Aquarium Screensaver_
Who lives in the tank
Keyboard & mouse
Guide — a living fish tank on any screen
Tropical, Coral reef, a Planted freshwater tank, Goldfish, Deep blue open water or Night with glowing jellyfish. Keys 1–6 switch.
Click or tap the water: food flakes drift down and the fish race to eat them. Leftovers sink to the sand.
Set the number of fish, their speed and size, the bubbles, and turn species, plants, light rays and floating particles on or off.
Press Enter fullscreen, double-click the tank or press F. The screen stays awake, so it works as a screensaver or ambient TV display.
Turn on the soft water sound with bubble pops, or show a large clock in the corner for a waiting room or desk.
The six tanks
- 🐠 Tropical
- Clownfish, blue tangs and yellow tangs over white sand
- 🪸 Reef
- More coral, more fish, and seahorses that hang around the plants
- 🌿 Planted
- A school of neon tetras, angelfish, guppies and a betta between dense plants
- 🟠 Goldfish
- A few calm fancy goldfish with flowing double tails
- 🌊 Deep blue
- A shimmering school of sardines and drifting moon jellyfish
- 🌙 Night
- A dark tank where jellyfish glow softly: good for a bedroom or a late screen
Each fish picks its own destinations, speeds up and slows down, turns around smoothly and wags its tail faster when it swims faster. Tetras and sardines follow their school, seahorses bob near the plants and jellyfish move by pulsing their bell.
A free aquarium screensaver and virtual fish tank in your browser
This aquarium screensaver turns any screen into a calm virtual fish tank. Fish swim at different depths, bubbles rise from an air stone, plants sway, light shimmers on the surface and on the sand, and rays of light fall through the water. It is a modern version of the desktop aquarium screensavers that were popular on Windows and Mac computers in the late 1990s and 2000s, built with HTML5 Canvas so it runs in any current browser without a download.
Use it as a screensaver or an ambient screen on your TV
Open the page, choose a tank and press Enter fullscreen. On a computer it fills the monitor; on a smart TV, open it in the TV's browser, or cast or connect a laptop. In fullscreen the page asks the browser to keep the screen awake, so the tank keeps swimming instead of the display going dark. Move the mouse to show the exit button, or press Esc. To make it start automatically when your computer is idle you would need a separate screensaver program that can show a web page; this page itself is meant to be opened when you want it.
Feeding the fish
Click or tap anywhere in the water to drop a pinch of food. The flakes drift down with the current and every nearby fish turns towards the closest flake; when a fish reaches one, it eats it. Food that nobody catches settles on the sand and disappears after a while. Seahorses and jellyfish ignore the flakes, as they would in a real tank.
Meet the fish
- Clownfish live among sea anemones; a layer of mucus protects them from the stinging tentacles.
- Blue tangs are surgeonfish, named after the sharp spine on each side of the tail.
- Neon tetras come from the streams of the Amazon basin and feel safest in a school.
- Freshwater angelfish are cichlids from South America, not relatives of the marine angelfish on coral reefs.
- Bettas can breathe air from the surface with a special labyrinth organ.
- Goldfish were domesticated in China more than a thousand years ago.
- In seahorses the male carries the eggs and gives birth, and moon jellyfish have no brain, heart or bones.
The tanks keep saltwater and freshwater species apart, as a real aquarist would: clownfish and tangs never share water with tetras or goldfish here.
Why watching fish is relaxing
Slow, unpredictable movement in a blue-green scene is easy on the eyes and holds attention without demanding it. Studies of public aquariums, such as a study at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth with researchers from the universities of Exeter and Plymouth, found that people watching fish tanks showed lower heart rates and reported better moods, and that effect was stronger with more fish. A virtual tank is not the same as a real one, but it gives a similar calm background for a desk, a reception or a waiting room, without the cleaning.
Works everywhere, privately
The aquarium runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad and Android in any modern browser. Everything is drawn on your device: nothing is uploaded, there is no account, no ads and no watermark. Your last tank is remembered in your browser, and Copy link to this tank shares your exact setup.
More screensavers
For other calm screens try the fireplace screensaver, the bubbles screensaver or the analog clock, or browse all screensavers.