Planet Crafter Fish Eggs: Incubator Recipe, Breeding and Animals

Planet Crafter fish eggs don't appear on their own. You make them in the Incubator or collect them with a Water life collector, then put them into an aquarium or a Fish farm. That raises your Animals value and with it your Terraformation Index.

This guide shows step by step when fish become available, which two machines you need and the trick that gets you the species you actually want.

🆕 Patch status: what v2.102 "Skeo" changed for Planet Crafter fish eggs

The free v2.102 "Skeo" update has been live since September 1, 2026, on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and GOG at the same time. You don't need the development branch for it anymore, and the main branch has since moved on to v2.103. The update changes fish breeding in several places. If you follow an older guide, you're working with outdated recipes.

The most important point first: Phytoplankton B and C were removed completely. According to the changelog, Phytoplankton A replaces them in every recipe and in logistics. All Planet Crafter fish eggs now come from a single kind of plankton.

Bottom line: breeding fish pays off noticeably more since September 1. What the moon itself brings is covered in our Skeo guide.

🐟 When Planet Crafter fish eggs unlock

There's no single fish threshold. According to the planetcrafter.th.gl game database, each species unlocks on its own: Provios fish eggs at 30G Biomass, Gerrero at 35G Biomass, Ulani at 50k Animals and Aelera at 250k Animals. The Water life collector unlocks at 87G Oxygen, the Incubator already at 5 GTi. Hover over a locked recipe and the game tells you what's missing. If your progress stalls before that point, our terraformation stages guide shows what each stage needs.

So fish are mid- to late-game content, not something for the first hours. They are one of the strongest levers for Animals, though, and they're worth it as soon as they open up. If you're pushing for high Ti values, plan them in from the start.

🧪 The two machines for Planet Crafter fish eggs

To breed fish you need two things: a Water life collector and an Incubator. You place the collector in a body of water, and depending on the spot it collects Phytoplankton and fish eggs. That Phytoplankton is the base ingredient for all Planet Crafter fish eggs. Since v2.102 there's only one kind left. Types B and C are gone from the game.

The Incubator is the same one you use for butterfly larvae and later frog eggs, which confuses a lot of players. You don't need a new machine. Once the first fish species is unlocked, the fish recipes show up on the Incubator's left screen. How to build up larvae and biomass before that is in our larvae guide.

⚗️ Making Planet Crafter fish eggs in the Incubator

The basic recipe always has the same structure: Phytoplankton plus a Mutagen plus Fertilizer. Which Mutagen tier you need depends on the species. According to th.gl, Provios, Vilnus and Tegede use the basic Mutagen, Gerrero, Khrom, Aelera and Tiloo use T2 Mutagen, and Ulani, Ecaru, Buyu and Golden fish eggs use T3 Mutagen. Since v2.102 the Phytoplankton is always the A type, which the game data simply calls "Phytoplankton". Older recipe lists that still ask for Phytoplankton B or C come from an earlier version and can't be followed anymore.

The upside: a single production line now supplies every fish recipe. Miju Games itself doesn't document the recipes; the tiers above come from the game database.

Worth knowing: the species you get from a recipe is random, but only among species you've already unlocked. The Incubator can never give you a species you haven't unlocked. Which recipes are open shows on the Incubator's left screen.

♻️ Recycle the wrong Planet Crafter fish eggs and roll again

Because the species is random, you won't always get the one you want. That's not a problem. Put any egg you don't need into the Recycling machine. You get the ingredients back and can try again right away without wasting material.

The same trick works with eggs you collect in the wild. Break them down in the Recycling machine to get Mutagen and Fertilizer. Even a "wrong" egg turns into useful ingredients for your next try.

🗺️ Collecting Planet Crafter fish eggs in the wild

There's a second route next to the Incubator. The Water life collector catches fish eggs directly instead of just Phytoplankton, depending on where you place it. The in-game description says it "collects phytoplankton and fish eggs depending on its location". Some eggs only show up in certain lakes or rivers, and other waters only give Phytoplankton.

You reveal these spots by launching a T2 Map information rocket. Its description: it "adds the location of organic things that can be fished or harvested on the map". According to th.gl, nine of the 15 species can be collected in the wild: Provios, Tegede, Ecaru, Buyu, Tiloo and Galbea on Prime and Humble, Vilnus on Skeo, Stabu on Selenea and Atabu on Aqualis. The database lists no wild fish eggs on Toxicity.

📈 Using Planet Crafter fish eggs to generate Animals

An egg on its own does nothing. You have to put it somewhere. Place Planet Crafter fish eggs in a T1 Aquarium, a T2 Aquarium, a Fish farm or a T2 Fish farm. Every stocked tank raises the planet's Animals value, which pushes your Terraformation Index and unlocks new blueprints. Which machine gets the most out of an egg is covered in our aquarium vs. Fish farm guide.

This is where v2.102 changed the most. Miju Games explicitly raised the generation values of aquariums, Fish farms, amphibian farms and butterfly farms, because too many players were building only tree spreaders. The same patch notes say this speeds up the endgame a bit. The changelog gives no numbers per tank, though.

There are 15 fish species in total. Velkia plays a special role: according to community guides you get it through the trade rocket for Terra Tokens, and in return it has the same +500% Animals boost as the Golden fish.

⚡ Scaling up Planet Crafter fish eggs production

A single tank won't get you far. Put several Fish farms side by side and fill every slot with the same strong species, and your Animals value adds up much faster. According to th.gl, the T1 Aquarium has one slot, the T2 Aquarium two, the Fish farm three and the T2 Fish farm four. Community reports say the multiplier is the average of all slots, so empty slots and weak fish drag the output down.

The bottleneck is usually Phytoplankton. Run several Water life collectors in parallel so the Incubator never runs out of its base ingredient. Once the loop is automated, you produce Planet Crafter fish eggs more or less in the background while your Terraformation Index keeps climbing.

🌳 Fish or tree spreaders? What pays off since v2.102

The old answer was simple: build tree spreaders and ignore the rest. Miju Games openly names exactly that imbalance in the patch notes as the reason for the rebalance. There wasn't enough reason to create living creatures.

Since v2.102 that has changed. Aquariums and Fish farms got stronger, and a pure tree build is no longer automatically the fastest way to raise your Terraformation Index.

To be fair about what we know: Miju Games gives no before-and-after numbers for any of these machines. The direction is confirmed, the animal farms got stronger. The factor isn't.

📊 Planet Crafter fish eggs at a glance

❓ Planet Crafter fish eggs FAQ

When can I start breeding fish?

There's no single threshold. According to th.gl, each species unlocks on its own, the first one (Provios) at 30G Biomass. The Water life collector unlocks at 87G Oxygen. Hover over a locked recipe to see what's missing.

Which machine makes fish eggs?

The Incubator, the same one you use for butterfly larvae and frog eggs. There's no separate fish machine.

What's the recipe for fish eggs?

Phytoplankton plus a Mutagen plus Fertilizer. Depending on the species you need the basic, T2 or T3 Mutagen. Since v2.102 there's only one Phytoplankton left. The species you get is random among the fish you've already unlocked.

How do I get a specific species?

Since the result is random, the only way is to repeat. Recycle the eggs you don't want and try again until the right species shows up.

What are fish actually good for?

They raise your Animals value once you put them into aquariums or Fish farms. That drives your Terraformation Index and unlocks new blueprints.

Can I find fish eggs in wrecks?

According to community sources, no. Procedural wrecks have unique tree seeds and frog eggs, but no fish eggs. For fish you need the Incubator or a Water life collector in the right water.

Did the Skeo update change anything for fish?

Yes, quite a lot. v2.102 removed Phytoplankton B and C, raised the generation values of aquariums and Fish farms, adjusted their inventory size and sped up the Incubator. Skeo adds a T2 Incubator.

Do I still need the development branch?

No. Since September 1, 2026, Skeo is part of the regular game. If Steam still has you on the test branch, go to Betas and set it back to None.

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

Only within the same console family. The Planet Crafter has no crossplay, so Steam players can't play with console players, even after Skeo launched on every platform at once. The details are in our crossplay article.

Checked against Miju Games' Skeo changelogs on Steam (app 1284190) and the planetcrafter.th.gl game database as of October 2026, main branch v2.103. From the changelogs: the release on all platforms, the removal of Phytoplankton B and C, the changed generation values and inventory sizes and the T2 Incubator. From th.gl: item and machine names, unlock values, Mutagen tiers, slot counts, the number of fish species, the wild species and their planets, and the descriptions of the Water life collector and the T2 Map information rocket.

Not officially confirmed: the recycle trick, the average rule for slots, Velkia through the trade rocket and that wrecks never contain fish eggs. Those come from community sources. There is no official wiki for the game.