But you CAN choose your fish now. Let's say you want 8 different fish, and no random fish. Just set each of those fish to 1 star, and all the others to zero.

Yes, but it's not the same as 3,2,1,1,1 - and I was commenting not complaining.

How does the star system work, so if I had 8 fish and my preferences in stars were 3,3,2,2,1,1,1,,0,0,0,... or 3,2,1,1,1,0,0,0... or 3,2,1,0,0,0,... what would I be likely to get and how widely might it vary? (Note total stars are >8, 8 and <8).

John

The star system was created by Jim O'Connor's team for the Apple products, so I'm not that familiar with it. Their first iPhone version did not allow much control over which fish you actually got, so they agreed to change their algorithm. I requested that there be a way of guaranteeing fish you do want and blocking fish you don't want. I haven't tried every combination of stars and "Don't Repeat", but I'm happy that the new algorithm allows me to do what I want.

The irony is, back when Jim was working on Marine Aquarium 1.1, I suggested a star rating system. ;)

A fish with 5 stars is 5x more likely to be picked for a spot in the tank than a fish with 1 star. If all fish have the same number of stars then they are all equally likely.

Thanks Jims!