Shoal is coming soon to the Mac App Store.

Where is the app?

Look for the fish icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen. Shoal has no Dock icon; the aquarium sits behind your desktop icons on every display. If Shoal is already running, opening it again from Launchpad or Finder brings up Settings.

How do I open Settings?

Click the fish icon and choose Settings…, or press ⌘, while a Shoal window is in front. The tabs are General, Scene, Fish, Sound and About.

To see the first-launch guide again, go to Settings › General › Show Welcome….

How do I feed the fish?

Choose Feed from the fish menu. A pinch of pellets drops into every running tank. With Living Tank on (Shoal Pro), you can also feed from Settings › Fish and see how the fish are doing in the menu.

Feeding is available only while the aquarium is moving. If Feed is greyed out, check the first line of the menu to see why it’s stopped.

How do I pause the aquarium?

Choose Pause from the fish menu, then Resume when you’re ready. You can also use Pause the Aquarium in Settings › General. Shoal remembers your choice.

Why does the aquarium slow down or stop?

Shoal limits animation to 30 frames per second on battery and 20 when windows cover most of the desktop. It stops when the desktop is almost fully covered, the screen is locked or asleep, or Low Power Mode is on. Uncovering the desktop lets it run again, unless another pause setting applies.

More displays and higher resolutions ask more of your Mac. If the animation feels slow, Balanced quality is the less demanding option. Shoal Pro also lets you set a 30-frame-per-second limit in Settings › General. In Settings › Scene, you can adjust background plant density from 30% to 100%.

How does Open at Login work?

Turn on Open at Login in Settings › General, or Open Shoal at Login in the Welcome window. It’s off by default.

If macOS needs your approval, Shoal says so below the toggle. Click Open Login Items Settings… and allow Shoal in System Settings.

What do Save Still Image… and Set as Desktop Picture do?

Both are in the fish menu and the Welcome window. They become available once the aquarium has drawn its first image.

Save Still Image… saves a PNG wherever you choose. If you’re using several displays, choose one from the Display menu in the save window.

Set as Desktop Picture saves a still for each display and asks macOS to use it as the wallpaper. You’ll see that picture whenever Shoal isn’t running. macOS may apply it only to the current Space on each display; other Spaces keep their existing wallpaper.

What is Shoal Pro, and how do I restore a purchase?

Shoal Pro is a one-time purchase. It adds up to 48 fish, Reference quality, a frame-rate limit, adjustable plant density, lighting choices, water sounds and Living Tank. The free aquarium includes 24 fish, Balanced quality, day lighting, feeding and pausing.

Choose Shoal Pro… from the menu or Settings to see the price and purchase options. If you’ve already bought Pro, choose Restore Purchases while signed into the same App Store account. Apple may ask you to sign in. Shoal then confirms whether it found your purchase. You can check your Pro status in Settings › About.

If you see “Price unavailable”, try again when the App Store is reachable. An Ask to Buy purchase stays pending until it’s approved.

You can choose Pro settings before buying. Shoal saves those choices and applies them when Pro unlocks. Until then, each locked control shows what’s selected and what’s actually in use. Use Free Setting resets it to the free option.

What does Follow Reduce Motion do?

By default, Shoal follows your Mac’s Reduce Motion setting. When Reduce Motion is on, the aquarium stays still.

Choosing Pause or Resume yourself turns Follow Reduce Motion off and saves your choice. Turn it back on in Settings › General to follow the system setting again.

How do the lighting choices work?

In Shoal Pro, choose dawn, day, dusk or night in Settings › Scene. Follow the Clock changes the lighting with your local time: dawn from 5–8 a.m., day from 8 a.m.–5 p.m., dusk from 5–8 p.m. and night from 8 p.m.–5 a.m. Changes fade in over two seconds.

How does the living tank work?

Turn on Living Tank in Settings › Fish (Shoal Pro). Fish go from well fed to hungry in about eight hours of active aquarium time. Their hunger doesn’t increase while the tank is paused or resting behind your windows.

Feed from the menu or the Fish tab. One pinch takes a fully hungry school to peckish; a second takes it to well fed. Fish grow a little on each day you feed them, up to a size limit.

The Fish tab shows feeding history, your feeding streak and growth. You can name each fish using up to 24 characters and check its hunger and size. Click Show to tint that fish gold on every display for a few seconds, so you can find it in the school.

Can Shoal remind me to feed the fish?

With Living Tank on in Shoal Pro, turn on Feeding Reminder in Settings › Fish and choose every 6, 12 or 24 hours. Shoal asks for notification permission the first time. Feeding the fish starts the countdown again; reminders also repeat at your chosen interval if you haven’t fed them.

If notifications are blocked, the Fish tab tells you. Click Open System Settings › Notifications to allow them. Clicking a reminder opens Settings. You can turn reminders off at any time.

The aquarium does not appear. What now?

First, look for the fish icon in the menu bar. If it’s missing, open Shoal from Launchpad or the Applications folder. A still picture can remain on the desktop after the app closes.

If Shoal is running, check the first line of the fish menu:

Menu message What to do
Loading the aquarium Give it a moment.
Paused or Paused, for Reduce Motion Choose Resume, or turn off Follow Reduce Motion in Settings › General.
Still, for Low Power Mode Turn off Low Power Mode in System Settings › Battery.
Resting behind your windows Uncover the desktop or leave the full-screen app.
The aquarium failed to load or The aquarium is not drawing Choose Reload the Aquarium from the menu.

If it still won’t appear, note your macOS version and the menu message. Those details help with troubleshooting.

Contact

A support contact will be added here before Shoal launches. For details about how the app handles data, read the privacy policy.