Frequently asked questions

No. Bubble Borough is free and intended to remain free. There are no required payments to play. If you would like to support development, you can optionally donate through Buy Me a Coffee; donations do not unlock anything or provide gameplay advantages.

Yes. AI was used to generate many of Bubble Borough’s assets and assist with a significant amount of the game’s code.

There is no larger objective. Buy fish. Decorate their tank. Feed them. Clean the aquarium. Watch them swim around. Collect more things. Change the tank when you feel like it. It captures the relaxing parts of a fish tank without the real-world cost or responsibility.

Yes. You need to create an account and sign in to play Bubble Borough. The game uses Supabase to save your aquarium, fish, progress, and other game data.

Yes. Bubble Borough saves your aquarium locally and also syncs your save to Supabase, allowing you to access your tank from different devices.

However, you should avoid actively playing on the same account from multiple devices at the same time. Each open device runs its own instance of the save, and whichever instance remains active longer may overwrite the other when it syncs to the cloud. If you open your tank on another device just to check on it, changes made there may not be saved if another instance is still active.

Yes. When you first begin, you choose the water type for your first tank, which determines which fish and decor you can purchase for it. If you want to change that tank later, you can buy a water treatment kit from the store to switch its water type.

Yes. Species have different swim styles, diets, social needs, schooling behavior, feeding behavior, and supported environmental interactions. Browse the Fish Encyclopedia.

Yes. There are several illnesses your fish can develop, along with medications used to treat them. Illness is not especially common, but it is a real threat and can become serious if left untreated.

Yes. Much like in real life, fish can be delicate. Neglecting them can result in death, and the loss of a fish can affect the mood and health of others in the tank, potentially leading to further illness or death. Remember to feed your fish twice a day and clean the tank when it becomes too dirty.

Yes. Fish can breed, but only for a limited time after they are given specially formulated breeding food. Without it, breeding stays off, so your tank will not suddenly fill up with fish.

Yes. Fish can currently investigate decorations and hide in caves and anemones. More interactions with the tank environment are planned as development continues.

Yes. Customizing your aquarium is one of Bubble Borough’s main mechanics. You can buy plants, rocks, wood, caves, floats, bubblers, and other ornaments to make the tank your own. You can also change the background and substrate, and if you choose multicolored gravel, you can even pick three different colors. Browse the Decor Catalog.

WebSurf is Bubble Borough’s in-game web browser. It originally came from wanting notifications to feel less intrusive than a traditional quest log, to-do list, or alert system.

Over time, more of the game’s menus and services moved into it, along with some stranger corners of the Bubble Borough universe. You can check your email, manage your Fish Coins through the bank, shop at BubbleBodega, and discover fictional sites, lore, and other secrets, all through WebSurf.

Not even close. Bubble Borough is always being worked on, with features, systems, and content continuing to change as development progresses. It is currently in beta as version Loading…, last updated Loading….

Not really. When I started Bubble Borough, I didn’t know much about fish. I’ve learned a lot as the project has grown, but I still take plenty of liberties to keep the game from becoming too tedious or stressful.

The fish are stylized. I have remade the fish designs a few times, so there may also be art-style inconsistencies between more recently added fish and fish that have been here longer. It is a work in progress and does not reflect the final product.

Kind of, but mobile is not the intended way to play Bubble Borough. The game is designed more around the idea of having a little fish tank running on a computer or side monitor than on a phone. It also relies heavily on browser hardware acceleration, which makes mobile devices less ideal. A dedicated mobile version has been considered, but it is not currently a priority.

Bubble Borough should work in any modern browser with hardware acceleration enabled. It has currently been tested in Firefox, Chrome, Brave, and Edge.