The One Fish Ability Fish Guide: Confirmed Effects in EA

Most of the danger in The One Fish comes from ability fish — catches that do something to you or your crew instead of quietly adding to the quota. The store page names only two — the harmless clownfish and the explosive bomb fish — and launch-week crews documented the rest on camera: an anglerfish that eats other fish in the net, a pink fish that turns your screen upside down, a shark that drags players into the sea, dancing and music fish, spiny and skeleton fish that hurt whoever holds them, and heavy fish that pull you toward the water. There is no official complete catalog of ability fish yet — the game entered Steam Early Access on August 12, 2026 without one — so this page lists only effects verified in official material or player footage. How to reel in and deposit catches is covered in how-to-play.

Version note: fish names, effects and bug reports on this page were verified on August 14, 2026 against the Early Access launch build; check the Steam announcements hub for anything newer.

How Abilities Work in Early Access

Ability fish in The One Fish are catch effects, not upgrades. Official store copy says some fish “possess unique abilities that can affect you or all your friends”, and that is exactly how they behave: an ability fish acts the moment it is reeled in, held or dropped, sometimes on one player and sometimes on a whole lobby of up to six. Rarity does not equal danger: crews read the fish, not the sparkle. The official text also promises abilities that “can come in handy”, but no helpful ability fish has been documented by name yet — launch footage mostly captured the painful half, and the helpful ones are not yet confirmed. For the full species list, see fish-list.

Explosive Fish

The bomb fish is the only ability fish named on the official Steam store page, whose pull range runs “from a harmless clownfish to an explosive bomb fish” — official material, so treat it as the headline hazard. In practice it is a crew killer: as shown in the 3-player Portuguese launch stream, one player reeled in a bomb fish and the explosion wiped the whole team, leaving one survivor. The blast hits everyone near the catch, not just the holder. Every bomb fish is an instant callout: whoever sees it first names it.

Dizzying and Trapping Fish

The pink-dreams fish (the crews also write it as the colorful-dreams fish) is the game’s confusion effect, caught in both streams. In the 3-player Portuguese stream it inverts your view and leaves the player effectively drunk, with the player shouting “I’m upside down” on camera. In the 4-player Turkish stream the same catch traps you: one player reported it “locked me in and put me in that thing”, and it can also throw players into the sea. If it latches onto you, drop it and let a crewmate whose screen still points the right way finish the job.

Aggressive Fish

Three aggressive catches were pulled in launch week: the anglerfish, the shark, and a tornado shark the Portuguese crew called “Shark Nido”. The anglerfish has one specific rule: in the 4-player Turkish launch stream the crew warns on camera “Don’t throw him into that net. It attacks other fish” — put an anglerfish in the deposit net and it attacks and eats the fish you already stored. The shark attacks players directly and can drag them into the sea to drown; the tornado shark slots into the same aggressive column, though the exact difference between the two is not yet confirmed. The call for all three: drop it and back away — and the anglerfish never goes into the deposit net.

Forced-Movement Fish

Two fish hijack your character instead of your health, both caught in the 4-player Turkish launch stream. The dancing fish forces whoever holds it to dance, and the music fish plays music — funny for three seconds, then a problem: a player locked into a dance cannot finish a deposit while the hunger timer runs. Neither effect has an official write-up yet, so treat both as hold-equals-effect: if your character starts dancing without you, it is a fish, not a buff — drop it and let someone unaffected move it.

Damaging Fish

Two catches hurt whoever holds them, both from the 4-player Turkish launch stream. The spiny fish lives up to its name: carrying it stings and damages the handler. The skeleton is creepier — it attacks while it is in your hands. Neither hits the whole lobby like the bomb fish; the damage is personal. It is still a crew problem: a player who dies holding a fish drops it, and the held fish no longer counts toward the quota (3-player Portuguese stream). For these two the rule is throw, don’t carry.

The Weight Trap

Not every ability announces itself. The weight system is passive: heavy fish slow you down and drag you toward the water (3-player Portuguese launch stream), and the crew’s answer is to drop heavy catches on the ship floor and only move them from above. A heavy catch combined with anything else — a pink-dreams fish, a wave, a shark — compounds badly. If your character starts sliding toward the rail with a fish in hand, that is the weight trap: drop the fish before the fish drops you.

Launch-Week Bugs

The launch build shipped ability-fish problems worth knowing before you blame your crew. A launch-week Steam review calls out collision physics that “need a lot of work especially with the magnet fish”, adding that the magnet fish “doesn’t seem to work as if it were playtested at all”, and the same review reports “a few bugs where the camera will get locked in place”. Reviews are still Very Positive overall (56 of 70 when checked), but the bugs are real. re:try is patching quickly — one reviewer notes the developer “actually listens to the problems faced by the players” — so check the Steam announcements hub before treating any launch-day bug list as final. The “rez rez fish” also lives here for now: a reviewer assumes it revives teammates, but that is not yet confirmed.

Crew Rules for Ability Fish

The launch crews converged on the same discipline, and it is simple enough to copy on day one:

Call it before it clears the water. A late call on a bomb fish is how runs end.
Bomb fish never goes near the net. Deposit distance beats deposit speed, and explosive pulls stay away from the group.
No anglerfish in the net. “Don’t throw him into that net. It attacks other fish” (4-player Turkish stream) protects the stored catch.
Heavy, spiny and skeleton fish move by throw, not by walk — the Portuguese crew drops heavy catches on the ship floor.
If the call comes late, drop first and argue later. One disoriented player is recoverable; a wiped crew is not.

Quota, the deposit net and co-op roles are covered in how-to-feed-the-one-fish and co-op-guide.

Sources

Verified August 14, 2026.

Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4883580/ (official — features, price, clownfish and bomb fish examples)
Steam announcements hub: https://steamcommunity.com/games/4883580/announcements (official — patch notes)
Official press kit: https://impress.games/press-kit/retry/the-one-fish (official)
Official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@theonefishgame (official — trailers)
Launch-week community streams (player reports): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B73S_X4CY3o (3-player Portuguese), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOJLK4WWceY (4-player Turkish)
Steam reviews (player reports): https://steamcommunity.com/app/4883580/reviews/

Fan-made guide. This site is not affiliated with re:try, Steam, or Valve; all game content and media belong to their respective owners. Factual details were last checked on August 14, 2026.