Riak Try it live
Web app · PWAlive

A cozy aquarium that lives in your browser

Look after a living glass tank a few minutes a day: real water care, flick-to-cast fishing in nine places, a greenhouse, corals and a field journal. Free, offline, no account.

Web app · PWA
riak · live demolive demo
Riak screenshot
2platforms: Web app, PWA
MITopen source licence
Why it exists

A tank that is alive, not a screensaver.

Riak is a calm aquarium you look after a few minutes a day.

It runs in any browser, installs as an app and keeps working offline.

What's inside

Around your tank.

Real water care

Fish waste becomes ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrate. Test kits, water changes and filters keep the cycle healthy.

Flick fishing

Flick up on the water to cast, flick again to strike, then crank the reel while you watch line tension against the fish's strength. Set the drag, or use phone motion to cast.

Nine places, 47 species

Pond, rice paddy, stream, mangrove, blackwater, lagoon, glacier lake, open ocean and harbour, each drawn with its own scenery, weather and time of day. Every one of the 47 species has its own drawn body and fins.

Tackle, tournaments, quests

Five baits and five lures, tournaments against CPU anglers, 12 fishing quests and a catch album with trophy cards.

Scape and breed

16 aquatic plants, 8 hardscape pieces, 3 substrates and 3 tank sizes. Happy adult pairs have fry, and colours mix from both parents.

Greenhouse and reef lab

Sow from the seed shelf, water trays and harvest cuttings or houseplants, with rare variegated sports. Frag and cross corals into named strains.

Daily care and orders

A short care list each day with a streak, plus daily fish, cutting and houseplant orders that pay shells.

Field journal

A numbered field guide with Latin names for every species you find, true-shape silhouettes and hints for the rest, plus plants, coral strains and 18 milestones.

How it works

Your first ten minutes

  1. 1

    Name your tank

    Open the app, pick a language and name your first tank.

  2. 2

    Feed and test

    Feed the starter fish and run a water test to see the cycle.

  3. 3

    Flick to cast

    Fish the lily pond: flick up on the water to cast, strike when the float dips, then crank the catch in.

  4. 4

    Plant a seedling

    Pick something from the seed shelf in the greenhouse and come back when it is ready to harvest.

Run it yourself

Run it yourself

From the README’s “Run it locally” section. Full options, requirements and troubleshooting are there too.

Open the README
shell
$ python -m http.server 8000
Working today

Free, and it stays that way.

Under the hood

How it's built.

Built with

Language
JavaScriptHTML/CSS
Platform
PWAOffline service worker
Testing
Automated tests
UI
Multi-language UI

130 files in the repo · last updated 8 Nov 2026.

Browse the code

Recently shipped

  1. V1.2.1: hone pass - readable toggles, garden bench, field-guide journal

  2. Flick fishing: cast by swipe, crank reel, tension vs fish strength, tackle, tournaments, quests, album, challenge links

  3. Cozy aquarium PWA (tank care, fishing, greenhouse, reef lab, journal, focus)

Full history on GitHub
Questions

Good questions.

What does it run on?

Web app, PWA. You can try it in the browser with nothing to install.

How do I get it running?

The commands in the “Run it locally” box above come straight from the README. Paste them into a terminal; the README covers options and troubleshooting.

Where does my data go?

Everything stays in your browser (localStorage).

Is it finished?

Not yet: it's marked “live” and still changing. The README always has the current state.

Is it free?

The source is public on GitHub under the MIT licence.

Who made it?

Juwen Lie, an R&D mechanical engineer in Batam, Indonesia, as an independent personal project.

Keep exploring

More from the same workbench.

Fill the tank. Breathe out.

A cozy aquarium that lives in your browser