Stardew Valley Ponds - best products and best fish for ponds, and pond capacity quests explained

How to build ponds in Stardew Valley

If you want to build a fish pond on your farm in Stardew Valley, you must first collect 200 Stone, 5 Seaweed, 5 Green Algae and 5,000g.

Stone can be easily collected by breaking stones on your farm, in The Mines or in Skull Cavern.

Seaweed can be found by fishing in the ocean during any season or in the tidal pools on The Beach. These pools can only be reached once you fix the broken bridge on The Beach with 300 pieces of wood.

Green Algae can be found by fishing from any fishing spot, except for the pond on the Standard Farm, during any season. It's also a rare drop from the Green Slimes.

Once you've collected all these resources and have raised the cash, it's time to head to the Carpenter's Shop. This is located just to the west of the Mountain Lake and open most days from 9am to 5pm by Robin.

Select the 'Fish Pond' option from the construction menu and then select where you want it to be on your farm.

Fish ponds take up a 5x5 space, so ensure that you've cleared that area for the pond.

It will take three days for Robin to build the fish pond, so use this time to catch whatever fish you're planning on breeding.

Ponds in Stardew Valley explained

Now that you've built your fish pond, it's time to fill it with fish.

You can place every fish, except for the Legendary Fish and clams, into a fish pond. This also includes sea urchins and coral, which you can find on the beach.

Each fish pond can only hold one type of fish and the only way to change which type of fish live in a pond is by selecting the 'Empty Pond' option from the fish pond menu. This will reset your fish pond, but will also destroy any remaining fish living inside of it, so make sure you save them before choosing this option.

The fish pond menu will also show you how many fish you currently have in the pond, which type of fish they are and allow you to change the appearance of the fish pond.

To begin filling a fish pond, simply throw your chosen fish into the pond, or maybe two so they have a friend, and let them begin to reproduce.

Once you've placed a fish within a pond, it will begin to reproduce until its reached the current capacity for that pond. The only exception to this are Tiger Trouts, which cannot reproduce.

The majority of fish will allow you to place three of their number into a pond, before needing to raise the capacity. The exceptions to this, which will only allow you to place one, are Blobfish, Ghostfish, Ice Pip, Lava Eel, Slimejack, Stonefish, Sturgeon, Void Salmon and Woodskip.

When the pond reaches full capacity, an exclamation mark (!) will appear above it. This will allow you to start a 'Fish Quest' for a specific set of items. Completing this quest will increase the capacity of the fish point, with the maximum capacity being 10 fish.

The difficulty of this quest depends on how rare the fish you're breeding is. If you're breeding Lava Eels, for example, you'll be asked to find an Iridium Bar, which is a lot harder to find compared to the coral Squids ask for.

If you want to easily keep track of exactly how many fish live in each pond, place a sign on top of it. This will automatically turn the sign into a fish counter for that specific pond.

Now that you have a working fish pond, you can harvest the fish one at a time by using your fishing rod on the pond. These fish will always be a regular quality of fish. You'll also be able to collect a variety of items from the chum bucket next to the pond.

What item you receive depends on what kind of fish you're breeding in the fish pond and how many fish currently live in the more. This means that if you're breeding a rare type of fish, then you can expect to receive a rarer resource in your chum bucket.

Best fish for fish ponds in Stardew Valley explained

If you're looking to make a strong profit from fish ponds, then your fish of choice should be the Lava Eel.

These volcanic eels may be the second hardest fish to catch, just under the legendary fish, and can only be found on the 100th floor of The Mines, but they are most definitely worth the trouble. Especially since you only need one to start your fishing pond business.

Try to reach max capacity for your Lava Eel fish pond as quickly as possible, so you can take advantage of all the benefits. You can also fish more Lava Eels once they start breeding to populate other ponds.

Just be careful when placing the two Mega Bombs for one of the Lava Eel capacity quests - you don't want to accidentally destroy part of your farm.

Once you have two Lava Eels in a fish pond, they will start producing Roe. Since the base price for a Lava Eel is 700g, the price of Lava Eel Roe is roughly 380g. (Roe price is half of the base price for a fish, then an additional 30g.)

Lava Eels will also produce Magma Geodes in the chum bucket, which can make you a healthy profit.

You can take Magma Geodes to Clint the Blacksmith and have them opened for 25g each. From doing this you can receive a variety of resources, including Iridium Ore, and geode minerals, which you can sell for a good amount of money.

Pond capacity quests in Stardew Valley explained

Below you'll find the various items that fish might require when it's time to increase the capacity of their pond, along with the population level required for these quests to appear.

These quests will appear every one to four days, until you reach the max capacity for that specific fish pond.

Only Coral and Sea Urchins are exempt from this and will simply reach max capacity, 10 for each, by themselves.

Getting started in Stardew Valley - tips for your first Spring

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One of the main goals in Stardew Valley is to complete the Community Center bundles or, if you’re corporate minded, you can buy a JojaMart Membership. Fishing is a great way to earn money in Stardew Valley, especially if you decide to use crab pots and ponds. Throughout the year you’ll also be able to take in a variety of festivals, including the Egg Festival, Stardew Valley Fair and the Night Market.

Pond products in Stardew Valley explained

As the population of fish in your pond grows, you'll steadily unlock a variety of produce that you can find in your chum bucket. As long as you're above or on the population level associated with an item, you'll always be able to receive it.

It should be noted that there can be days where your fish pond won't produce any additional products at all, so don't be surprised if you find the chum bucket item.

Below you'll find a list of what each fish produces in the fish pond and at what population level you'll receive this item:

If you want to know more about the Fishing Skill in Stardew Valley, then check out our dedicated fishing, crab pot and treasure chests guides!