Best Fish for Fish Ponds in Stardew Valley (1.6)

By Ali Ahmad · Updated October 9, 2026 · Verified for Stardew Valley 1.6.15

We ranked all 73 fish that can live in a pond with the same rules the game uses: the chance a pond produces something each day grows with the number of fish, and each fish has its own list of items and their odds. Roe also has a chance of dropping extra roe. Numbers are for a full pond of 10 and average out the random days.

If you process the roe

Roe from most fish goes into a Preserves Jar and comes out as Aged Roe. Sturgeon roe becomes Caviar. Prices below include the Artisan profession (+40% on Aged Roe and Caviar). The last column is how many jars it takes to keep up with one pond.

If you sell everything as it comes

Selling raw, two fish are far ahead of the rest: Lava Eel and Blobfish make more than twice what number three does. Below them, the ranking is close enough that what you can catch matters more than the table.

The catch: how long a pond takes to fill

A pond starts with room for 3 fish, and you raise that to 10 by finishing the quests the fish give you. The best money fish start smaller. The wiki's Fish Pond page lists Blobfish, Lava Eel, Sturgeon, Void Salmon and Ice Pip among the fish that start with room for just one. Each quest raises the limit one step, so these ponds take weeks to reach 10, and they earn far less until then. Open the Fish Pond Calculator and set the population to what you have now to see what a half-full pond really earns.

Tiger Trout is the opposite: it starts with room for all 10. It sits at #4 raw and #4 processed, and it is a river fish you can catch in fall and winter, so it is the easiest strong pond to set up early.

Why the last fish pays the most

The rankings above are for a full pond of 10. A half-full pond earns far less than half as much, because the daily chance of producing anything and the best items both improve with population. Here is what the top processed ponds earn at 1, 3, 5 and 10 fish, with Artisan:

Look at Blobfish. Five fish make 485g a day and ten make 1,301g. Doubling the fish nearly triples the income. The same is true of Sturgeon, which earns 177g a day with three fish and over 900g with ten. Don't judge a pond by its first month. The payoff comes late.

How long it takes to fill

Fish in a pond reproduce on a timer that depends on the species. A new fish arrives every few days until the pond reaches its capacity, then a quest asks you for items, and finishing it raises the capacity. After a quest the timer starts over. Starting from a single fish, the fastest possible route to ten is nine spawns. At a spawn time of 4 days, Blobfish and Sturgeon take at least 36 days, which is more than a season. Lava Eel spawns every 5 days and needs at least 45. Those are minimums that assume you hand in each quest the moment it appears. If you put in more fish by hand, you skip some of the wait.

Tiger Trout is the exception. It does not reproduce at all. A Tiger Trout pond starts with room for ten fish, but it only ever holds the ones you catch and put in. That's why it earns 595g a day when full and nothing extra while you are still fishing for more.

What the quests ask for

Each time a pond reaches its limit, the fish ask for one of a few items. These are the requests for the three best ponds:

Blobfish

• At 1 fish (room for 3 after): 3 Coral, or 2 Frozen Tear, or 2 Sea Urchin.
• At 3 fish (room for 5 after): 5 Coffee Bean, or Mayonnaise, or Pizza.
• At 5 fish (room for 7 after): Cookie, or Green Tea, or Wine.
• At 7 fish (room for 10 after): Rainbow Shell, or Rice Pudding.

Lava Eel

• At 1 fish (room for 3 after): 3 Fire Quartz.
• At 3 fish (room for 5 after): Basalt, or 2 Diamond, or Dwarf Scroll III.
• At 5 fish (room for 7 after): 2 Mega Bomb.
• At 7 fish (room for 10 after): Iridium Bar.

Sturgeon

• At 1 fish (room for 3 after): Diamond.
• At 3 fish (room for 5 after): Jelly, or 2 Maple Syrup, or Pickles.
• At 5 fish (room for 7 after): 3 Omni Geode.
• At 7 fish (room for 10 after): Nautilus Shell.

Some of these are not things you have lying around. Sturgeon's first request is a Diamond with no alternative, and its last is a Nautilus Shell. Read the list before you commit a pond, and save the item when you find it. Several of them (Rainbow Shell, Omni Geode, Frozen Tear) can be collected months before you need them.

Which pond to build first

• Early game, few jars: Tiger Trout if you can catch ten, since it needs no waiting and no quests.
• Mid game, jars running: Sturgeon. It makes Caviar, which is worth more than Aged Roe, and the pond fills in about 36 days at the earliest.
• Late game, everything unlocked: Blobfish or Lava Eel. They earn the most, but they start with a single fish and need the longest runway.
• Several ponds: mix species. Jars are the real limit, so check how many jars your chosen fish need (the tables above show it) before you add a second pond.

Common mistakes

• Comparing ponds by the full-pond number only. A pond that takes 36 days to fill earns very little for those 36 days.
• Selling roe raw when you own jars. Aged Roe is worth double the roe for most fish.
• Letting roe pile up with no jars. A pond makes roe every day. Without jars it either sits in the pond or goes to the shipping bin at the raw price.
• Overlooking the quest items. A pond can sit at capacity for weeks waiting on one Diamond.

Where to catch the top fish

• Blobfish: the submarine at the Night Market in winter.
• Lava Eel: floor 100 of the Mines, or the Volcano Caldera.
• Sturgeon: the Mountain Lake, in summer and winter.
• Tiger Trout: rivers, in fall and winter.
• Lionfish: Ginger Island, any season.

Legendary fish

A legendary fish pond holds only one fish, but it has a 50% chance to produce something every day, and what it makes is valuable. Selling raw, Legend earns about 1,311g a day and Crimsonfish about 628g, more than any regular fish sold raw. You can only catch each legendary fish once (the Legend II versions come from the Extended Family quest), so they are a bonus pond, not a plan.

What to do next

• Check any fish at your current population in the Fish Pond Calculator.
• Short on jars? How many kegs do I need? explains the same keep-up math for kegs and jars.

Work it out for your farm

• Fish Pond CalculatorDaily roe and items for any fish, gold per day, and which fish earns the most in a pond.

Where these numbers come from

Every number on this page is calculated by the same engine as our calculators, from game data taken from the Stardew Valley Wiki and cross-checked between at least two of its pages (last checked 2026-10-09). See the methodology, and tell us if something looks wrong in your game.

More guides

All tools and guides on this topic: Fishing and Fish Ponds.

• Speed-Gro vs FertilizerCrop by crop: when Speed-Gro adds a harvest, and when fertilizer just costs you gold.
• How Many Kegs Do I Need?Kegs per plant for Hops, Ancient Fruit, Starfruit and more, so no fruit waits in a chest.
• Are Pigs Worth It?How fast a 16,000g pig pays for itself, and when Truffle Oil beats selling truffles.
• Are Casks Worth It?Gold per cask per day for wine, cheese and ale, and what a full cellar costs.