Steal Fish Eggs: How to Get Fish — Hatching vs. Stealing Compared

Quick answer

There are two documented ways to get fish in Steal Fish Eggs:

1. Steal fish eggs from fish and hatch them — you end up with a specific hatched fish in your tank that earns money.
2. Steal fish directly from other players — officially listed as a core mechanic, but no documented procedure or outcome details exist for it yet.

The most important verified condition for choosing between them: only the egg route has confirmed prerequisites and a confirmed outcome. If you want a path you can plan around, hatch eggs. The player-stealing route is supported by the game but can't currently be evaluated on effort, risk, or results, so it can't be recommended on verified conditions.

What each route requires

Egg-stealing and hatching (verified conditions):

• Every map area — Coral Reef, Deep Ocean, Pearl Lagoon, Snowy Sea, Volcano, Jelly Ocean, and Atlantis — has fish guarding their eggs. Later areas are guarded by faster or more aggressive fish, and in some of them you may not be able to get an egg at all.
• Each area shows a recommended swim speed. You can meet it by training on the endless pool (observed gains of "5 plus swim" per training).
• Tank capacity is a hard limit. A full tank blocks placing new fish, so you may need to buy equip slots or unequip existing fish before adding a hatched fish.
• Once you have an egg, you place the fish in your tank and hatch it. Observed results included a goldfish, a Mohawk Tang, a purple octopus, and a rare sea turtle egg, with basic versus rare outcomes noted.

Stealing fish from other players (verified conditions):

The game's official how-to-play list names this as a core mechanic. No documented steps, eligibility conditions, or outcome details exist, so there is nothing concrete to prepare for on this route.

What you can control on the egg route

• Area choice: You control which area you attempt. Deeper and later areas were observed as harder due to faster guard fish.
• Readiness: You can control your swim speed (via endless pool training) and your available tank slots before committing to a steal.
• What you can't control: The fish you get isn't revealed before hatching, and outcome rarity (basic vs. rare) varies. Rarity observations in gameplay footage are player observations, not confirmed drop rates.

Choosing a route for your situation

• You want a documented, plannable path → hatch eggs. Confirmed prerequisites (swim speed vs. recommended speed, escaping guards, tank slots) and a confirmed outcome (a hatched fish in your tank that earns money).
• You're curious about player-to-player stealing → it's officially supported, but without documented steps, treat any claims about its effort, speed, safety, or cost as unverified.
• You're chasing a specific rare fish → note that hatch results aren't shown beforehand, so the egg route can't guarantee identity; rare-fish-specific targeting is outside the scope of this guide.

Next step

If you've picked the egg route, open the egg-stealing procedure to get started, then identify the result in the verified fish list. If you'd rather try the player-to-player route, check the game's how-to-play list in-game for the current mechanics until a full procedure is documented.