Home » Play Games » Doodle Tank
Press Draw a Fish to make your first fish.
Draw with your finger or mouse. Every colour and shape makes a different species — there are 48 to find
A draw a fish game you can play right here, free. This is Doodle Tank, an original GameOLL drawing game with a living twist: whatever fish you doodle becomes a real fish in your own aquarium. Draw it round, draw it long, cover it in stripes — the game reads your colours and your shapes, names the species, and sends your drawing swimming. There are 48 species hiding in your pencil strokes, a fresh drawing prompt every day, and a tank that keeps growing while you are away. No download. No sign-up. It works on your phone and your PC.
Genre
Drawing · Aquarium · Collecting
Players
1 Player
Platform
Browser · Mobile · PC
Price
Free
In this guide
- How to play
- How the species system works
- The daily prompt
- Feeding and growth stages
- Coins, visitors and decorations
- 7 tips for a great tank
- Draw a fish game FAQ
- Final verdict
How to play Doodle Tank
The idea is simple and it never gets old: you draw a fish, and the fish is yours. Not a stock fish, not a fish the game picked for you — your actual drawing, with your wobbly tail and your favourite colours, swimming in a tank that belongs to you. The better you draw, the more species you find.
- Press Draw a Fish. A pale drawing pad opens with a palette of 12 colours, three brush sizes and an eraser. Pick a colour and doodle a fish — finger on a phone, mouse on a PC.
- Fill your fish in. A solid, filled shape reads clearly. A plump filled circle becomes a round fish, a long filled ribbon becomes a long fish, and two strong colours become stripes. Thin outline drawings get frilly fins instead. Every choice changes the species.
- Press Release into Tank. The game studies your drawing for a split second — main colour, shape, traits — then names the species and drops your fish into the water, where it swims off on its own. You earn coins for every release, with bonuses for new species and for matching the daily prompt.
- Tap any fish to select it. Feed it a pellet and it grows, from Fry to Young to Adult. Grown fish are worth more coins if you ever rehome them, and a full tank of 30 fish earns visitor coins fastest.
- Open the Journal and the Shop. The Discovery Journal shows all 48 species as a grid of colours and shapes, with the ones you still miss marked as question marks. The Shop sells decorations — seaweed, a coral arch, a bubble wand, a treasure chest and a sand castle — plus extra food pellets.
- Come back tomorrow. A new daily prompt arrives every day, you get 5 free food pellets every day, and while you were away your visitors leave coins by the tank. Your fish, coins and journal save in your browser automatically.
Controls for phone and PC
| Action | Phone / tablet | PC / laptop |
|---|---|---|
| Draw | Drag your finger on the pad | Hold the mouse button and drag |
| Change colour or brush | Tap a swatch or a size button | Click a swatch or a size button |
| Erase | Tap the sponge, then draw over a mistake | Click the sponge, then draw over a mistake |
| Undo a stroke | Tap Undo | Click Undo |
| Select a fish | Tap the fish in the tank | Click the fish in the tank |
| Feed or rehome | Tap Feed or Rehome under the tank | Click Feed or Rehome under the tank |
| Open the menu | Tap a fish, or use Journal and Shop | Press Esc, or use Journal and Shop |
How the species system works
Your drawing is the species. When you release a fish, Doodle Tank measures three things. First, your main colour — the colour that covers most of the fish. Second, your shape — worked out from the outline you drew. Third, your traits — stripes, frills or speckles, spotted from how you used colour and line. Colour and shape together pick one of the 48 journal species, and a trait adds a word in front of the name.
| Shape | How to draw it | Species name ends with |
|---|---|---|
| Round | Short and plump, nicely filled in | Bubblebelly |
| Long | At least twice as long as it is tall | Ribbonfish |
| Tall | Much taller than it is wide, like a sail | Sailfin |
| Classic | Any other honest fish shape | Comettail |
Traits are the garnish. Use two or more strong colours and your fish is Banded. Draw with thin lines and spiky edges — an outline fish, a star-shaped fish, a fish with wild fins — and it is Frilled. Add a second colour in small dabs, under a sixth of the body, and it is Speckled. A clean single-colour fish needs no extra word at all. Traits do not change the journal entry — the journal tracks colour and shape — but they make every fish one of a kind, and two of the daily prompts ask for traits by name.
The journal is the real game. Twelve colours times four shapes makes 48 species, from a Ruby Comettail to a Pearl Sailfin. Some come free with your first doodles. Others take aim: a Shadow Bubblebelly means drawing a plump fish in near-black, and a Mint Ribbonfish means a long, pale green ribbon that stays filled. The journal grid shows every gap, so you always know which fish to draw next.
The daily prompt
One prompt, every day, for everyone. The prompt bar above the tank tells you today’s challenge: draw a blue fish, draw a fish with stripes, draw a really big fish, draw a classic comet fish. Release a fish that matches and you earn a 30 coin bonus on top of everything else. The bonus pays once a day, the prompt changes at midnight, and the bar tells you when today’s bonus is already claimed.
Prompts are drawing lessons in disguise. A shape prompt teaches you to control your outline. A colour prompt sends you to a corner of the palette you never touch. A trait prompt — stripes, frills, speckles — makes you think about pattern instead of shape. Follow the prompts for a week and your journal fills faster than a week of random doodling, because the prompts walk you around the whole grid on purpose.
Feeding and growth stages
Every fish arrives as a Fry and grows with food. Tap a fish to select it — a gold ring marks it — then press Feed. One pellet is one feed. You receive 5 free pellets every day, and extra pellets cost 5 coins each in the Shop. Growth is permanent, and bigger fish swim bigger: an Adult is nearly twice the size of the Fry it started as.
| Stage | Feeds needed | Rehome value |
|---|---|---|
| Fry | 0 or 1 feeds | 5 coins |
| Young | 2 to 4 feeds | 12 coins |
| Adult | 5 or more feeds | 25 coins |
Rehoming is how a full tank stays fresh. The tank holds 30 fish. When it fills up — and it will — rehome a grown fish for its full value and free a space for a species you still miss. Growing common fish into Adults and rehoming them is a steady coin engine: a Fry you drew for free becomes 25 coins in five feeds, and the daily free pellets mean the engine costs you nothing but a little patience.
Coins, visitors and decorations
| Action | Coins |
|---|---|
| Release any fish | +10 |
| Release a species you have never found | +25 extra |
| Match the daily prompt (once a day) | +30 extra |
| Visitors while you are away | 1 per fish, per full 10 minutes |
| Rehome a Fry / Young / Adult | +5 / +12 / +25 |
Visitor coins are honest coins. While you are away, your tank earns 1 coin per fish for every full 10 minutes, capped at 48 coins per fish and 200 coins in total — and when you come back, the game tells you the exact number it added. A full tank of 30 Adult fish hits the cap in about 80 minutes, so popping in a few times a day beats leaving it for a week.
| Decoration | Cost | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Seaweed Patch | 40 coins | Soft green blades waving in the current |
| Coral Arch | 90 coins | A pink arch on the sand for fish to loop through |
| Bubble Wand | 120 coins | A steady stream of rising bubbles, and faster visitor bubbles |
| Treasure Chest | 150 coins | A sunken chest with a warm golden glow |
| Sand Castle | 250 coins | Two proud turrets. The tank landmark |
Decorations are forever. Buy one once and it stays in your tank for good, drawn into every visit. They are the natural goal for your first coins: a bare tank becomes a place, one purchase at a time, and your fish get a castle to circle while you work on the journal.
7 tips for a great tank
- Fill first, decorate later. A filled body reads as a clean shape. Scribble the outline, then colour it in with the big brush before you add eyes, stripes or fins.
- Chase the prompt before it chases you. Read today’s prompt before your first drawing of the day. One matching fish a day is 30 coins a day, every day, for one minute of aiming.
- Work the journal grid, not your habits. Your hand wants to draw the same orange fish forever. The gaps in the journal — the Pearl column, the Sailfin row — are where the discovery bonuses live.
- Two colours, big shares, means Banded. Stripes only count when the second colour covers a real share of the fish, about a sixth or more. One thin line will not do it; paint bold bands.
- Spend free pellets on future Adults. Five free pellets a day is exactly one Adult a day. Pick one Fry each morning, feed it to Adult, and rehome it when the tank gets crowded.
- Small drawings do not swim. A fish needs a minimum amount of paint before the game accepts it — the pad will tell you if yours is too small. Draw big: a big fish is easier to shape, easier to stripe, and better looking in the tank.
- Leave a full tank, not an empty one. Visitor coins scale with fish count. Before you close the tab, fill spare spaces with quick doodles — even common species pay rent while you sleep.
Draw a fish game FAQ
Is Doodle Tank free to play?
Yes. Doodle Tank is 100% free, with all 48 species, the daily prompt and the full shop included. You play it right on this page in your browser. There is no download, no sign-up and no payment.
How does the draw a fish game name my fish?
The game reads the drawing itself. It finds your main colour, measures the shape — round, long, tall or classic — and checks for traits like stripes, frills and speckles. Colour plus shape picks the species from the journal of 48, and a trait adds a word to its name, so a striped orange round fish becomes a Banded Sunny Bubblebelly.
What is the daily prompt?
Every day the game picks one prompt, like drawing a blue fish or a fish with stripes. Release a fish that matches it and you earn a 30 coin bonus on top of the normal rewards. The bonus can be claimed once a day, and the prompt changes at midnight.
How do coins and visitors work?
You earn 10 coins for every fish you release, 25 more when it is a species you have never found, and 30 more when it matches the daily prompt. While you are away, visitors leave 1 coin per fish for every full 10 minutes, up to 48 coins per fish and 200 coins in total. Coins buy decorations and extra food pellets.
How do I grow my fish?
Tap a fish in the tank to select it, then press Feed. Each pellet gives one feed. A fish is a Fry at first, becomes Young at 2 feeds and Adult at 5 feeds. Bigger fish are worth more if you rehome them: 5 coins for a Fry, 12 for a Young fish and 25 for an Adult. You get 5 free pellets every day.
Does Doodle Tank save my tank?
Yes, in your own browser. Your fish, their drawings, your coins, decorations, pellets and journal save the moment anything changes, and your fish keep swimming right where you left them. Nothing leaves your device, and there is no account to make.
Final verdict: should you play Doodle Tank?
Yes — if you have ever doodled a fish in a notebook margin. Most drawing games grade your art and throw it away. Doodle Tank keeps it, names it, and lets it live. The species system turns every doodle into a small experiment — what happens if it is longer, darker, striped? — and the journal of 48 gives those experiments a finish line that takes days, not minutes, to reach. Add a daily prompt that teaches you to draw on purpose, fish that grow when you feed them, and a tank that earns coins while you sleep, and you have the rare browser game that is calmer the longer you play it. Pick up the brush. Your first Bubblebelly is waiting.
▶ Play Doodle Tank 🎮 See All Free GamesLast updated: November 7, 2026. Doodle Tank v1.0 — the first release of our original draw a fish game, with 48 discoverable species, a daily drawing prompt, feeding and growth, five decorations and visitor coins. An original GameOLL browser game. Found a bug? Tell us in the comments and we will fix it in the next version.
