My Beautiful Aquarium is a fish collector for your desktop. The fish are real species with real lifespans, and each one is an individual: its own colours, its own personality, its own level of trust in you. You can sit and play with them, or leave the tank in a small window and let it get on with its day while you get on with yours.

Two ways to play

Each tank has its own mode, so you can keep a relaxed display tank next to a serious breeding project.

Cozy. Nothing dies. Ever.

No sickness, no dirty water, and any fish get along. Coins tick in while the tank runs, so there's always another fish to buy. Good for kids, second monitors, and long afternoons.

Challenge. Proper fishkeeping.

The water needs keeping clean, and every species has a water type it can actually live in. Get it wrong and fish suffer. Pair up males and females, keep the fry away from hungry tankmates, sell the brood, buy the next species.

Name them

Name a fish and see how long you stay detached. Each one hatches with its own colours and temperament, and trust builds slowly: a new arrival bolts if you tap the glass, but a fish that's known you for weeks will drift over and wait while you find the food. In Challenge mode a neglected fish can sicken and die. Nobody mourns "a neon tetra". You'll mourn Noodle.

The biology is real

Species behave like their real counterparts. A neon tetra lives about five years and lays eggs in clutches; a platy gives birth to live fry. Fish grow from fry to elder on a real clock, and the ages you see are real figures, not game numbers. No two fish look quite the same.

Happy to be ignored

This is also a game you can just leave on. The fish carry on living, coins trickle in, and it looks good enough to be a screensaver. Come back the next day and see what you missed.

• Cozy and Challenge modes, picked per tank

• Real species with real lifespans, maturity and breeding

• Name your fish. Each one has its own colours, personality and trust in you

• Breeding: pair males and females, keep the fry safe, sell the brood

• Challenge adds water types, cleanliness, filters, heaters and cleaner crews

• Keeps living (and earning) while you're away