Location: School of Fish
Depth: 197

Solution to School of Fish Meta

by Iolanthe Chronis, John Hawksley, and Matt “halftime” Peairs

Answer: SARDINE CANNONS

Scattered around the ocean are many "tiny fish" puzzles. The fish puzzles were designed to be something like one-third the difficulty of typical ocean puzzles. In total, there are 56 tiny fish.

Each puzzle has a unique icon of an exotic fish. In fact, each fish picture is a whimsical interpretation of a real-life fish! (For example, the sawfish is drawn as a brown handsaw with two eyes and a fin.)

Each puzzle answer is an anagram + 1 letter of one of the fish prefixes from the icon for another puzzle. (For example, PAWS is an anagram of saw + P.)

Following the links, there are 7 separate loops or "schools" of fish. And in each loop, the fish prefix varieties fit a common theme, like colors or tools. (To reinforce this, every icon in a loop was drawn by the same artist, but it differs between loops.)

Reading the + 1 letters in order, you can add 2 letters to spell another member of the set.

Order by length of loop and you get SA RD IN EC AN NO NS → SARDINE CANNONS.


Here is the full list of loops:

5

SCARLET(colors)
Credred
Rubleblue
marbLeamber
lodgEgold
regenTgreen
6
FOREHEAD(body parts)
barFedbeard
bOonebone
lungElung
tougHentongue
frEeingfinger
Aheadhead
7
LIMESTONE(building materials)
stoLenstone
Miceice
Elitetile
rambleSmarble
ocTalcoal
croOkrock
sEdansand
8
ADOLESCENT(people)
Amadeusmedusa
Dangleangel
bOuchercherub
cLan lairdcardinal
craSherarcher
Ekingking
dylaNlady
sTurgeonsurgeon
9
RATTLESNAKE(flyers and crawlers)
wRapswasp
sToogegoose
roTor setrooster
ankLessnake
colored icEcrocodile
raptorSparrot
spAre netserpent
sicK pornoscorpion
hawkEhawk
10
MOUNTAIN LION(land mammals)
liMonlion
tacOcat
tUbabat
oThershorse
triAgetiger
heart pInpanther
raNtrat
bLazerzebra
Isabelsable
baroNboar
11
PAIR OF PINCERS(tools)
Pawssaw
operArope
Internallantern
pikeRsspike
sOapedspade
draFtdart
Papersspear
SerbIasabre
Crowdssword
clEanedcandle
pipeRpipe