The Marimo vs Rice Fish
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Marimo
Care for a virtual green ball creature that grows over time. Keep its environment clean and provide light to ensure its survival. Customize its appearance and interact with it through various gestures.
- Virtual pet care
- Growth simulation
- Environment maintenance
- Customization options
- Interactive controls
- Social sharing
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Thank you 1,130,000 download!! [About Marimo] Marimo means a plant like a green ball which grow in Hokkaido, Japan. You can raise a Marimo. A marimo will grow up little by little every day. When water become dirty, you need to refresh water. If you don't take care of a Marimo long time, Marimo will wither. [Other Features] - You can rename Marimo, and change background. - Drag to move Marimo. - Double tap to pick tap Marimo. - Rotate marimo with two finger. - Marimo moves by the direction of the device. - You can upload image of Marimo on Twitter/Facebook. - Photosynthesis occurs in a bright place.
Rice Fish
A virtual aquarium simulation where you care for Japanese rice fishes and aquatic plants. Interact with your fish, clean the tank, and watch your aquarium grow. Save your progress via iCloud and explore a 3D view with a companion app.
- Virtual aquarium simulation
- Feed and clean fish
- Interactive characters
- Aquarium customization
- iCloud data saving
- 3D VR view companion app
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Rice Fish is an aquarium app of Japanese rice fishes. Operations: Feeding: Tap water surface. Cleaning: Swipe dirty glass surface. Touch: Each character reacts your touch. You can change layout of your aquarium by pushing root of weeds. Menu: Long tap and help menu will appear. Growing: Characters will grow if you do cleaning/feeding once or twice a day. Characters: There are 4 kinds of characters. Rice Fish: Do both cleaning and feeding. Weed: Do only cleaning. Grow by touching. Snail: Does not do cleaning. This app saves play data to iCloud every two minutes. You can download play data when you install this app to new device. You can also view your own aquarium in 3D by "Rice Fish VR" app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The Marimo and Rice Fish both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 80% of The Marimo's written reviews are positive against 67% of Rice Fish's. Rice Fish's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.6). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for The Marimo against 4.3 for Rice Fish. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 16 and 13 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of The Marimo's written reviews are positive against 67% of Rice Fish's.
The Marimo ships an update every 3 months, Rice Fish every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Marimo | Rice Fish |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (16 ratings) — better | 4.3 (13 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 79.6% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 16 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kosuke Ogawa | KENSHI DOI |
Customer experience
The Marimo
Rice Fish
In-app purchases
The Marimo
No in-app purchases
Rice Fish
No in-app purchases
