It occurs to me that in deciding which fish to clone, the cost of the fish is not relevant once you already have one. So I’ve done a profit analysis leaving cost out of the equation. I found to my surprise that there is a clear winner. Maroon Clown is far and away the best fish to clone, winning you 50 coins and 63 XP per hour. I have read on FishVille discussion pages that a good fish to clone is Kole Tang. This is not, however, true at lower levels. At Level 37, Kole Tang won me a mere 19.1 coins and 9.77 XP per hour.
Highest scorers are (in order. See tables below):
Coins per hr per clone
1. Maroon Clown 50
2. Giant Shimpgoby 39.58
3. Flagtail Shrimpgoby 39.4
4. Murphy Cardinal 37.3
5. Neon Black Damsel 36.8
6. Blue Assessor 33.61
XP per hr per clone
1. Maroon Clown 63
2. Neon Black Damsel 43.88
3. Flagtail Shrimpgoby 43.3
4. Murphy Cardinal 40.83
5. Blue Assessor 37.25
6. Blackfoot Lionfish 35

The best strategy seems to be: At beginning levels, buy and sell Mini Dart Gobies (150 coins 50 XP per hour) at age 1 and hoard Clone Magic until you have 4 sand dollars. Then buy a Maroon Clown and clone away while you buy fish and expand your tanks. Hoard or sell Kole Tang until a much higher level (I haven’t reached yet). Sell Mastery fish at age 1; investment fish (ones that cost sand dollars) at age 4. Clone before selling.
*Profit per hour per clone
Mini Dart Goby^ 150
Barlett Anthias^ 50
Blue Hippo Tang^ 39.58
Hawaiian Hogfish^ 39.4
Scooter Blenny^ 38.7
Prawn Goby^# 37.3
Blue Spot Grouper^ 36.8
Dwarf Angelfish^ 33.61
Moorish Idol# 31.25
Cardinal 30.4
Blackfoot Lionfish 28.8
Blue Assessor 24
Sunshine Chromis 22.8
White-faced Surgeon 20.8
Blue Boxfish 19.2
Yellow Boxfish~ 18.75
Racoon Butterfly# 18.75
Blackcap Baslett 16.67
Purple Firefish 12.5
Neon Black Damsel 10.42
Maroon Clown# 10.42
Murphy Cardinal# 10
Annularis Angelfish# 9.61
Flagtail Shrimpgoby#~ 9.21
Wheelers Shrimpgoby 8.3
Big Eye Soldierfish# 8.3
Giant Shrimpgoby 7.6
*XP per hour per clone
Maroon Clown# 63
Mini Dart Goby^ 50
Neon Black Damsel 43.88
Flagtail Shrimpgoby#~ 43.3
Murphy Cardinal# 40.83
Blue Assessor 37.25
Blackfoot Lionfish 35
Purple Firefish 30.75
Giant Shrimpgoby#~ 24.48
Moorish Idol# 23.5
Cardinal 23.25
Barlett Anthias^ 21.3
Blackcap Baslett 17.7
Wheelers Shrimpgoby#~ 17.5
Blue Hippo Tang^ 13
Hawaiian Hogfish^ 12.75
Sunshine Chromis 12.5
White-faced Surgeon 12.5
Blue Boxfish 12.5
Yellow Boxfish~ 12.08
Prawn Goby^# 11.04
Scooter Blenny^ 10.88
Blue Spot Grouper^ 8.4
Racoon Butterfly# 8.3
Big Eye Soldierfish# 8.3
Dwarf Angelfish^ 5
Annularis Angelfish# 4.17

^coin-bought. Included for comparison
*doesn’t include cost
#can/must be obtained as prize or gift
~must/may be asked for
Yours sincerely,
FishVille addict
Susie Helme

PS. If you like my research and find my strategy makes you fish-rich, and you are a daily player AND you like receiving and giving gifts, come be my ‘neighbor’.
http://www.facebook.com/susie.helme?ref=tn_tnmn

I have discovered: Pacific Barracuda is even better! 82.7 coins 94.88 XP per hour per clone.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtlZyxQxGQUEdDNGVWc3UExkSU1jblZxT3JIVjl6NWc&hl=en

The best test I’ve done so far is to have 50 sardines in the tank. They were all fed. Then 1/2 way through growth cycle, I dropped in 25 pieces of food. Then I waited for the growth cycle to end. 25 of my fish grew about 2 seconds faster than the other 25. Was that the result of the food or just a delay in the game updating that many fish? More testing needed.

for me the best strategy is placing 50 blue damsel grows in 8 days giving 72k XP

and 30 Scooter Blimey in second tank grows in 5 days giving 31k XP

so if i average it at a 10 day pace tht would make 62K Xp from Blimey, 72K Xp from damsel and still i can level of from fast fishes for the rest of the 2 days couple of thousand from red spot cardinals

in my case that would amount to a huge XP of ~140K Xp in 10 days….. roughly +10 levels in 10 days good enuff isnt it

For example, the sardine grows in 3 minutes, but when you drop him in the tank and cursor over, it says feed in 6 min. So I can only guess that feed time/2 = growth rate.

I recently hit level 20 and bought a 3rd tank. In this tank, I bought one of each fish to see what happens after they reach adulthood. So at level 20, you have access to 14 fish and a new tank holds 15.

I managed to stay a while and get most of the fast fish up to level 4 and logged off for a bit. When I came back, there was a dead fish but after a quick count, I still had 14 fish total. Unfortunately, putting a cursor on a dead fish doesn’t tell me what it was and I couldn’t readily identify it from the shape either. My only guess is that one of the adult fish, possibly the sardine, had a baby.

Anyone else have this happen?

* XP / Level = 144
* Revenue / Level = 131
* XP / Four Level = 576
* Revenue / Four Level = 524
* XP / Minute = 0.24

Nice guide though.

You might be able to get away with “cost per XP per hour” or something compounded like that. I’ll think about it.

They’re all up here
http://sites.google.com/site/fishvillestats/

So I came up with a Cost / XP (with a profit byproduct) based on the spreadsheet data. and interestingly, I found it more beneficial!!!

eg:

Mini Dart Goby (yr1) costs .875 per XP
whereas same fish (yr4) costs .269 per XP

I gotta look at this more, maybe cost/xp/minute ?? I get back to ya!