Steal Fish Eggs Beginner Guide: First Eggs, Fish, and Money

In Steal Fish Eggs, the core loop is simple: retrieve an egg from a guarded fish, place it down, hatch it into a fish, and let your fish earn money for you. Your first verified action is to swim up to a fish being guarded by a parent and take its egg — the guarding fish will chase and can hit you, so be ready to juke or outrun it. This guide walks you through that first loop and introduces the training and upgrade activities you'll see as a new player.

Note that taking eggs from fish and stealing fish from other players are two distinct activities the game lists side by side. This guide covers the egg route: you get fish by hatching eggs, not by taking fish from other players, and you don't need to steal from anyone to complete the loop below.

Your first egg

Eggs are found across named zones shown in-game: Coral Reef, Deep Ocean, Pearl Lagoon, Snowy Sea, Volcano, and Jelly Ocean, with deeper or end sections containing fish you're likely too slow to steal from at first. Before attempting a steal, check the recommended swim speed displayed near the egg. If the guarding fish is faster than you, the attempt will probably fail — so stick to areas where your current speed is sufficient.

Hatch the egg and collect a fish

Once you have an egg, place it down. Placed eggs have a growth wait before they can hatch; when the wait finishes, hatch the egg to get a fish. Eggs carry visible rarity labels — examples include a sea turtle egg marked "rare" and a snowfish egg marked "basic" — and hatched fish are named species such as goldfish or Mohawk Tang. You'll know the hatch is complete when the fish visibly swims in your tank.

After the hatch completes, place the fish in your aquarium. Fish generate money. In recorded early gameplay, this money collected automatically, so you don't need to claim each payout by hand. That income is your main reason to repeat the loop: more eggs, more fish, more money.

Fish take up tank slots

Each fish occupies an active slot in your tank. The UI shows counts like "six out of 10 active," and once you see "your tank is full," you'll need to either buy more equip/slot capacity or unequip existing fish to make room for new ones. Slot capacity is one of the first real constraints you'll hit.

Training and upgrades

Several progression activities sit alongside the egg loop from the start:

• Swim training (endless pool): Training on the endless pool — the game also calls it a tread pool — raises your swim Speed. The pool itself costs money to unlock, and you can keep upgrading it afterward as a separate purchase from tank upgrades.
• Tank and base upgrades: The game lists upgrading your base and tank as their own progression track, separate from training. These upgrades are expensive, so expect to loop eggs and fish for a while before large expansions.
• Trails: The trail shop sells colored swimming trails, and trails can provide additional speed boosts on top of your trained speed.
• Egg growth: A paid "skip growth" option exists if you want to skip the hatching wait.

Exact costs and upgrade effects change, so check the current in-game prices before planning purchases.

What to do next

Complete one full loop: retrieve an egg from a zone your swim speed supports, place it down, hatch it, and put the fish in your aquarium to start earning. From there, unlock the endless pool and work on swim training to reach faster zones, and keep an eye on your active fish count as you approach your tank limit.