Update 2018-07-06: As of the 2nd Anniversary Event update, it appears the “visiting” fish like the Marlin have a vastly increased appearance rate. Hopefully they should no longer be an issue.
More than any other fish the Striped Marlin in Tap Tap Fish: Abyssrium has driven fans (and by extension, me) insane. So I decided hey, just make a single, extremely direct post to gather all the information into one place. If you’re looking for info on Hidden Fish in general, or any other game info, see my complete AbyssRium Guide.
tl;dr: There is absolutely nothing you can do to increase your chance of seeing the marlin (other than own the star horn coral which is required).
Since the early days, the following fish were added, all of which work completely identically to the Marlin and are unlocked in a possibly random sequence:
- Striped Marlin
- Bonito
- Wahoo
- Yellow Fin Tuna
- Blue Fin Tuna
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The biggest thing to remember about the Striped Marlin is that it is simply extremely rare and has a very long time between possible chances. There really aren’t many relevant tricks and there’s no secret to it. This page mostly serves to debunk various myths and reassure the correct method, but I have every single bit of relevant info I’ve found no matter how small.
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Updates
AbyssRium Guide Index
Other resources useful for Tap Tap Fish – AbyssRium players:
My Patreon Page – Where you can support me, or use paypal instead.
Full AbyssRium guide – Anything you could ever ask for is in here! All Saltwater tank information is here.
Event Fish Guide – All info on limited-time events & Event Tanks
Freshwater Guide – All info on the Freshwater tank
Fusion Fish Guide – All Fusion fish and info on using them effectively
Striped Marlin/Bonito guide – Because these stupid RNG fish generate 10x as many questions as anything else
Video Guides – A YouTube playlist full of my AbyssRium video guides & updates
Other mobile games – Bored? Check out some other mobile games I’ve made guides or reviews for.
Confirmed Requirements for the Striped Marlin
- Take a picture of the Striped Marlin
- They’ll randomly appear even though you don’t have them and swarm around in a group of 6+, swimming extremely fast and all around the screen in front of the Coralite. The photos above show their appearance, white and blue swordfish.
- Your camera has to be focused on the Marlin for the image to count. To avoid missing them, take a picture immediately and pan/zoom the camera while the frame is frozen, then tap on a Marin, then take another picture. It’ll count for the Marlin even if you weren’t originally focusing on it.
- Striped Marlin can appear every 30 minutes of in-game time
- Timer appears to start only after getting the Star Horn coral
- I don’t know how we know this, but it’s usually said the percent chance is 10% each 30 minutes. This means failing 10 times (five hours!) is not unheard of, and failing even 20+ times is possible.
- There is no way to see this timer, you just have to play for a long time and keep your eyes open.
- If you miss them, they’ll come back (but don’t miss them!). Someone missed them twice before finally getting the picture properly.
- Note that Marlins can occasionally swim out of view for some people, so you can watch the top of the tank or use Camera Mode to zoom the view out and look up from the sea floor if you’re suspicious.
- Nothing else
- Really.
- There’s not a secret, it’s just really really rare. You might feel you’re doing something wrong, but remember at a 10% chance, it’s expected to take around five hours of playing to see them, and it’s not impossible to not see them after even 10 hours!
- It’s completely normal to not get this fish for multiple months.
- Yes, it’s terrible, complain to the developer. But they’re pretty bad at addressing real issues.
Unconfirmed Rumors
- It’s unknown if internet access is required
- It seems highly unlikely however, as hidden fish requirements are almost never updated and the Marlin came out before the game started making features online-only.
What Does Not Affect Unlocking The Striped Marlin
- Blue Table Coral
- AbyssRium recently shared a “guide” made of 100% false information (and I’m extremely unhappy about it).They have since rescinded this information.
- Cheating the clock
- For notification fish you can force the clock forward 30 minutes to make the game check; this doesn’t work with the Striped Marlin. The trigger is strictly on game time as counted by how long the game has been running
- Watching the Clock
- The Marlin is not confirmed to appear at any exact interval of 30 minutes. Not your skill recharges, not from the first time you open the game today, not from the Time Machine counter in daily missions. There is no way to know when the Marlin check is actually occurring unless the Marlin appears. After which point it no longer matters.
- Closing the game
- While watching for 30 minutes at a time will lower your chances of missing the fish, the timer is not cumulative and switching apps is not a problem.
- You also don’t have to close the game to get a second chance.
- Watching ads
- Feel free to imbibe in the glory of Capitalism as frequently as you wish, multiple people have confirmed they watched ads while getting the Marlin
- Being in Camera Mode
- Feel free to wait with the camera open if you like, though it’s hardly necessary. Be absolutely sure you have a maximum zoomed out view of the front of the Coralite though, wonky camera angles that can’t see the Marlin will put you at a disadvantage!
- Tapping/playing normally
- You can play normally, tapping doesn’t prevent them from spawning from what we can tell.
- Watching Heart/Striped/Star Marlins/Bonito
- Lots of people think it’s logical to focus your camera on a different Marlin since the visiting ones will swim in the same spot, right? No, the visiting Marlin’s AI is completely different and they do not swim anything like the normal Marlin. There’s no reason to focus your camera on any other Marlin-like fish.
- Storing all your fish
- While a common strategy is to store all fish so the Marlins are easier to see, they can and will appear if you have other fish out.
- Feedback where the developer can’t see it
- Send all complaints, bug reports, etc directly to the developers’ Facebook page. They do read it, though they haven’t changed the Marlin (yet).
- Swearing loudly at your screen in public
- While it’s cathartic, the other people on the bus are getting a bit concerned.
- Witchcraft and Hexes
- I know it is frustrating, but please do not sacrifice a loved one, goat, or a loved goat, in attempting to unlock the Striped Marlin. It will make a horrible mess and will not unlock it any faster.
Striped Marlin Hunting Steps
To “Marlin Hunt”, we basically just want to watch the game over a long period from a perspective that can see the Marlins.
First, plug in your phone and leave it in your peripheral vision while you watch a movie, work on something, whatever. Put the game in Power Save mode and maybe dim your phone a bit, Tap Tap Fish is a huge energy hog.
Make sure your phone is close enough that movement will catch your eye even in your peripheral vision (motion is what your periphery is for after all!) and take glances at it once in a while.
Optionally, you can store all your fish and use a dark background like Midnight Sea or Night of Valentine’s to make the white and blue Marlins stand out even more. If you have them, the less distracting Coral colors like the White Dye can help just a smidge as well.
You can also sit in Camera mode and watch; zoom out and look up while keeping the Coralite’s face in view, sometimes the Marlins swim high out of view, an infuriating bug.
Now you just wait. It could appear in 30 minutes, it could appear in 30 hours. I wish it didn’t be like it is, but it do.
If you see the Marlins, immediately snap a picture, even if it’s just of blank space. Then while the game is “frozen” in Picture mode, you can pan and zoom; use this to find the Marlin and tap it to focus. The camera angle won’t change, but you’re now “focused” on the Marlin and snapping another picture will unlock it. Leave the camera mode and you should see the Hidden Fish unlock confirmation dialog; congrats and enjoy your new fish! If you don’t get the confirm double check that it’s not in your fish list and take another picture; they swarm around for a while so you have some time.
Event Tank Bug
The Striped Marlin sometimes shows up, if you haven’t unlocked it, in the Event Tanks. This marlin will not unlock anything and unfortunately probably means you missed your shot at getting the marlins for this 30 minute period.
Don’t Give Up! Trust Your Instincts!
The Striped Marlin is, more than anything, rare. It’s not complicated and you’re probably not doing anything wrong.
That’s about all we know about the Striped Marlin for now. Again, if you have any extra tips or anything else to debunk, use the comments section below to reach out.
Bonito, Wahoo, etc
There are now three other fish that act like the Striped Marlin. Here’s the specific info on them:
Bonito
- Appears to run on 30 minute timer just like Marlins
- Does not require the Sea Urchin farm to appear or unlock
- They don’t actually appear to have any unlock requirement at all other than a random 30 minute timer
Wahoo, Yellowfin Tuna, Bluefin Tuna
- Identical conditions to the Bonito, even looks similar. They’re all related to (or are) Tuna.
- No, Yellowfin and Bluefin are not part of the anniversary event and can be gotten at any time. No fusion tab fish are event fish.
- No, taking pictures of Bonito does not unlock Wahoo, I don’t know why people keep emailing me that. That bug worked for like 1 week several months ago.
Just saw a couple of shrimp in my tank, which I’ve never seen in my tank before. So I closed the game menu to look for more and the yellowfin tuna comes swimming in by the corallite. Now all I need is the bluefin. 🤗
The shrimp are from Delicious Food, you probably just never saw them since fish eat them really fast, they linger if you have few or no fish.
Grats on the photo fish! They’re a pain.
I just got it after reading this! Yes
Just got Striped Marlin and Bonito at the same day!
Just got Striped Marlin and Bonito at the same day!
Woohoo for wahoo! Just watching my fish swim and here they come zooming around my corallite. The marlin and bonito both swam across the screen but these guys made a tight loop around corallite. Speedy little buggers too, looked like they were faster than the marlins.
Got the bonito yesterday. Had the game running while waiting for skill timers, glanced down and thought, that’s not a fish in my tank. I’d just removed a bunch of fish from the previous event so I knew I didn’t have anything that looked like it.
Is this saltwater tank only or can you get it in the other tanks?
Event fish are the only thing that’s cross-tank, and not all of them
HI there. Uninstalled the game after last Mid Autumn due to phone storage problems and figured that i didnt want to play this game anymore. Came back for nostalgia to see what’s new and sad to hear how Cheetah Games have decided to overexploit this game (Sorry, i commented here because i couldn’t find the comment section or the 2018 Valentine’s guide). i hope they will realize the mistake of their greed and all of you will still be able to enjoy the game again in the long run.
Yeah the mini-guides have comments disabled so they all go on the main guide (this one is sort of an exception)
I hope so too but I doubt it. Make sure to message them on Facebook (direct messages on FB are absolutely the only thing they read and they ignore most of those.) They care so little about their players I really doubt they’ll do much though. They can’t even fix a bug without breaking something else.
i never reinstalled the game so i don’t think i will go on any further about this, but it’s sad to see such a beautiful game exploited to this extreme. i hope things get better for all of you.
it’s probably the last time i’m checking in about this game, but surely i want to thank you very much for all the help you have provided for both new and veteran players alike! It makes obtaining fishes so much easier, and it felt fun to be part of community interested in aquatic life through this game. Best regards and best wishes of success for your gaming + YouTube + blogging career!
Ah, totally understandable. Glad to have helped, just wish the game hadn’t gone as it has, it’s a shame.
I have finally got them after 3 hours, I would say I did about 4 different times for three hours until they came. If I were to give advise I would say do it in increments of 3 hours. It really makes no sense to keep your phone on for longer then that. Here are pics of when they came in and me savoring the moments with them. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb4e3572960c9725b16eddd35bb932cd433603dbf13be452e38d09bd9a60dd4c.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc8d8eb368eed2eec4b3aca8d907e4614cbadc65105b0fb224ac8b49868e2fe3.png
Just a quick question now that the fall event is over none of these fish are available? Just curious.
Only the Star Striped Marlin was fall-event limited, Bonito and Striped Marlin are permanent parts of the game
I’m really confused with this part: Timer appears to start only after getting the Star Horn coral. Does it mean that only after I unlock the Star horn or every time I get a bonus or something? I’m really confused. And the worst part is that I’ve seen a Marlin swimming around and I was like “oh, nice, I’ve never noticed I have this fish, well, I don’t care, bye” I didn’t even knew how rare he is, I’m so regretted
Getting as in unlocking. There’s no bonuses of any kind, just “can I get this or no”.
And yeah it’s pretty common for people to not know to take a picture of them. It’s a really cruel unlock. Would be really fun if it was much more fair.
So I basically just had one chance? This Marlin is killing me omg
No, it still has a chance every 30 minutes of ingame time. You just can’t raise the rate or basically do anything at all to make it happen.
I just saw the bonito for the first time. It caught me off guard so I onky managed to snap one picture. But nothing happend. Is it like the marlin where you snap a focused pic and unlock it, and perhaps I didn’t get it correct? Or is there something else Im suposed to do?
Yes, only focused pictures count for anything that says “take a picture for X”, they can’t just be in frame. Hope you find it again soon
the stripe marlins definitely swim way higher above the carolite so i think for those who haven’t got it it’s worth a try to focus the camera on bigger fishes that swin far away like dolphins, sharks, whales?
when my stripe marlins came in my giant squid swam really quick into view and i just felt like something’s up so i and moved the camera view and saw silhouettes and quickly took a photo and then looked for it! 😀
have yet to see a bonito though even though i have been looking out for it while tapping candies 🙁
The marlins you’ve created swim way above the Coralite. The visiting ones should absolutely always swim all over the screen. I think they might spawn high and swim down, but I’ve still never seen evidence of them staying totally out of normal view.
I can recommend another way to find the striped marlin, but it technically requires either star striped marlins, or heart marlins if you have any. Since the star striped marlins swim so high, tap on one in camera mode, zoom out while leaving the camera horizontal, and then wait for a striped marlin to appear. Should work, in theory, since they swim at the same height.
That’s not how it works, the visiting Marlins/etc have completely different AI and swim all over. There’s no point in watching another Marlin.
Oh ok
I unlocked Striped Marlin today though, had nothing out save for a jellyfish
I havent been able to get the star marlin yet and im getting worried because theres only 2 days left. i have 350+A leaves but without getting that i cant get the rest of the fish. my app was updated yesterday and ive defiinately watched more than 15 ads the whole time.
i was a bit confused about the update, does it mean you are garenteed for the star marlin to show up every half hour? the translation is confusing
Just message the devs directly if you still can’t get it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khZ-rzafuPw
The three times I saw them they were up high. I missed them the first two because I didn’t see them until they were leaving. So watch the top.
Do I have to watch 15 ads in one sitting? Or does the counter carry over days? Sorry if this has been answered already or if this is a silly question! :/
No, everything in the game is cumulative unless otherwise noted. Convict Tang is just about the only thing that closing the game will affect negatively
If we updated the app after we watched 15 ads, should we watch them again 15 times or the counter is where we left off?
I seriously doubt they reset the counter. They’re pretty ridiculous people, but I would assume not until proven otherwise
Thank you for the reply, Sir TapTap. I got it after the second 30 mins, so thankfully they did not reset the counter.
Someone mentioned pulling back on camera and seeing them ‘Star marlin’ up high. Does that mean we need to focus camera instead of being in tap mode for 30 mins?
People keep spreading this rumor but I’ve seen no evidence of it. I’ve gotten all 3 photo fish in “tap mode” without problem and they’ve always swam in front of the corallite. They are out of range when spawning/leaving the screen, but I really doubt watching while in camera mode will help at all.
Closing the main menu to expand the view might be slightly helpful though.
Thx. Luckily the Bonito fish swam by and I was able to get that photo. But I had to file bug report because it didn’t open/unlock. But at least I saw it work. So thanks again.
Wow, you’re not the first I’ve heard of not getting the unlock despite the photo. It’s unbelievable to have an unlock this bad and sometimes it doesn’t even work. Hope you get it
While waiting for the star marlin to appear I had a thought…you know how the coralite is constantly chattering? Well as you know, one of the things he says is, “Have you found the hidden fish?” So after following the directions to watch the video 15 times and play for 30 minutes without break, I then watched the coralite’s stream of chatter. At the point he mentioned the hidden fish, I focused on the jelly fish with the camera and pulled far out so I could see the top. Sure enough, there was a school of star marlin! I don’t know if it was pure coincidence that they were there or if it really is a clear signal that the hidden fish are now revealed. It will take more people testing it to see if it is an indicator that the hiden fish can be found
It’s coincidence, the Coralite just has a stream of random chatter. He keeps giving hints for fish you already have too. That line’s just a reference to any hidden fish, not the marlin. I just turn off his blabbering
I seem to be having trouble with the star striped marlin, I didnt count how many ads I watched so Im quite sure ive watched 15, but because I didnt keep track I have no idea when the timer started. Ive been watching my phone for about 2 hours and have been trying to keep my eyes on it, but I have no luck at all, for probably the past 3 or 4 days ive been spending tons of time waiting and nothing!
Is there any way at all to predict the time they come? I dont think keeping my eyes glued to a phone for hours at a time is very healthy and its definitely very boring haha
I think the time starts when you launch the game (assuming you exit the game sometimes). I found using a timer set to 25min helpful, i’d just watch for 5-10 min once it went off. If nothing I exited and tried again. It took 3x doing this for me but it’s the same percent chance each time, there is no set magic number of 30 min attempts before they show up. Odds can be… well, odd.
It doesn’t, this has been confirmed false many times. IT’s cumulative.
Then it’s just random. It’s just random for everyone really. Nothing you can do but watch. You can stop watching ads if you’re sure you’ve watched over 15 ads for leaves.
Hey Sir Tap Tap, thank you for creating this guide! I was wondering do I need to have the star horn coral in order to get the star stripped marlin to appear? I was confused on the part “Timer appears to start only after getting the Star Horn coral” thanks!
I got it! You don’t need the star horn coral. I guess you need the coral if you want regular marlin!
Not sure why people think the star striped marlin needs the star horn, was something about that unclear? I would have said something if it was a requirement
u know that star striped marlin is in the holloween event area now right?
This guide is 4 years old and refers to the main tank one. Nothing matters anyway since the game’s crap now and they don’t do hidden fish anymore
Halloween*
Hey, just wondering in order to get the stripped marlin, since I currently have the star stripped marlin am i able to focus on the starlin and wait for the stripped marline to appear? Would this affect my chances? Thanks. Five hours of waiting lol bored.
The AI are completely different between the ones you buy and the ones that swarm. The “focus on your own marlins” thing is mostly just bunk. They won’t swim anything like your real marlins (if you can even see your real marlins, which you usually can’t) when they appear. Same for bonito.
Hey there! Was browsing this for info on the star marlins, but thought i’d check in with a confirmation that you don’t need any urchins or urchin farms for the bonito to appear, as i’ve no farms of any kind but the little suckers came flitting in while i was waiting on the star marlins ^O^)b Saves me some trouble! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f6ba1caea320cf110b26aef387312d10574c7fc941d1cb09f2953546f6c8785.jpg
Thanks for the confirm! Hm, I wonder what condition (if any) they have then. Definitely means my theory of the timer starting after harvesting an urchin is wrong though.
Haven’t touched this app since spring so unless it’s a bug or such, none of the recent farm/fusion inclusions seem to count :Occ Maybe if a few more confirms come in though just to be sure!
((I did trash talk them minutes before they showed up, so maybe they have good hearing gyahaha!))
Thanks for these guides btw, i’d never survive without them! great work! C:
Happy to help!
Bonito just showed for me, never saw him before. I just picked the game back up this event, spring/easter was last time I played. I have seaweed and clams but no urchins, both seaweed and clams are a couple days old. Only thing new recently today was finishing my 7th collection and 500,000 tap achievement.
i had the stripped marlin appear for me a while ago but didnt know what it was so totally missed the chance to get the pic
You can’t miss them permanently, they’ll visit again if you fail to take the pic.
…that’s in the guide btw
hello
just got the marlin as I was trying to get the star one from the fall event
do you think it’s a coincidence or clearly related?
anyway, glad to finally have it even if I wasn’t hoping for this one!
We’re thinking they might have buffed the appearance rate of it (and maybe bonito). Lots of people seem to be getting it. Otherwise I doubt it’s related beyond the fact you were looking out for a while, which is pretty much all you do to find either one.
OMG TYSM FOR UR GUIDE. I’m starting to hunt them almost 4 days. today got them after 1,5h. Right 30 minutes without watch ads. Start at 10:07 am and got at 11:37 am 😀 ty ty tysm. Didn’t expect i got them this soon xDDD ( Just on day 11th playing this game xD )
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a1e679692631bb8ccf0ee46327c6d79d2c3980cfb1eaf8b6e1db5658d779e1f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c54b513923899e9f200bac10f14a6d344e848c9443dc2d02563a98bdfaef6dbb.jpg
Congrats!
tysm xD Now only the Bonito left xD
Only anecdotal at this point but Bonito seems much easier to get. I got it almost exactly 2 hours after I first played with the update and got the sea urchins. Some people think they spawn just after farming the urchins but we’re not sure about that yet
i’m trying to camp it like 2 hours after harvested the sea urchins till next spawn. 4~6h/day lol still no sign of it yet :'( And yea most of people said it swimming in high zone, so i only deposit an Jellyfish so i can look up at high view lol
They showed up minutes *after* the sea urchins spawned in my case. I would just not worry about it and keep your eye out, watching seems to just be a waste of time for all of these.
I honestly don’t think the jelly fish method is useful either, you get a much narrower field of view and I’ve never seen this “only swimming high up” behavior
Oh tysm for ur info, the “only swimming high up” cause i saw few of topics about it on reddit xD
Yeah, a few people talk about it, but I’m 3 for 3 in having them simply swim all across the whole screen. Hard to know for sure of course, since its’ so rare and only once per account
I got the Marlin by following your directions, but I have yet to see a Bonito, although I have most of my fish stored so it wouldn’t be hiding among them. Arrrrgh! But… hey, it’s just a game, got? 😉
At least you got the infamous one! Bonito should be mostly the same process. Good luck!
So when I was playing today a group of 3 stripped marlin swim across my screen, I immediatly snapped a picture thinking I was incredibly lucky considering I hadn’t been trying to unlock them. But when I focused on the and took another pic my game crashed and when I reloaded it I hadn’t unlocked it. Is this a common bug? Or am I just really unlucky?
There’s been a crash bug going around but I’m not sure if that’s exactly common. I think the crash is random and you just got it at the worst possible time. I don’t think it’s actually related to the marlin at all. They’ll come back fortunately though missing them always sucks
I finally got it today! I had only a couple of sun fish out to get the legendary mola mola and as i was following them around I noticed the much faster marlins and panicked, but then i remembered your guide and just took a picture of nothing and started looking around for them and could get the picture before they left… thank you so much for your guide, it really helped me out
Congrats, and happy to help!
Got the Marlin today (17th August) at 7.10am. I am on 500.000DH, only had a bunch of seahorses and jellyfish out so I could see better. No costume, no coral decorations, 1st Anniversary theme. I saw about 3 marlins swimming around, I didn’t have to zoom out or anything because I saw one swimming right in front of my Lonely Corallite. They disappeared after about a minute or 2.
Congrats!
This is a fabulous guide – kudos Sir Tap Tap! Thanks to this guide I have already achieved so much in less than 50 days with only purchasing one beginner package AND the Celebratory Corgi.
I only started noticing the Marlin today – so now I am on the official hunt. Unfortunately, I was not able to grab a picture (yet). Three things I noticed about my in-game progress while playing the game:
1. I had not yet achieved my Time machine Daily Mission progress reward. All other daily mission goals were already rewarded.
2. I had Song of the Moon (on it’s second activation after hitting the recharge skill) AND the Spirit of Life (Steady Photographer reward) activated. I am currently using this method to maximize candies for the Anniversary event, yet perhaps something about this combo of acts enticed the Marlin to come out.
3. My Vitality transitioned from going to Z to AA for the first time. Perhaps the transition of one phase of letters to another also encouraged the Marlin to come out (this is only a theory).
Hope This Helps!
I’m pretty sure the points in 2 don’t matter (though I almost only play with SotM on). I’m pretty sure there’s absolutely no requirement other than 30 cumulative minutes played, POSSIBLY the star horn coral (I wouldn’t bother looking for it that early in the game anyway), and a completely random, extremely low, chance.
It’s normal for people to take over 2 months looking for it it seems. So good luck, but don’t drive yourself nuts over it.
After reaching Orange Blade Coral, I decided to focus on getting a Striped Marlin. After the one instance where they randomly showed up in front of the Coralite 11 days ago, I had no luck seeing one cross in front of it again. I looked at my Event Fish and I noticed that I spun for myself the Pink Striped Marlin. This gave me an idea, so after putting away most fish, I kept out the jellyfish/stingers and put out the Pink Striped Marlin. After all of them came out, I kept an eye out for the Pink Marlin to come on my screen. Once that happened, I went on camera mode and just focused on the Pink Marlin. 10 minutes into doing that, I saw a treasure chest manifest and start to lower itself to the Coralite. I still kept my camera focused onto the Pink Marlin. Immediately thereafter, a school of regular Striped Marlins came up. Thanks to your methods, I was able to get the pics I needed and I now have the Marlin in my possession to finish Level 3 in Ocean Collection.
If there are any new players to the game like myself (I only started playing 59 days ago) I highly suggest utilizing the Pink Striped Marlin as a lure to get the regular Striped Marlin should you happen to get it on a Lucky Spin.
I’m 99% sure that’s not a thing. Everyone has their theories but literally no event fish has EVER been relevant to a non-event fish unlock, plus Marlins were added months before the pink marlin.
Marlins are so rare it’s easy to attribute some insignificant variable you happened to change to your success, but nothing has borne out. They’re just random.
I am not suggesting that Pink Marlins were a directly correlated event to get the Striped Marlin. I am suggesting that if you happen to acquire it during a luck spin shell, you could use it as a tool to directly acquire the swim paths of the Striped Marlin for your photo. Other than the one random time they directly swam in front of the Coralite, the Striped Marlins were such high swimmers for me, I couldn’t even see the random flashes they would appear in the corner of the screen – I had no idea they would be swimming so high. By using the Pink Marlin (along with all the other conditions you outlined in order to acquire the Marlin), the photo in order to get the Striped Marlin in the first place is easier to acquire. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d461b1939418923eb1c905fbf1ed06e429ba834ecaf8dfaf680f544567f24a8.jpg
I know the guide says it’s unkown, but I thought I’d ask the community – is internet required for this? I thought during a long flight, when I can plug into the in-seat power, would be a good time to try.
It’d be nice if someone can confirm for sure that they got it offline, but I’m like 95% sure it’s not required. It never was before and it was added to the game before they started adding stupid internet requirements to everything.
i didnt know that this fish existed until i unlocked it. but as you can see i just got my first star horn after i noticed him darting around.it really shocked me! cuz i didnt really have big fish at the time, i was like, who the hell is that? it creeped me out… the ocean sure is a big place…
but again, i wasnt really looking before, so star horn seems unconfirmed still…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3fd2683a038409fa7f46e90ecd6d69d59558ae779dd4dc204de47f02457d8ee6.jpg
Congrats!
TBH even if the star horni s a requirement they’re so rare I’m not sure it really matters. Unless you’re lucky they’re rare enough you’re likely way past star horn by the time you get it.
I finally got this fish. I expected the marlins to be much faster from what I read, but they lasted a long time and were slow enough for me to snap a pic. My highest coral was the Blue Table Coral, just in case that info is important
Congrats!
I have been playing for more than a year and never saw a marlin. Finally I noticed one yesterday at the very top of my screen. I opened the camera and took a picture of another fish, but then I could not find the marlins. I think I might have shared my first picture, and maybe that dismissed the marlins?
Anyway, I noticed after giving up on finding the marlins that the Daily Missions time machine clock was at 31 minutes.
Today I set out to find a marlin in earnest. I stored all fish except a few seahorses and turned on the camera as recommended. After thirty minutes marlins appeared at the top of the screen. After I took a couple of pictures and made sure they unlocked, I checked Daily Missions and again the timer was at 31 minutes. So I suspect the “thirty minutes” of game time matches up with the Daily Missions timer, and you can use it to know when to check for marlins.
Also, I don’t know if I would have gotten a picture if I did not have the seahorses out. I could not get the marlins in frame while focused on the corallite. I had to focus on the seahorses so I could point the camera strait up to see the marlins.
I have blue swing coral unlocked, so I cannot help you confirm if there is a coral requirement.
Congrats on the Marlin!
You can actually adjust the camera with or without focusing on a fish, whether or not the game is “frozen” during a picture. So you can aim up, snap a picture immediately, then focus on the marlin. A bit late to help for this, but it comes in handy for setting up other photos if you want.
The marlins were almost strait above the corallite, so when I was trying to look up, my “camera” was “underground” and I could only see blue.
Oh My God! After 65 days of playing, I have finally gotten the Blue Marlin. I couldn’t have managed it without this guide so thank you! I’d been getting bored with the game over the last month and only checking in ever so often, but then today I decided to actively try to get the Marlin with your guide one more time and it workkkkeed!
Congrats! Happy the guide helped!
I started an account today to post that I got the Blue Marlin last night; I’ve been playing since January 2017.
I don’t have anything different to add, as my approach was guided by this site, but I wanted to share what I did to reaffirm what has been said before.
They appeared close to the 30min mark of the time machine counter. The last time I had checked the clock it had 28mins. (Of course when the Marlins appeared I totally freaked out and didn’t check to see what the time machine counter said.)
I had the midnight blue theme up and only jelly fish floating around. I have had the Star Coral for a while, (am working to get the Pink Tree Coral), so it wasn’t like I just got it and now got the Marlins.
I want to first thank Jack for his image of the Marlins next to the Coralite, I thought they were going to be much bigger and your picture helped me mentally prepare for what to expect.
Finally, thank you Sir Tap Tap for this site. I wish I had found you as soon as I started playing. Your guidance and opinions have been wonderful and I actually have enjoyed the game more knowing I can come here and get insight and tips.
Thank you again and happy tapping!
Kimberly
Congrats on the marlin!
And happy the guide helps so much! Lifts my heart to hear so many people enjoyed themselves that much more because of it!
So since the newest update (im not sure exactly when it was) a lot of things seem to crash my game. My game tells me it crashed but the app still runs, it just pops up with the ‘get so much vitality since you’ve been gone’ message.
But it also resets some of my abilities, like my seaweed and clam farm, as well as my first two skills.
A lot of things will crash the game, like watching an ad, sharing a picture, taking a picture, visiting friends, etc.
What I’m wondering is will that reset my 30 minutes for getting the striped marlin?
I know this is awfully convoluted so I apologize.
Here’s a video on the glitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3kcIk1W-dY
It’s extremely benefitical if used right, I’d recommend turning off auto updates for now.
As for the marlin, I really doubt it but try the glitch a few times and see if you see them. Someone claimed that it helped them get it, but like 99% of Marlin rumors I’m pretty sure it just happened to come while they were doing the bug.
I’ve been playing this game for roughly a year now and never had an encounter with the Marlin TILL i only had the zebra bullhead shark active and the rest of the fish stored. They just appeared spontaneously and within seconds! Not sure if this is a coincidence but its worth a shot if it helps someone!
It’s not tied to any one fish, people have gotten them with no fish, with just a few jellyfish, or with tanks full of fish
Exit
There is a bug now. Every time you exist the game no matter the period you’re gone you get 10 free seaweed and refilled skills.
You can just drag down the notification bar too, it’s super easy. It’s mentioned in my main guide
But now it doesn’t work anymore, right? At least for me it doesn’t since today. And I still didn’t catch a blue marlin. Which is sad.
It’s based off app version, so if you avoid updates you could still have it, but yeah if you updated just today it’s gone. I don’t think it affected Marlin though. If it did I’d be flooded with accounts of getting the Marlin, which I’m not.
I’m up to AU Vitality, and I still haven’t seen the Marlins even once. I mostly just check in a couple times a day, or spend a while tapping while doing other stuff, am I doing it incorrectly?
Other than what’s in the guide, they’re just extremely rare
I saw the blue stripe marlin swarm on my screen the second day I was playing. Had no idea what it was and haven’t seen it since. It was so early in my game play that I didn’t have the coral, so i’d have to say it’s not necessary.
How long ago was that? A problem is the coral requirement may have been added later, so if you saw them before the update maybe they changed it, who knows. I really wish they’d be more upfront about these things, it’s so confusing.
I’ve been playing for 47 days, so no more than 45 days ago.
That’s riiiiight around when the change was so it’s hard to be sure either way. Don’t think it’s necessary though
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57399d5d366199adac771e9b5ec68b30f368d603c957d572fd8cd0a74ec56537.jpg
thank you Sir Tap Tap… I watch your videos and read this guide yesterday and
finally I got my blue stripe marlin today hurray…
I’m not a player that always see time n see my phone..I just left it open…use skill and leave it playing by itself….
this afternoon after using skill… I want to recharge again.. n I saw this fellow swimming…im soo happy
and yes you right.. I dont have blue table coral because I’m still in P vitality total coral …
ah and about storing all the fish… I think its usefull for me… since I read this guide, i just left the seahorse only in tank… so if I saw something swimming different its easier for me to relize it…
thank you for the guides… <3
Congrats! Glad you found ’em.
Did you have Star Horn coral at the time btw?
And yeah, I think having just seahorses/slow moving fish out is a good balance between the bore of having NO fish out and having too many fish out and having them be harder to notice. But they move really fast so it’s not always necessary.
🙂
yes.. I already have star horn coral
I had been hunting for striped marlin since a long time ago, but kinda give up because I got tired spending lots of time on the game just for that (there were no other reward/achievement to do back then). After the new Collection update and in order to complete the Level 3, I then start hunting again but only during the 60min time that require for the Daily Mission.
Today, I finally see the striped marlin and able to take a picture before they are gone. And I’m also very lucky because it appear just about the first 30min into the game. Below is the timeline of what I done until the striped marlin appear.
– Start the apps at 3:07pm
– Watch ads for Free Vitality and Free Gems (2 ads)
– Take picture and share 5 times to complete the Steady Photographer (Daily Mission)
– Use Skills, activate 10min Spirit of Life and keep taping for Vitality
– Watch ads for Free Recharge (1 ads)
– Use Skills again, complete Finger Warmup (DM) and Technical Player (DM)
– Upgrade Coral
– Watch ads again for Free Vitality and Free Gems (2 ads), complete Ad Mania (DM)
– Left my phone screen on and just wait
– Striped marlin appear at 3:44pm, Time Machine progress show 30/60min
The striped marlin appear for about 30s. I have enough time to first do the Photo Quest, take a picture to freeze the time, focus on striped marlin and take picture, and take a screenshot before it disappear. If you notice, they appear on my screen after 37min in real time, but 30min in game time according to Time Machine.
My experience on hunting is:
– You do not need to store your fish
– There is about 6 of them swimming around
– Tapping will not affect the time at all
– Watching ads will not reset BUT will delay the time
– Sharing picture will not reset BUT will delay the time
– Any action that you do when not on the game screen will delay the time
– Time Machine progress seems very helpful to track the 30min
– I would suggest to start checking the screen after 29min in real time and don’t look away before the Time Machine hit 31/60min
I also attached the screenshot I took so you can expect how it looks like when it appear. The screenshot is taken while on Midnight Ocean Theme. You can spot 3 striped marlins along with my other fish around. Hope it helps for anyone that’s still hunting.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5760cee5541819ff82356ec438e909a8a0f1c967a4bc8784ae3267ce676ad4fc.png
Thanks for the info. Still pretty sure time machine is useless. Someone got it around 38 minutes on the time machine clock
I finally got it too at 33:00 I wait since 4 months. The are really fast, but you will notice them for sure, they are very fast. 5 click to acquire target
Marlin is a part of the new Oceans collection event :< .
//May I be blessed with infinite patience.
Yep, noticed that. That’s a real jerk move on their part. Wonder if they reduced it’s rarity (but I doubt it…)
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad915c2d90d286ce8380a80c6f9261c937caa2339fc1f4b7df946092315bc4f9.jpg
Hello. I finally get the striped marlin after 2 hours and around 6 min (I launched between 5 and 10 ads when “playing”).
I tried maybe 30+ (maybe more…) times with 30-40min playing and I decided to let the game opened a longer time. I tried around 5 times playing 1 hour (or more this time :D)
Thank you for your guides 😉
Congrats on getting the Marlin!
Always happy to help!
Say, did you have the Blue Table Coral unlocked when you got the Marlins?
Yes 😉 I’m at CU vitality