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[DarthCloakedDwarf]

I'm trying to create a source of fish meat and shells for my underground fortress. I am completely cut off from the surface and dare not enter the caves (I've breached the first layer, though, and I've got a freaky forgotten beast with boiling toxic sweat down there).

What can I do to get fishes in here?

[Fourdots]

Why don't you dare to enter the caverns? If you can find some way to get the FB to stay still for a bit, you could drop the ceiling on it, which would kill it, and then you could wall off the outside - hell, I've had luck with mining out large columns of rock and dropping them into the caverns to wall off sections, which doesn't even require the dwarfs to enter them until they're entirely safe already.

Once that's done, you should have a source of fishes, if you wall in a bit of water with you, and if everything's working properly (if there isn't any, dig down to one of the lower cavern levels and repeat - in my experience, caverns are a lot safer than people think, as long as you're not in an evil/savage biome; generally plenty of time to wall off a section, or destroy the ramps leading to other levels, if you get in at a time when there aren't many creatures around, and flying beasts aren't too common, but maybe I'm just lucky).

Other than that, there's pretty much no way to start a fish farm. If you have access to a river, you could tap it to create an artificial lake/cistern, and fish might show up in that.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

Why don't you dare to enter the caverns? If you can find some way to get the FB to stay still for a bit, you could drop the ceiling on it, which would kill it, and then you could wall off the outside - hell, I've had luck with mining out large columns of rock and dropping them into the caverns to wall off sections, which doesn't even require the dwarfs to enter them until they're entirely safe already.

Once that's done, you should have a source of fishes, if you wall in a bit of water with you, and if everything's working properly (if there isn't any, dig down to one of the lower cavern levels and repeat - in my experience, caverns are a lot safer than people think, as long as you're not in an evil/savage biome; generally plenty of time to wall off a section, or destroy the ramps leading to other levels, if you get in at a time when there aren't many creatures around, and flying beasts aren't too common, but maybe I'm just lucky).

Other than that, there's pretty much no way to start a fish farm. If you have access to a river, you could tap it to create an artificial lake/cistern, and fish might show up in that.

There are no fish in my underground cistern or any of the pools I've created for fish.

So, there is no way to get fish underground without getting your dwarves all dead at the first forgotten beast/giant cave spider/lizardman/cave swallowman/whatever else that comes along?

I always thought fish spawned like vermin.

[atomfullerene]

My underground caverns appear to have no fish (probably a bug) but that didn't stop me from making a (relatively) safe way to fish them.  Find a spot where the roof of the cavern directly covers the water (no air gap or anything).  dig down to the surface of the water, channel out a fishing hole, and install some floor grates.  Then let your dwarves fish through the grates, isolated from the main cavern

[Absentia]

So, there is no way to get fish underground without getting your dwarves all dead at the first forgotten beast/giant cave spider/lizardman/cave swallowman/whatever else that comes along?

I always thought fish spawned like vermin.

Like he said, you can cave-in on the beast and wall off a nice section of cavern without much danger. Of course it's not perfectly safe, but this is Dwarf Fortress. If you don't have a horrible, gory disaster every now and then you're not doing it right.

And fish do spawn like vermin, it's just a question of where. The 40d wiki says "[T]hey appear spontaneously (aka "spawn") in any natural water environment and most artificially constructed ones." The 31 wiki doesn't say where they spawn. I do know that fish can swim/be washed from rivers into artificial pools if they have access (I don't know if they "teleport" like other vermin).

Just out of curiosity, why are you cut off from the surface? Voluntary challenge? Rampaging blob titan? Magma holocaust?

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

[quotJust out of curiosity, why are you cut off from the surface? Voluntary challenge? Rampaging blob titan? Magma holocaust?

Goblin holocaust. My entire steel-clad military and half my fort (total of 50 dwarves) got wiped out my an ambush squad of three goblins. I frequently have pages of goblins running around up there.

I'm rather hoping fish/cave lobsters etc do in fact teleport, because it would be very handy.

[zergl]

I have two small pools (maybe fifty tiles of 6/7 and 7/7 water total) that I originally used as overflow buffer for my farm irrigation and had fish/turtle spawn in it, but very, very rarely. I suspect it might have to do with discovering the cavern layer with the lake, since (I might be imagining that, though, and it's not as if I kept track of it) it appears the spawning of fishable stuff in both the underground ponds and the murky pools on the surface has gone down significantly ever since.

My next try will be tapping into the cavern lake with a fortification (to keep it forgotten beast safe) to construct a bigger water reservoir, since I, too, have a minor problem with an immortal forgotten beast down there and I can't be bothered to construct a cave-in or magma/obsidian trap contraption at this point of my fort's lifecycle.

[Rastaan]

The only thing my fisherdwarves have been able to fish out of the cavern lake was a cave crocodile. And that didn't go down too well.

[Retro]

The only thing my fisherdwarves have been able to fish out of the cavern lake was a cave crocodile. And that didn't go down too well.

Yeah, it doesn't suit everyone's palate.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

This fortress was fun while it lasted. A flying mountain titan just arrived, so all my dwarves are as good as dead.

[zergl]

This fortress was fun while it lasted. A flying mountain titan just arrived, so all my dwarves are as good as dead.

Depends, do you have any military at all and is the titan made from inorganic material or is it animal-like?

As long as it's not a "Humanoid/Blob/Snail made out of Stone/Gem/Liquid" you might be able to easily kill it even with a low-end-ish militia.

[Josephus]

Sounds like it's a mountain.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

This fortress was fun while it lasted. A flying mountain titan just arrived, so all my dwarves are as good as dead.

Depends, do you have any military at all and is the titan made from inorganic material or is it animal-like?

As long as it's not a "Humanoid/Blob/Snail made out of Stone/Gem/Liquid" you might be able to easily kill it even with a low-end-ish militia.

My military can't take out goblins that they outnumber 3 to one, and no, my military got wiped out by a recent goblin ambush. I have one mace-wielding wrestler. It's a "harrier" with a shell, and seems to be made out of flesh. I have no way to keep it out, and no way to destroy it. I'm doomed.

[Morrigi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_%28bird%29
It should be killable if you can buy enough time to train a few axedorfs.

[zergl]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_%28bird%29
It should be killable if you can buy enough time to train a few axedorfs.

This. A lot of the Animal derived forgotten beasts and titans I've had were complete pushovers and killed by an extremely terrible militia (think along the lines of "whatever fighting skills the last migrant wave brough plus a bunch of peasants with whatever pointy metal stuff I had sitting in the stockpiles").

Unless you have no weapons/armor at all (as long as it's metal it can be enough, except for maybe crossbows or blunt weapons), in that case you're totally boned.