FishVille is the latest Facebook aquarium simulation game from social gaming wizards Zynga. The game play is similar to the Facebook hit game Fish World.

The basic game mechanics revolve around the typical social game formula. Buy fish eggs, grow fish, buy decorations and collect neighbors and help them out. As with other Zynga games, you can send free gifts to your friends as well as invites for future fish farmers to add the application and start playing the game.

All fish come with a time to level. This time also determines the time between feedings. The time between feedings is equal to twice that between levels. So for instance the Mini Dart Goby has a leveling time of 5 min. This means you have to feed the fish sometime in the next 10 minutes or it will die. After you feed it the timer will reset and you will have another 10 minutes. This cycle continues until the fish is an Adult. At that point 2 things happen first the fish will stop gaining XP and gold. The second is the feeding time jumps to 2 days or continues to be the same if it's longer than 2 days anyway.

Ribbons are a great source of money and XP for both you and your friends. Cleaning your tanks each day and visiting your friends and cleaning their tanks is probably the easiest ribbon to get. Each time you get a new level of ribbon you can share it and give your friends a little piece of the action.

Make sure to clean your tank. When you clean your own tank you get 5 coins plus 1 XP for each bunch of algae you remove.

Visit your friends often. Approximately twice a day you will be given a task. This task will give you some coins and XP. At level 25 one gets 46 coins and 27 XP.

You also get 5 coins for each bunch of algae you clean off your friends tanks. Make sure you check all their tanks as each tank will have its own algae.

Try to keep your fish to Adulthood as they will be worth the most XP at that point. All fish reach Adulthood at age 4. Also keeping some fish past that age will up your Give Love bonus.

Make sure you have fed and clean all your tanks be for clicking the Give Love bonus.

Faster growing fish ALWAYS give more money and XP per time. But they are also very hard to raise. In the case of the 5 minute Mini Dart Goby you have to feed it every 10 minutes or it dies. But the pay off is a whopping 5177 coins per day and 1728 XP. And that's if you simply grew one Mini Dart Goby and sold him over and over again when he reached level 4.

Additional strategies and cheats can be found over at the Fishville Cheats page.

Basic food in Fishville costs nothing and allows your fish to level.

Growth food adds a an additional point to age. This allows you to sell the fish earlier.

Caffeine food speeds your fish up and delay's their hunger. (More time between feedings.)

Treasure chest - Gives a chance everyday to win money, XP, or Fishville Cash.

Hibernator - Allows you to temporarily stop feeding your fish. This allows you to go on vacation. It costs Fishville cash to purchase.

Antiques - Special decorations that can be received as gifts from friends which increase in value over several days. After too many days the value of the various antiques start decreasing however.