6 years ago

Wanting to make an aquarium wing in a museum I built

This is tricky so bare with me. I built a really nice museum and I have been using it to showcase all the things I've collected while playing. I was able to put everything in there...frogs, bugs, Easter eggs, fossils, prints from the microscope and telescope, postcards, etc etc etc. All things my main household has collected. However, fish are being a pain. I bought an aquarium and the only option was to buy fish. I could not put fish that were caught in it. I have put fish in bowls when at the campgrounds in the past so what's the deal with aquariums? I thought it would be a really cool idea to have a room with all the fish swimming around for visitors (and my Sims) to look at, but alas it's not to be. All the fish they caught and mounted are on the wall, but there doesn't seem a way to get live fish in the building.

I tried a variety of ways including the the bb.showhiddenliveobjects All that did was leave a bunch of dead fish on the floor I couldn't pick up or do anything with, but that same cheat I tossed post cards all over and was able to collect them. I tried having a rando Sim move in after making the building a resident area instead of a museum and that didn't work. I put all the aquariums in a room on my lot and then uploaded to my library then downloaded it on the museum lot. That worked great, but the fish vanished from the tanks. UGH.

I have seen posts on here about the same topic, but they were from years back and I'm sure cheats and mods have changed since then. I'm also not exactly willing to have a rando Sim live in the building going through all the time and effort catching all 52 fish in the game. That seems like the only way I can figure out, but it's not logical. Does anyone out there know if there's anything I'm not doing or missing? Is there a mod out there for such a thing? Granted, I can have all the fish in my home lot where they currently are, but to make a nice section in my museum like I did with my other items would be super cool.

Thanks for the help!!

build and buy

16 Replies

Daephene1
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I've never been able to put fish in an aquarium from my sims inventory on a community lot, so I can't help you there.

But if you just want to display the collection you could hang up mounted fish. Edit - oops, I reread and saw you mentioned this. Sorry, that's the only idea I had. Hopefully someone else has a more useful tip.
crocobaura
Legend
6 years ago

Unless you want to sell them, I think all live fishes look more or less the same to me, especially if you put them in the little fishbowl. With the aquariums it's only possible to stock them and from what I've seen only with fish humans would eat. Maybe you could try to build an aquarium wall and put the fishes in fishbowls? Lots of fishbowls. I think they would look lovely if displayed on a table/pedestal and the corresponding mounted fishy would be displayed above it, would be like a description of what's in the fishbowl.

https://i.imgur.com/YTGluHt.png
BadCowboy1969
6 years ago
"crocobaura;c-17472071" wrote:

Unless you want to sell them, I think all live fishes look more or less the same to me, especially if you put them in the little fishbowl. With the aquariums it's only possible to stock them and from what I've seen only with fish humans would eat. Maybe you could try to build an aquarium wall and put the fishes in fishbowls? Lots of fishbowls. I think they would look lovely if displayed on a table/pedestal and the corresponding mounted fishy would be displayed above it, would be like a description of what's in the fishbowl.

https://i.imgur.com/YTGluHt.png

That might actually be a cool and fun idea. I'll have to try a few things out. Thanks!
BK747
New Veteran
6 years ago
Have you tried changing to lot type to retail, then having your active family purchase it. Once purchased would you be able to place your fish in the aquariums? Once done, you could see if the fish stay in the aquariums after selling the retail lot and converting back to a museum.

P.S. This is such a cool idea! I never have much use for museums, but this makes it feel like something special like a real museum, not just a bunch of items you could easily purchase yourself through BB in your sim's home.
autocorrectvega
6 years ago
I had that problem what worked for me is to send your sim to the lot switch it to generic put the fish in and than back to Art Center or Museum. Not sure if it bugged on my end that’s why it worked or it just works lol. Let me know if that helps. If you save it to the library for other saves they will disappear ? but your collectibles, plants, and art should stay. Check mine out the front lacks luster but I am happy with my rainforest that has a small rock fountain and my aquarium exhibit

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/CAB10DC8882B11EA8677335C231BF121?category=all&searchtype=hashtag&sortby=newest&time=all&searchquery=%23sandbox&max=50&maxis=false
BadCowboy1969
6 years ago
"BK747;c-17472539" wrote:
Have you tried changing to lot type to retail, then having your active family purchase it. Once purchased would you be able to place your fish in the aquariums? Once done, you could see if the fish stay in the aquariums after selling the retail lot and converting back to a museum.

P.S. This is such a cool idea! I never have much use for museums, but this makes it feel like something special like a real museum, not just a bunch of items you could easily purchase yourself through BB in your sim's home.

I think I'm going to try that next.
BadCowboy1969
6 years ago
"vincentvega8899;c-17472591" wrote:
I had that problem what worked for me is to send your sim to the lot switch it to generic put the fish in and than back to Art Center or Museum. Not sure if it bugged on my end that’s why it worked or it just works lol. Let me know if that helps. If you save it to the library for other saves they will disappear ? but your collectibles, plants, and art should stay. Check mine out the front lacks luster but I am happy with my rainforest that has a small rock fountain and my aquarium exhibit

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/CAB10DC8882B11EA8677335C231BF121?category=all&searchtype=hashtag&sortby=newest&time=all&searchquery=%23sandbox&max=50&maxis=false

Thanks I'll try this too! Wow so many good ideas I really didn't realize that I could do haha...Ok I'll try them all. To be continued I guess :D I'll try and post pictures of the museum too eventually. It's really cool...at least I think so anyway.
BadCowboy1969
6 years ago
Well....so far the best thing that worked was for my Sims to simply outright buy the museum as a residence.
They have maxed money and when they sold their furniture they got the money back that they spent on buying the museum.
I got fish in the tanks (the two large ones are a cc) Fish bowls you can put fish into at any time regardless of the lot, but tanks won't and I honestly don't understand what the difference is in that? To me it's probably an oversight on Maxis' part. I tried generic and it didn't work and I couldn't do retail because I didn't have a cash register, but couldn't place it on a table or bar so I gave up on that one ugh. Anyway, doing it this way was super fast and not bad at all. Getting the fish in the tanks then going back to buy the regular home was quick and painless. My boys simply had to suffer through the welcome wagon all over again lol Thanks to @Daephene for the neat idea about putting the mounted fish behind their corresponding bowls! I have to organize them better, but the concept is up at least. Thanks to everyone that helped with the suggestions!

https://i.imgur.com/NLCZsBL.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/cluKslr.png
BadCowboy1969
6 years ago
"vincentvega8899;c-17472591" wrote:
I had that problem what worked for me is to send your sim to the lot switch it to generic put the fish in and than back to Art Center or Museum. Not sure if it bugged on my end that’s why it worked or it just works lol. Let me know if that helps. If you save it to the library for other saves they will disappear ? but your collectibles, plants, and art should stay. Check mine out the front lacks luster but I am happy with my rainforest that has a small rock fountain and my aquarium exhibit

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/CAB10DC8882B11EA8677335C231BF121?category=all&searchtype=hashtag&sortby=newest&time=all&searchquery=%23sandbox&max=50&maxis=false

Yours is pretty cool though I like it :) Thanks for sharing! And for those wondering, here's what the entire Museum of mine looks like. I suck at building so my place is a simple boring square outside for now lol Hopefully I can figure out some way to make it look nicer.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=18xx4EgA7mwQ2ZuYRPhriPpP1b0XD-a70
Daephene1
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
Actually that was @crocobaura who made that suggestion. I was much less helpful. :)

It did turn out really neat!