Planet Crafter Aquarium vs. Fish Farm: Which Gives More Animals?

A Planet Crafter aquarium looks better than it performs. If Animals are what you're after, the Fish farm is the stronger machine for your fish eggs. The Skeo update (v2.102, September 1, 2026) raised the generation values of the animal farms, but it didn't change which machine comes out on top.

Put your eggs in the wrong place and you don't lose a small rest, you lose most of the output. This guide shows what each machine does, why an empty slot costs you so much and which fish belong where.

🆕 What v2.102 "Skeo" changed for the Planet Crafter aquarium and farms

Skeo has been live since September 1, 2026, free and at the same time on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and GOG. You no longer need the development branch. If your Steam client is still on the test branch, go to Betas and switch back to None. The main branch has since moved on to v2.103.

Four points in the changelog affect your tanks directly. Miju Games writes: "We decided to increase the generation values of butterfly/fish/amphibians farms". The reason the developer gives is that, until then, it was simply faster to build nothing but tree spreaders.

The last point has a side effect few people mention. Older species lists tie certain fish to Phytoplankton B or C. That split no longer exists. What your Incubator really offers today is shown on its left screen. The breeding side is covered in our fish eggs guide.

🐟 Planet Crafter aquarium vs. Fish farm

Four machines take fish eggs: the T1 Aquarium, the T2 Aquarium, the Fish farm and the T2 Fish farm. They differ in slots and power draw and, above all, in how many Animals they generate. All values come from the planetcrafter.th.gl database, which reads them from the game files.

The base values per second make the ranking obvious:

The Fish farm has a base Animals value more than eleven times that of the T2 Aquarium and draws less power doing it (155.5 kW instead of 225 kW). Per slot it's still about seven and a half times ahead. Some older guides call the aquarium an oxygen source; according to the database, aquariums produce no Oxygen at all. Among the fish machines, only the T2 Fish farm does.

💡 The Planet Crafter aquarium slot mistake that costs you half

Here's the part most guides leave out. According to consistent community reports, the multiplier of a machine with several slots is the average of all its slots, and an empty slot counts as zero.

A Fish farm with a single golden fish and two empty slots would then run at about 167% instead of 500%. A T2 Aquarium with one golden fish and one empty slot drops to 250%.

That gives you three rules for every Planet Crafter aquarium and every farm with more than one slot:

• Never stock it halfway. Fill every slot of a machine before you build the next one.
• Don't mix. A 500% fish next to a 100% fish averages 300%. The same species in every slot is better.
• Replace weak fish carefully. According to players, a fish you take out is gone for good and you don't get the egg back. Plan the swap before you make it.

The same logic decides where your best eggs go: into the machine with the highest base value, the Fish farm, not into a Planet Crafter aquarium for show.

📊 Planet Crafter aquarium fish and their multipliers

Which fish you put in a Planet Crafter aquarium or farm matters more than how many tanks you build. Each species has a fixed Animals boost. The values and locations below come from the th.gl game database. "Wild" means a Water life collector gathers the eggs on that planet.

The "species X needs Phytoplankton B" rule from older lists is obsolete since v2.102, because only one Phytoplankton is left. Trust the recipes your Incubator shows. How the Water life collector works is explained in our fish eggs guide. The next animal tier is in the frog eggs guide.

🔧 Machine optimizer for your Planet Crafter aquarium and farms

Your biggest single lever isn't the next tank. It's boosting the ones you have. Place a Machine optimizer next to your Fish farms and put an Animals multiplier fuse into it. The bonus shows up in square brackets after the base value.

The optimizer boosts the machine, and the fish multiplier works on that machine's base value. So the fuse pays off most where the base is already high: at a Fish farm stocked with 500% fish, not at a half-empty Planet Crafter aquarium. Our larvae guide uses the same principle for insects, and the fuses guide shows how to craft the fuse.

💰 Planet Crafter aquarium and Fish farm build costs

The Fish farm is also the cheaper build. According to th.gl it takes 2 Bioplastic nugget, 1 Phytoplankton and 3 Silk. No Circuit board, no Super Alloy.

A T1 Planet Crafter aquarium needs a Circuit board, Super Alloy, an Oxygen capsule and T2 Fertilizer. For the T2 Aquarium the th.gl database lists a Circuit board, a Super Alloy Rod, T2 Fertilizer and three Phytoplankton. Older recipe lists ask for one each of Phytoplankton A, B and C, but since v2.102 only one Phytoplankton is left in the game.

Then there's the running cost of each Planet Crafter aquarium. Three Fish farms (466.5 kW) draw roughly as much power as two T2 Aquariums (450 kW) and generate far more Animals. If you run short on power in the endgame anyway, our endgame guide covers nuclear reactors and fusion power.

❓ Planet Crafter aquarium FAQ

Is a Planet Crafter aquarium still worth building?

Not for Animals, at least not compared with the Fish farm. The T1 Aquarium unlocks early, at 150k Animals, while the Fish farm needs 6.5M, so the aquarium is a useful first step and it looks good in a base. Once the Fish farm is available, your best eggs belong there.

How many slots does each tank have?

According to th.gl: T1 Aquarium one, T2 Aquarium two, Fish farm three, T2 Fish farm four. Since v2.102 the number depends on the machine tier, and the "Slots Number" line in the details popup tells you before you build.

Do empty slots count against me?

Yes. The effective multiplier is the average of all slots, and empty ones count as zero, so fill every machine completely. This comes from community reports and isn't officially documented.

Can I get a fish back out?

No, according to players. If you take a fish out of the tank, it disappears, just like a tree whose seed you pull out of the spreader. Only swap once the better egg is ready.

Did the Skeo update change which machine is best?

No. v2.102 raised the generation values of fish, amphibian and butterfly farms and changed the inventory size of farms and aquariums. The changelog gives no factors, but the Fish farm is still the stronger Animals source.

Can I build my tanks in co-op with console players?

Not between Steam and console: Steam players can't play with PS5 or Xbox players, even after Skeo launched on every platform at once. The one exception, according to the Xbox Store: Xbox Series X|S and the PC version from the Microsoft Store or Game Pass play together. Details are in our crossplay article.

Checked against the planetcrafter.th.gl game database and Miju Games' Skeo changelogs on Steam (app 1284190) as of October 2026, main branch v2.103.

From the changelogs: the release on all platforms, the higher generation values of the animal farms, the changed inventory sizes, the "Slots Number" display and the removal of Phytoplankton B and C. From th.gl: machine names, slots, recipes, energy use (the database writes "W", the game shows the same numbers in kW), unlocks, base values and the Animals boost and location of each fish. Crossplay exception: Xbox Store.

Not confirmed: the average rule for slots, the Velkia trade rocket source and that removed fish are lost. Those come from Steam discussions and community guides. There is no official wiki for the game.