Click to Harvest!

Just as I predicted over the weekend, Happy Aquarium from Crowdstar introduced three new fish, this morning. See-Through Damsels, Pink Mandarins, and Three Stripe Damsels, in both male and female varieties, are now available.

The Three Stripe Damsel is unlocked at level 17, and is for sale for 79 coins. The See-Through Damsels are unlocked at level 22, and cost 109 coins. The Pink Mandarin is unlocked at level 32 and is for sale for 398 coins.

Pretty nice of Crowdstar to allow all three to be purchased with in-game currency, if you ask me. Crowdstar is so generous with free items in their game, I have to wonder if they’re able to make as much money as some of the other popular Facebook game developers.

Happy Aquarium added 16 brand-new giftable items this morning, bringing the total number of gifts players have to choose from to an impressive 44. The new gifts are mostly new plants and corals, so if any of your Facebook friends have been wanting new botanic decoration options, they’re in luck. Assuming you’re a good friend and will send them a couple, of course.

A partial list of the new additions: Myrio Green Plant, Green Barclaya Plant, MoneyWort Plant, Red Urchin. Most of the new gifts are available to high-level players only, so I wasn’t able to gather a complete list.

I’m amused that my little mini-rant about Facebook games continually reinventing themselves has come to pass so quickly. Besides these new gifts, there is a strong hint that Happy Aquarium will be adding three brand-new fish, in the next couple of days.

Click the image below for a full-size look:

FishVille added a new and improved treasure chest to players’ gift boxes, late last night. The chest appears meant to appeal to the inner gambler within us all – instead of just awarding coins once a day via a simple click, the new treasure chest provides an opportunity to win a variety of prizes. Right now it seems like the four possible prizes are XP, rare fish, sand dollars, and standard coins.

I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone or if it is randomized, but the first two opportunities I have had to take the new treasure chest for a spin I won a measly 6 coins and 5 XP. 5!

Fishville also announced the addition of adopotable lost creatures – a Sea Turtle, and a Sea Horse. They work the same way as lost Farmville animals, it seems. At random you might receive an in-game notice of a lost animal. If you opt to help the poor little guy, an item will be posted on your Facebook news feed. Fellow players clicking on your wall post will then get to adopt the cute sea creature. I haven’t yet come across the Sea Horse, but I can vouch that the lost turtle does look pretty cute (and a little sad).

How in the world did these guys end up in your sealed-off aquarium, anyway? Don’t question it. Just roll with it.

Happy Aquarium earlier today doubled the number of tanks players can have, from four to eight. Good news for all you hardcore fish fiends out there. (Alternates to “fish fiends” I considered included fish mongers, fishwives, and fish lovers).

If memory serves, eight is also the maximum number of tanks you’re allowed to have in Fishville, a competing Facebook aquarium game. Coincidence? Probably. But it’s much more fun to think about these aquarium games as being locked in epic battle. Every blow the games swap benefits us, the players.

I’m just a casual Happy Aquarium fan (I dig the little fish training minigame), but hey, DOUBLE the tank space sounds like a pretty sweet deal, to me.

I for one welcome the competition in the Social Aquarium Game category. It makes both companies work that much harder to earn our attention. Fishville is now sitting at 6.9 million daily players, and Happy Aquarium is at 6.4 million. Things are heating up! You can be sure both Crowdstar and Zynga will be rolling out updates fast & furious in order to gain new players. And SocialGameCentral will be here to run it down for you.

Case in point: Crowdstar added seven new giftables to Happy Aquarium late last week. Lace White Coral, Red Anemone, Orange Chimney Coral, Pink Tipped Anemone, Acropora Green Coral, and more.

Hit the jump for a full gallery of all seven.