Tankbar
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Play free demo
Play the free demo

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A tiny living aquarium for your taskbar.

Hatch and breed fish painted live from their own genes. No two are ever alike.

Play the free demo

Runs in your browser. Nothing to install.

Steam page coming soonPlanned for 12 November 2026

Trailer

See it in motion.

Real gameplay, captured from the game itself. Turn the sound on for the radio.

Captured from the game itself. The music is the game’s own Lo-fi Reef radio.

Every fish is one of a kind

No sprite sheets. No two alike.

Every fish is painted live by code from its genes: 47 species, 36 patterns and 8 rare traits, with colors that blend from both parents. Each one even has a float that sets its luster, from Rustic to Flawless.

  • 47 species with their own body plans, from koi and puffers to axolotls, sea dragons and manta rays
  • 37 hand-designed named layouts to hunt for
  • Parents, children and generation tracked for every fish you breed
See every fish and every odd
A hatch reveal card announcing a new species, a shiny ombre royal tang, with its rarity, pattern and traits.
The Fish panel listing a collection of fish cards with names, species and patterns over a night tank.

Fair and transparent

Every odd is shown before you commit.

Eggs show their species and trait odds. Breeding pairs show every possible pattern, the trait chances and the rarity range. You decide with the numbers in front of you.

  • Breeding never uses up the parents. They just rest for 10 minutes.
  • Favorite-lock a fish and it can’t be released or gifted by accident.
  • Letting a fish go to the reef always asks you to confirm first.
  • An unlimited Reserve Pond keeps every fish you have ever loved.
The Nursery showing two parent fish and the exact offspring odds for patterns and traits before you confirm.
The Nursery, with the offspring odds on show.

The full game

One purchase. No tricks.

Tankbar is a one-time purchase for Windows on Steam. An optional cosmetic Supporter Pack is planned for launch day, if you would like to say thanks.

One-time purchase The price will show here when the Steam page goes live.

Want to say thanks?

The Supporter Pack is optional, cosmetic DLC, planned for launch day. Everything in the game is in the game. This pack is a thank-you, and it gives no gameplay advantage. A discounted game-plus-pack bundle is planned too.

What you won’t find

  • Ads
  • Microtransactions
  • Loot boxes
  • Premium currency
  • Energy timers

What’s included

  • The whole game: all 10 biomes and 47 species
  • 55 decorations, 70 achievements on Steam and the Dex
  • Focus Tide, a gentle focus timer, and all 3 radio stations
  • Every odd shown up front
  • Works fully offline
  • The Level Road: a free road of rewards, all 150 levels in view from day one (rewards up to level 60 at launch, the rest in free updates)
  • Every planned update is free for everyone who owns Tankbar

Alive at a glance

Something is always happening down there.

Click the water and the fish race for the food. Rest your cursor on a fish to pet it and hearts pop up. Pet a puffer and it puffs up into a delighted balloon. Curious fish follow your cursor.

The tank follows your real clock, from dawn through dusk to night, with weather that fits each biome. When the lights go down, bioluminescent fish, lanterns and crystals start to glow.

Cozy, never punishing: your fish can’t die.

Feeding and petting
Day turns to night

On your desktop

It lives on your taskbar.

Tankbar sits on or just above your Windows taskbar. Glance down and something lovely is always happening: a puffer puffing, a curious fish following your cursor, a pearl bubble drifting up.

The Tankbar aquarium docked along the bottom of a simulated desktop, above the taskbar, with two generic app windows behind it.
The browser demo shows a simulated taskbar strip (Desktop preview). The Windows app docks to your real one.

  • Dock it your way

    On the taskbar, above it, along the top edge, or floating anywhere. Set the height, width and opacity to suit your screen.

  • Ghost mode

    Make the whole tank click-through so it never gets in the way. Toggle it with Ctrl+Alt+G.

  • You set the frame rate

    Choose 15/30/60 fps. It runs at 30 by default and pauses when it is hidden.

Respects your desktop

Quiet by design.

Tankbar is built to sit in the corner of your screen and stay out of your way.

  • Works fully offline. The optional online mode, the Harbor, only starts when you sign in with Steam.
  • Pauses when it is hidden, when your PC is locked and when it goes to sleep.
  • A low-detail mode, which it switches to on its own when things run slowly.
  • Saves on your PC every 15 seconds, with automatic backups.
  • No analytics or telemetry.
A night-time Nebula Reef tank docked above a desktop taskbar, with an aurora, glowing crystals, paper lanterns, jellyfish, a whale shark and galaxy-patterned fish.
A night tank docked above the taskbar.

Explore

10 biomes, day and night.

Unlock new tanks as you level up. Each biome has its own species, decorations and mood.

  • A shallow tank in the rain, with raindrops rippling the water surface above seagrass and fish.
    Sunlit Shallows 6 species In the free demo
  • A sunny coral reef tank full of colorful fish, pink coral, an anemone, a stone arch and a treasure chest.
    Coral Garden 7 species In the free demo
  • A green kelp forest tank with tall swaying kelp, a sunken ship, a diver figure and cold-water fish.
    Kelp Forest 5 species In the free demo
  • A calm Japanese-style pond tank with koi, a red torii gate, a cherry bonsai, a stone lantern and drifting petals.
    Zen Pond 5 species
  • A dark deep-sea tank at night with glowing jellyfish, luminous mushrooms, crystals, a mushroom house and a lighthouse.
    Midnight Abyss 4 species
  • A sunken ruins tank with stone columns, clay amphorae, a mossy arch, a treasure chest, a sea turtle and a manta ray.
    Sunken Ruins 4 species
  • A starry night tank with an aurora, floating crystal islands, a small rocket, paper lanterns and galaxy-patterned fish.
    Nebula Reef 3 species

  • And more

    Plus Blackwater River, Glacier Lagoon, and Ember Vents, each with its own fish.

    See every fish and every odd

Optional online mode

Play together, if you like.

The Harbor is optional and arrives with 1.0. You sign in with the Steam account that owns Tankbar, and your tank never needs it.

  • Gifts

    You can send a fish or a daily pearl pouch, with a preset phrase if you like. A gift arrives as a box on the sand, and the fish card remembers it: “A gift from Mika · 3 Dec”. Your fish remember who gave them to you.

  • Tank visits

    Drop in on a friend’s tank and see who lives there.

  • Fish Shows

    Enter a show and see how your fish stacks up. Prize shows are for sealed fish: eggs you buy while signed in to the Harbor are sealed automatically.

  • The Tide

    A weekly community Tide that everyone fills together, plus the Finest boards, a showcase of sealed fish ranked by float. Nothing on them is for sale.

No player market: fish are for keeping and giving. Nothing to sell, nothing to farm. Just gifts between friends. No public chat at 1.0, and online social features are for ages 13 and up.

More about the Harbor

What’s coming

The tank keeps growing.

A public, dated plan for what comes after launch. Planned; dates may shift.

Next after launch: winter gifting in early December, then 1.1 Shoals in mid-January. Every update listed here is free for everyone who owns Tankbar.

  • 1.1 “Shoals”, mid-January 2027

    Start a Shoal with friends: ranks, a message of the day and your own chat. Fill a co-op Tide together, swap duplicates (no prices), and send a fish on a sleepover if there’s room. Planned for Steam’s Desktop Companion Fest (14–18 Jan), along with Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

  • Flare Duels

    Async fish battles, 1v1 to 3v3, planned by late March 2027.

  • New biomes

    The Sunwell Cenote, Sargasso Drift, Ama Cove and the Cloudsea are all planned.

  • The Level Road to 150

    All 150 levels in view from day one. Rewards up to level 60 at launch, with the rest arriving in free updates.

See the full roadmap

Free demo

Try it right now. It’s free, and it’s in your browser.

Nothing to install and no account. Any modern desktop browser will do.

Play the free demo

The demo shows a simulated taskbar strip. Docking to your real taskbar is part of the Windows app. The full game adds 7 more biomes and 29 more species. You can export and import this demo’s save as a file, for backups or for moving to another browser. That file is a backup, not a carry-over path.

  • 3biomes
  • 18species
  • Lv 6soft level cap
  • No limiton play time

Want to bring your tank along? A free Steam demo is planned before launch. It is designed to carry your tank, your fish and a First Tide lantern into the full game through Steam Cloud.

Radio

Three procedural radio stations.

The music is composed live on your PC while you play, not played back from recordings. Press play for a 30-second taste.

  • Lo-fi Reef

    Warm keys, dusty drums and a sleepy bassline.

    30 s preview

  • Deep Calm

    Slow pads and soft bells for deep focus.

    30 s preview

  • Rainy Glass

    Gentle keys and rain against the glass.

    30 s preview

Quick answers

Good questions.

Is it free?

The demo is free and runs in your browser. The full game is a one-time purchase with no ads, no microtransactions and no loot boxes. An optional cosmetic Supporter Pack is planned for launch day, if you would like to say thanks. Read the full FAQ

Will it slow down my PC?

It runs at 30 fps by default, and you can choose 15/30/60 fps. It pauses when it is hidden, when your PC is locked and when it sleeps, and there is a low-detail mode. Read the full FAQ

Does it need the internet?

No. The tank works fully offline. The only online part is the Harbor, an optional mode that you sign in to with Steam. Read the full FAQ

Can I lose my fish?

Your fish can’t die. Breeding never uses up the parents, letting a fish go always asks you to confirm, and favorite-lock stops a fish from being released or gifted by accident. Read the full FAQ

Does my demo save carry over?

That is the plan for the Steam demo. A free Steam demo is planned before launch, and it is designed to carry your tank into the full game through Steam Cloud. The web demo on this site can export and import its save as a file, but that file is a backup, not a carry-over path. Read the full FAQ

Read the full FAQ

Your desk, but with fish.

Play the free demo right in your browser.

Play the free demo

Nothing to install. No account.

  • Planned for 12 November 2026
  • No ads
  • No microtransactions
  • Works offline in the app