarking would work this way: - A corner mark denotes a swordfish with all 9 cells in that box position (like row or column corner marks used by Simon) - 3 center marks in a cell denotes 3 swordfishes overlapping and eliminating all other digits from that box position. At any point, the pencil-marks can be transposed exactly on every box in the sudoku to give a valid semi-Snyder notation, just like Simon used.

[@jenniferlenfestey5335]

This was a fun puzzle to solve, and work to get up to using the German Whispers line, then a chore to untangle the Thermometers.

[@boredgamelad1985]

This was the first puzzle that helped me understand swordfishes. I needed a little nudge from Simon on where to start but once I saw the first few fish I started seeing the rest so easily. Delightful.

[@mikedonnan6541]

I cannot believe that I managed to complete this puzzle (although it took 2 hours 😆). Thank you Simon, Mark, CTC community, rubenscube and all the other wonderful setters for your amazing puzzles and solves…!!!

[@rubens_cube]

Congrats on the solve!

[@danielwcrompton]

I immediately spotted the swordfish, which I wouldn't have done only 6 months ago, due to Simon explaining swordfishies everytime he sees one. I was very proud of myself 😂

[@GoldShockAttack]

Wow, what a puzzle! This is one of my favorite sudukos ever.

[@markp7262]

28:26 finish. I missed the swordfish on 4s in the columns 2/5/8 at first, but because I was able to reduce the bulbs in those columns to 3456, I penciled in the rest of the thermos and finally spotted it. Very fun, and amazing that a three cell whisper sorted everything out!

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 02:33 Let's Get Cracking: 04:00 Simon's time: 28m05s Puzzle Solved: 32:05 And how about this video's Simarkisms?! The Answer is: 5x (06:44, 06:52, 06:56, 21:38, 21:47) Beautiful: 4x (08:59, 20:00, 23:38, 32:42) Ah: 4x (15:20, 27:22, 27:28, 27:28) Clever: 3x (13:34, 13:36, 23:29) By Sudoku: 3x (30:36, 30:50, 31:29) Hang On: 3x (08:58, 08:58, 08:58) Surely: 3x (12:09, 18:18, 19:13) Good Grief: 2x (12:45, 30:21) Stuck: 2x (02:03, 02:08) Incredible: 2x (01:49, 23:41) Extraordinary: 2x (00:21, 15:32) Facetious: 2x (06:26, 06:28) Obviously: 2x (23:41, 26:47) What Does This Mean?: 2x (06:04, 14:15) Pencil Mark/mark: 2x (04:16, 04:19) Apologies: 1x (26:28) Ridiculous: 1x (18:23) First Digit: 1x (24:44) Straight Off the Bat: 1x (05:07) Masterpiece: 1x (00:56) Magnificent: 1x (04:56) Stunning: 1x (13:49) In Fact: 1x (11:03) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (2 mentions) One (56 mentions) Green (13 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Low (2) - High (0) Even (10) - Odd (0) Higher (2) - Lower (1) Column (31) - Row (30) FAQ: Q1: You missed something! A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn! Q2: Can you do this for another channel? A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!

[@bergnijlpaard]

Surely "take a bow" deserves an entry into the pantheon of Simarkisms?

[@inspiringsand123]

@@bergnijlpaard It's in the list actually! However, the occurence in this video (23:15) was not picked up yet, but will in the future! Thanks for the suggestion

[@Jodawo]

Maybe swordfish and jellyfish should be included. You may already have X-Wing and y-wing.

[@tabularasa0606]

How is one > 9?

[@Censeo]

@@tabularasa0606 I have been wondering that too, but as far as I can tell from reading loads of these, the bot is actually looking for both the most popular sudoku digit and the most popular number higher than a sudoku digit

[@m1323fj]

This is an awesome puzzle. It is the first one I've watched you solve (and I've watched you solve many) that I feel I could actually try on my own. I just love the symmetry and the symmetry breaking logic. Really spectacular. Thanks so much!

[@crystalgehrt8861]

What an insane and exciting puzzle! So fun! Thanks for the swordfish practice!

[@mute1085]

Wow! This was such an amazing experience! It's been a while since I felt like that, there are a lot of brilliant and elegant puzzles on this channel, but this one was just wow, I'm speechless. It was something akin to the joy of assembling a complex device, and then starting it up and seeing it work for the first time, flawlessly.

[@sacredsock8031]

This puzzle deserves a feature in the next book

[@adammunio9633]

Loved this one. The way each swordfish locked the next was brilliant.

[@awilliams1701]

because every cell became a tripple, it means that every cell became part of a triple swordfish! That's just insane. I love it!!

[@bobblebardsley]

I think once you have the triple swordfish on 179 (the purple cells) that gives you a swordfish on 8s in columns 1, 4 and 7 because 8 can no longer go in the bulbs or in the purple cells. I also guess once you've triplicated the entire grid technically you've got 27 swordsfish, as each of the 9 cells in each row, column or box contains 3 perfectly overlapping swordsfish.

[@zip95843]

23:00 the moment you realize you have 27 swordfishes in the puzzle

[@DaShikuXI]

What's really cool about this puzzle is that there's no steps in between the swordfish. You just go from one to the next.

[@robynrox]

80 minutes! Brilliant, and very aptly named! Thank you, rubenscube! Now to watch Simon solve it in slightly less time :)

[@dolf370]

BEAUTIFUL!!! I have never (I think) solved a sudoku using swordfish, but I immediatelyt thought "swordfish" when I saw this. Though I had never been able to solve it by myself. But man, what a puzzle. That's problably the most beautiful set-up I've seen. And somehow obvious it's a mathematican behind it. (Suspect there's group theory think behind this.) Just WOW! And though I would never have been able to solve it myself, it was so easy to follow the logic of Simons solve, that I think I would be able to reconstruct the solve now, that I know the secret, without too much trouble.

[@ronjohnson6916]

A joy to watch. Just seeing Simon have so much fun.

[@MikeyInsanity]

It took almost 25 minutes into a 33 minute video to get the first number. What an impressive puzzle.

[@hummakavula3750]

Just discovered the third 2s swordfish and had to comment this is a masterpiece without delay.

[@kayleawilson]

this is so aesthetically pleasing and mathematically brilliant! lovely setting rubenscube!!!!! clever solve simon!

[@CaptainSpock1701]

Everyone is getting excited about the swordfish(es?) and rightly so, but can we just spare a minute for that awesome whispers line!

[@Jesthers]

Finished this one in 23 minutes, I think that's the fastest I've ever done one of these :D Very fun puzzle that also very quickly starts solving once all those triples get placed.

[@theashen]

Loved this. Absolutely brilliant, took me a while to spot the forced triples after the initial stage, but such beautiful logic

[@logantakach6113]

Puzzle: *does literally anything other than basic sudoku* Simon: "amazing, stunning, perfect, wonderful..."

[@DarrenNakamura]

What a remarkable puzzle. I found my first swordfish two minutes in, had the grid fully pencil marked by the 30 minute mark, but didn't finish until 95:26. Got really stuck finding the finish. Still really loved the point where I realized why the puzzle is called Aquarium.

[@bristolrovers27]

Terrific puzzle Absolutely excellent and not over hard but truly elegant

[@piarittersporn]

Actually I just wanted to watch the beginning of the video and the whole video after solving the puzzle myself. But somehow I got stuck with Simon's progress until he was done in no time. Fascinating. And "Tubular Bells" was a very nice intro. I bought the LP decades ago, listened to it constantly and still am excited each time.

[@davidhughes7174]

Beautiful title, puzzle, solve. Thank you rubenscube and Simon

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

39:23 for me - - really amazing use of swordfishes, but I couldn't see the logic to get is past putting in a few 3's, 4's and 5's. I just tried putting 2's in box 5 to figure out where it worked. I looked at Simon's answer, the 3 in box 6 is what I didn't see.

[@MichaelMoore99]

Yet another puzzle where the boxes are the same, but this time, they're rotated 1 to the left instead of 1 to the right. Love it!

[@forgottenfamily]

Ugh.... only thing I was missing was C7R4 couldn't be 3. As soon Simon gave me that, resolved it quickly. 42:42 with distractions The puzzle is fascinating because the 27 swordfish using the exact same box ends up creating just three 3X3 boxes that get repeated over and over. So the first 2/3 of the solve is just figuring out what those 3 boxes are and then the green line creates the vertical/horizonal arrangement of the boxes. You could have, once you solved the middle three boxes, just taken box 4 and pasted it over box 9 which puts it in box 2... but it's an observation you wouldn't have thought of until you realize in hindsight that the swordfish forces *exactly* that.

[@MrTheta78]

Astonishing puzzle. Took me 47' and to answer to Simon, once i got the triplicated grid, i focused on the swordfish patern and got stuck looking for the initial break so your approach was really more efficient ^^

[@psyckwhoever4197]

Thank you SO much. The swordfish technique was explained to me dozens of times, but yours was the first one where I really "understood" it XD I managed to finished the rest of the puzzle by myself after I watched the video to 8:16 I was so frustrated before that! Thank you again 😊

[@furbyfubar]

I solved it and felt proud when I quite quickly figured out why it was called "The Aquarium". EDIT now that I've started watching the video: OK, I didn't figure it out as fast Simon, but I did get it once I found the second swordfish.

[@balkthor]

Not even lying, I was listening to Mike Oldfield the last couple days after having not listened to him since the 90's. Been on a recent X-Files kick.

[@Roks559]

This is so clever I cannot say how impressive this is to me.

[@jascharl]

I don’t want to learn how to solve sodukos anymore. I just want to learn more of Simon’s vocabulary.

[@joshuamellen5518]

feels relaxing finishing the puzzle after filling the grid with candidates and i think i learned swordfishes

[@fizz7402]

the thing that surprised me afterwards is that the middle three boxes simply duplicated in place in the other two rows of boxes. Its astonishing that this was ever found and set up so well.

[@wanderlustwarrior]

30:27 for me. That was really fun! And a lot more logical than it looks.

[@steve38288]

I've been following this channel for some time, but this is my first comment. I feel compelled to say something...this puzzle is just that brilliant. Loved it

[@rubens_cube]

Thank you! Happy you liked it!

[@jamesrahner8920]

lovely bit of tubular bells at the start, Simon!

[@drewm2009]

Me from a previous video: I do t really understand what a swordfish is but okay I’ll go along. Creator: I got ya fam, you will be an expert by the end.