Is there a free aquarium screensaver?
Aquarium in Screensavers by Zaweba is free: made-up fish swim among swaying plants and bubbles, with daylight, moonlight or lighting by time of day.
A free aquarium screensaver comes with Screensavers by Zaweba. Called simply Aquarium, it shows a calm tank of Zaweba's own made-up fish (pebble, ribbon and moon fish) among swaying plants and bubbles. You set the number of fish, the lighting and whether bubbles rise, and it's free software under the EULA with no adverts and no account.
Fish tank screensavers have been around for as long as screensavers themselves, and plenty of the free ones online come wrapped in installers you'd rather not run. This one is part of a pack that installs into your own profile, runs offline and is drawn entirely in code.
Made-up fish, on purpose
The fish aren't real species. Pebble fish, ribbon fish and moon fish are Zaweba's own inventions, drawn by the screensaver's code rather than copied from photographs or someone else's artwork. That keeps everything original, and it means the tank never pretends to be a nature film. It's meant to be watched out of the corner of your eye.
Lighting and how many fish
Number of fish runs from 3 to 30. Three makes a sparse, peaceful tank where you notice each fish; thirty makes a lively one, closer to a busy pet shop display. Lighting has three choices. Follow the time of day changes the tank between day and night with the clock, so it's bright at lunchtime and dim in the evening. Always day keeps it bright. Always night gives a moonlit tank, which is lovely on a screen in a dark room.
Bubbles can be on or off. On, they add a little constant movement; off, the scene is stiller.
Lighting by time of day is a nice touch on a screen in a hallway or kitchen, because the tank quietly matches the room. In the evening it dims, and nobody has to remember to change anything.
Gentle on the computer
Aquarium is drawn at 75 per cent resolution and stretched to fill the screen, which keeps the work for the processor low. You don't see the difference on a soft, watery scene like this, but your fan will thank you. For laptops there's also a frame cap of 30 or 60 frames a second and a battery saver that blanks the screen below a chosen charge, 25 per cent unless you change it.
Getting it on your screen
Open Screensavers by Zaweba, select Aquarium and adjust the settings while the live preview plays beside them. Press Preview full screen to see the tank at full size; any key, click or a deliberate mouse movement closes it. Then press Use this screensaver. It's built into your Windows profile with no administrator rights, and Windows' Screen Saver Settings opens so you can choose it and set the wait time.
If you want the tank on a second monitor only, the several monitors setting lets you keep the main monitor black, run one on each screen or stretch one across them all.
Where it fits
Aquarium sits in the classic pack alongside Starfield warp, Lava lamp, Rain on glass and others. If you like calm scenes, try it in a random rotation with Lava lamp and Aurora using Install several, which gives you one screensaver that picks a different one each time. Change any of their settings whenever you like; they're read fresh every time the screensaver starts.
