Support

Answers to common questions, in the app's own words. Anything else: email support@shoalwallpaper.com with your macOS version and what the first line of the fish menu says. Shoal is made and sold by Kamino Holdings, LLC.

Where is the app?

Look for the fish icon in the menu bar at the top right of your screen. Shoal has no Dock icon; the aquarium sits behind your desktop icons on every display, unless you turn it off for a display in Settings › General › Displays. Opening Shoal again while it runs (from the Applications folder or with Spotlight) brings up its Settings window.

The first time you open Shoal, a short Welcome window appears. Show Me the Aquarium hides the apps covering the tank, drops a pinch of food so the fish come to it (a paused tank shows still water instead) and points to the fish in the menu bar; Done closes the window.

How do I open Settings?

Click the fish icon and choose Settings…. While a Shoal window is in front, ⌘, opens it too. Settings has five tabs: General, Scene, Fish, Sound and About. To see the first-launch Welcome window again, choose Show Welcome… in Settings › General.

How do I feed the fish?

Choose Feed from the fish menu. A pinch of pellets drops into every running tank and the fish race for it. If your windows cover the tank, Shoal first hides the apps whose windows are over the aquarium (the first few times, the line under Feed says so: “Hides your open apps first”), then drops the pinch once the water is in view. They're hidden only while you look: switch to one of your apps and they come back. If the tank still can't be seen after a few seconds (behind a full-screen app, for example), those apps come back and Feed says “The aquarium is still covered”. When feeding can't work, the line under Feed says why and what to do, for example “Resume the aquarium to feed”, “Unavailable in Low Power Mode” or “Unavailable while the screen is off”.

If a pinch doesn't land, Shoal says so right away next to the fish icon (“The tank is full of food” or “Feeding did not reach the aquarium”), and the line under Feed repeats it until you've seen it. Settings › Fish has a Feed button too, and every day you feed the fish helps the tank mature.

How do I see the aquarium behind my windows?

Choose Show Desktop from the fish menu. Shoal hides the apps whose windows are over the aquarium, the way the Hide Others command does, so the aquarium shows; an app's windows hide together. The item then reads Show Windows, and the apps stay hidden until you choose it to bring them back; quitting Shoal brings them back too. (Feed, a clip and a visitor's line hide the same apps only while you look.) The Mac's own Show Desktop (F11) puts your windows back as soon as you click the menu bar, which is why Shoal has its own.

How do I pause the aquarium?

Choose Pause from the fish menu, then For 1 Hour, Until Tomorrow (7:00 the next morning) or Until I Resume. While it's paused, the item reads Resume and the fish icon is dimmed; during a timed pause the menu's first line says until when; otherwise it reads “Paused” (“Paused for Reduce Motion” while your Mac's Reduce Motion is on). A timed pause ends by itself, even if your Mac slept or Shoal was quit in the meantime. Settings › General has a Pause the Aquarium switch and shows when a timed pause ends. Shoal remembers your choice.

Why does the aquarium slow down or stop?

To stay light on your Mac. Shoal draws up to 60 frames a second, 30 on battery, and 20 when windows cover most of the desktop. It stops when the desktop is almost fully covered (including by a full-screen app), when the screen is locked or asleep, and in Low Power Mode. Uncover the desktop and it moves again, unless it's paused. More displays and higher resolutions ask more of your Mac; the battery guide has the details and settings that help. On an older Mac, Low quality in Settings › Scene draws less, and Settings may suggest it when Balanced can't keep up.

Turn on Open at Login in Settings › General, or Open Shoal at Login in the Welcome window. It's off until you turn it on. If the line under it reads “Requires approval in System Settings › General › Login Items.”, click Open Login Items Settings… and allow Shoal there.

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

Both are in the fish menu's Share Your Tank submenu, under Picture… and 8-Second Clip…, and both become available once the aquarium has drawn; until then each says “Available once the aquarium has been shown”.

Save Still Image… saves a PNG of one display wherever you choose. With several displays, a Display menu in the save window picks which one.
Set as Desktop Picture asks first, then saves a still of every display the aquarium is showing on and hands it to macOS. That picture shows behind the live aquarium and whenever Shoal isn't running. On macOS Sonoma or later it may change only the current Space on each display; other Spaces may keep their picture.

How do fish names work?

In Settings › Fish, under Names, open the list of unnamed fish and type a name of up to 24 characters in a fish's row; until then it goes by its species and number, for example “Neon 3”. In the free aquarium any three fish can have names, and the section counts them, for example “2 of 3 free names · name any fish”. Once three fish have names, the other name fields are locked and say why; clearing a name frees its place for another fish. To name every fish, click Name every fish with Shoal Pro.

Rest the pointer on or next to a named fish on your desktop and its name appears in a small label above it, even while the water is still. Show tints a fish gold and rings it for four seconds on every display drawing it, so you can find it. Names are never deleted: without Shoal Pro, those beyond your three free names are kept for when Shoal Pro is back.

What are visitors, and how often do they come?

Now and then a visitor comes through the tank for a few minutes: three cherry shrimp on the sand, a golden mystery snail, a betta or, around Lunar New Year, a koi. The first is always a betta, after about 15 minutes of the aquarium running. After that one comes every 40 to 80 minutes of running aquarium, sooner after a visit you didn't spot, and never the same kind twice in a row. Only time when the water moves on at least one display counts, so the wait pauses while the aquarium is still.

While a visitor is in the tank, the fish menu says so, for example “A betta is visiting”. It counts as spotted once it has been in the tank for 4 seconds while at least 40 percent of the aquarium on a display was uncovered and moving. The Visitors section in Settings › Fish lists every kind with how often you've spotted it and when you first did.

Once you've spotted a betta, its row under Visitors lets you keep one in your tank with Shoal Pro. A kept betta swims on every display and has its own name and Show button under Names. Without Shoal Pro it rests, and it returns with Shoal Pro.

How does the tank mature, and what if I skip a day?

Every day you feed the fish counts, with or without Living Tank, and the days don't need to be in a row: a day counts once a pinch of food reaches a running tank. At 7 days fed a nerite snail moves in, at 30 moss grows in over the wood and stones, and at 100 stem plants and fern tufts make the tank lush. Your Tank, at the top of Settings › Fish, shows your days fed and what comes next, and the fish menu mentions each change for a day or until you click it.

Skipping days takes nothing away: days fed are never reset, the tank never goes back a stage, and with Living Tank on the fish keep the growth they've earned. Only the living tank's feeding streak, which counts days in a row, starts again.

What are the seasonal decorations?

Three pumpkins sit on the sand from 17 to 31 October, and snow drifts down through the water in December. Around Lunar New Year, from the day before it to 14 days after, a koi joins the visitors. The decorations follow your Mac's date and change at midnight. They're on by default; to turn them off, and the koi's visits with them, switch off Seasonal decorations under Seasons in Settings › Scene.

Choose Share Your Tank in the fish menu, then Picture… or 8-Second Clip…; Settings › Fish has the same two choices. A small window shows a preview and its caption, such as “Meet Bubbles · Fed on 42 days”, and Include fish names decides whether names appear in the caption, the picture and the link. Share… opens the macOS share menu, where you pick how to send it.

A picture, 1600 by 1000 pixels, shows the tank as it is now or, when no display is showing it, as it last looked within the past day.
A clip records 8 seconds of the tank while the water moves; if your windows cover it, Shoal hides the apps in the way first, only while you look: they come back when you switch to one of your apps, or at once if the tank still can't be seen or you cancel. The window shows its progress and a Cancel button.
When either isn't available, the menu says why, for example “A share is being prepared” or “Available once the aquarium has been shown”.

What you share comes with a link to shoalwallpaper.com that opens a live recreation of your tank in a browser. The link carries only the fish count and species, lighting, the tank's stage, the season, a kept betta and, if you include names, up to 12 fish names, all in the part of the address after the “#”, which browsers never send to a server. Shoal itself sends nothing anywhere: a picture or clip leaves your Mac only through the service you pick. Shoal keeps the last five pictures and clips you shared in its own folder; one you don't share is deleted when you close the window.

Control-click the desktop, choose Edit Widgets…, find Shoal and add the small or medium widget to your desktop or Notification Center. It shows the latest picture of your tank and one line: with Living Tank on, how many fish are hungry (“3 hungry” or “All fed”), otherwise your days fed. The medium size adds a visitor while one is in the tank and the next change, such as “Next: the moss grows in at 30 days”. A hunger count more than an hour old says when it was read, like “3 hungry at 3:15 PM”, and “Updated 3:15 PM” at the bottom says when Shoal last updated it. Click the widget to open the Fish tab in Settings.

Shoal updates the widget about every 15 minutes while the aquarium runs, and soon after a feeding, a visitor or a new stage. Before Shoal has run, it reads “Open Shoal to see your tank”; until the aquarium has been shown, it has its lines without a picture. The widget reads a small picture and status that Shoal leaves for it in a folder they share on your Mac; nothing is sent anywhere.

Only a copy of Shoal signed by its developer, like the one from the Mac App Store, offers the widget. A copy without that signature, such as a development or test build, isn't listed in the widget gallery.

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

Shoal Pro is a one-time purchase that adds six fish species to mix, the lighting presets (dawn, day, dusk and night) with Follow the Clock, the living tank with its feeding reminders, ambient water sound, up to 48 fish, High graphics quality, a betta to keep once you've spotted one visiting, names for every fish, and fine-tuning: a frame-rate limit and plant density. The free aquarium keeps 24 bloodfin tetras, the Low and Balanced qualities, day lighting, feeding and pausing, three fish names, the visitors, a maturing tank, the seasons, sharing and the widget.

Choose Try Shoal Pro Free for 7 Days… or Unlock Shoal Pro… from the fish menu (during a trial it shows the days left, such as Shoal Pro Trial: 3 Days Left…, and for a week after it ends Trial Ended · Unlock Shoal Pro…) or Shoal Pro… in Settings; any Pro option in Settings opens the window too, as do Name every fish with Shoal Pro and “Keep a betta in your tank — Shoal Pro” on the Fish tab. The window shows the price beside “One-time purchase”, the features, Start Free Trial while your Apple Account hasn't used the trial, a Buy button showing the price, Not Now and Restore Purchases.

Start Free Trial unlocks everything in Shoal Pro for 7 days, once per Apple Account; the days count from its first start, on any Mac. Unless you're trying a Pro choice from the menu, it also gives your tank six species, 36 fish, lighting that follows the clock and the living tank at once, and Undo in the window puts back what you had. Nothing is charged automatically: when the trial ends, Pro switches off until you buy it, and your Pro tank and settings stay saved on this Mac.
Restore Purchases asks Apple for your purchases and may ask you to sign in. If your Apple Account owns Shoal Pro, it unlocks at once and the window reads “Your purchase was restored.”; if it used the free trial, “Your free trial was found.”; if neither, “No previous purchase was found for this account.”
“The App Store can't be reached right now” means Buy and Start Free Trial wait, and Restore Purchases works once the store answers; “Shoal Pro isn't available from the App Store right now” means the store answered without it, so try again later.
With Ask to Buy, the window reads “Waiting for approval (Ask to Buy). Pro unlocks once it is approved.”, and for the trial “The trial starts once it is approved.”
Choose the Pro lighting, Follow the Clock or the water sound in the fish menu to preview it on your desktop for up to five minutes while the Shoal Pro window is open. Closing it puts the free setting back; Buy or Start Free Trial keeps your choice.
Without Shoal Pro, choosing a Pro option in Settings opens this window and saves nothing. A Pro choice that no longer applies, such as one made during the trial, shows as “Saved for Pro”, and Use Free Setting goes back to the free value. Your Pro status is in Settings › About.

What does Follow Reduce Motion do?

With Follow Reduce Motion on in Settings › General (the default), your Mac's Reduce Motion setting decides: with it on, the aquarium holds still and the menu reads “Paused for Reduce Motion”. Choosing Resume, Until I Resume or the Pause the Aquarium switch yourself saves your choice and turns Follow Reduce Motion off; turn it back on to follow the system again. A timed pause started while following goes back to following when it ends.

How do the lighting choices work?

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

How do I mix fish species?

In Settings › Scene › Species (Shoal Pro), turn on any of the six species: Bloodfin Tetra, Neon Tetra, Rummy-Nose Tetra, Harlequin Rasbora, Zebra Danio and Tiger Barb. The fish count is shared as evenly as possible among the chosen species, and each toggle shows how many fish that species gets. Every chosen species gets at least one fish, so turning one on can raise the fish count; the last chosen species can't be turned off (“Select another species first”). Without Shoal Pro the other five species show with a lock, and choosing one opens Shoal Pro. Changing the mix reloads the tank. Each fish keeps its name, and a species you turn off keeps its fish's names and state for when you turn it on again.

How does the living tank work?

Turn on Living Tank in Settings › Fish (Shoal Pro). The fish get hungry while the aquarium runs: peckish after about two and a half running hours and hungry after about five; a paused, resting or covered tank doesn't get hungrier. Every pinch feeds the whole school at once, whatever its size, and each fish that catches a pellet gets a little more: one pinch takes a fully hungry school to peckish, and a second to well fed. The fish menu shows whether the fish are well fed, peckish or hungry, for example “Fish: peckish”. The fish grow a little on each day you feed them, up to a limit. Fish never die, and nothing changes while Shoal is closed.

With it on, the Fish tab adds the feeding history, your streak and how much your fish have grown, and every fish's row shows its hunger and size next to its name and Show.

Can Shoal remind me to feed the fish?

With Living Tank on, turn on Feeding Reminder in Settings › Fish and choose every 6, 12 or 24 hours. Shoal asks for permission to send notifications the first time. If the tab reads “Notifications are turned off for Shoal in System Settings.”, click Open System Settings › Notifications to allow them. Clicking a reminder opens Settings.

The aquarium doesn't appear. What now?

First look for the fish icon in the menu bar. If it's missing, Shoal isn't running: open it from the Applications folder or with Spotlight. (A still picture can stay on the desktop after Shoal closes.) If it's there, the menu's first line says what the water is doing:

The first line says	What to do
Loading the aquarium, Updating the aquarium, or Updating an aquarium	Give it a moment.
Swimming on 1 of 2 displays (or similar)	The water is still on the other displays: uncover their desktops, give a display that just woke or connected a moment, or choose Reload the Aquarium if the menu shows it.
Paused, or Paused until …	Choose Resume.
Paused for Reduce Motion	Choose Resume. If Shoal paused by itself because Reduce Motion is on (Follow Reduce Motion, the default), turning Reduce Motion off in System Settings › Accessibility starts it too.
Still while Low Power Mode is on	Turn off Low Power Mode in System Settings › Battery.
Still while the screen is off	The display is asleep or the screen is locked; wake it.
Resting behind your windows	Uncover the desktop or leave the full-screen app.
The aquarium failed to load, or The aquarium is not drawing (“An aquarium …” with more than one display)	Your own desktop picture shows in its place, and Shoal tries again by itself later. To try now, choose Reload the Aquarium, which the menu shows whenever a display needs a reload (also when a display's fish can't be read, or it keeps showing another school than you chose).

Contact

Email support@shoalwallpaper.com for help, bug reports and questions. Include your macOS version and what the fish menu's first line says; holding Option while the menu is open also shows the frame rate. How Shoal handles data is in the privacy policy.