The Birthday Candle Rod is a limited-time rod added to Fisch with the 2nd Anniversary Update on October 3, 2026. You cannot buy it or fish it up directly. It drops only after you light every candle on the giant Birthday Cake at Moosewood, which means turning in 11 different anniversary fish at the Icing Pool.
Quick answer: Catch and submit 11 unique 2nd Anniversary fish into the Icing Pool inside the Birthday Cake at Moosewood. Each new species lights one candle; the 11th candle hands you the rod. Duplicate species do not count.
The 11 anniversary fish you need
You need to turn in 11 different species; catching 11 fish isn’t enough. A specimen only registers after you place it in the Icing Pool, so check prior turn-ins instead of relying on your bestiary. Six species can be caught throughout the map, whereas the other five are exclusive to an active Anniversary Pool.
| Fish | Rarity | Where it bites |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd Birthday Balloon | Exotic | Anywhere |
| Birthday Candle | Legendary | Anywhere |
| Birthday Card | Legendary | Anywhere |
| Birthday Cupcake | Legendary | Anywhere |
| Birthday Pinata | Legendary | Anywhere |
| Birthday Present | Legendary | Anywhere |
| Birthday Floppy | Legendary | Anniversary Pool |
| Birthday Isonade | Mythical | Anniversary Pool |
| Birthday Rubber Ducky | Legendary | Anniversary Pool |
| Birthday Colossal Squid | Mythical | Anniversary Pool |
| Birthday Leviathan | Exotic | Anniversary Pool |
The Birthday Profane Leviathan is not one of the 11 and is not required for the rod. You can finish the candle progression entirely without it.
Where Anniversary Pools spawn
The five pool-only fish come from Anniversary Pools, marked by bright pink water. One pool is active at a time, it appears roughly once every hour, and it stays open for about 15 minutes. A banner and a chat message tell you which island it spawned near, so you never have to search all four.
- Castaway Cliffs
- Forsaken Shores
- Roslit Bay
- Snowcap Island
Every pool contains the Birthday Leviathan, though each server allows just one player to catch it; it disappears as soon as that happens. Get there quickly and go after it before anything else. While waiting for another pool, fish by the Birthday Cake in Moosewood: it provides a slight luck increase for anniversary fish available worldwide and leaves you close to the turn-in spot.
Use Cupcakes as bait on every cast. They add +15 Resilience and +100 Preferred Luck, plus +40 Universal Luck; they impose -5 Lure Speed and have a 10% chance of causing the Birthday Candle mutation. Redeem Happy2ndYear to get your first stack, then gain more each time you deposit fish in the Icing Pool—even duplicate species that won’t light candles again.
How to unlock the rod
Every candle reward in order
Each candle hands over a reward along with some Cupcake bait, so the grind pays out cosmetics and tools long before the rod itself.
| Candle | Reward |
|---|---|
| 1 | Birthday Title |
| 2 | Cupcake Bobber |
| 3 | Lit-Candle Lantern |
| 4 | Fish cake |
| 5 | Anniversary Totem |
| 6 | Birthday Cake Furniture |
| 7 | Anniversary Popper Bobber |
| 8 | Party Hat Lantern |
| 9 | Cake Cruiser |
| 10 | Birthday Cake Halo |
| 11 | Birthday Candle Rod |
Birthday Candle Rod stats and abilities
The rod has a huge weight ceiling and a themed burn passive, but its base Control sits at zero, which is its clear weak spot during the reeling minigame.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Lure Speed | 60% |
| Luck | 105% |
| Control | 0 |
| Resilience | 35% |
| Max Weight | 500,000 kg |
| Line Distance | 105 m |
Each catch adds a little light to the rod’s candle. On every third catch, its Burn ability activates in the minigame, scorching the hooked fish every 0.5 seconds to speed it up and add +2% progress. Reeling in a Birthday Candle fish yields a cake worth +65% progress, and the rod adds +46% progress to Progress Locked fish. It also has a 26% chance to roll the Birthday Candle mutation, which applies an 8x multiplier.
Event window
The 2nd Anniversary event and everything tied to it, including the Birthday Candle Rod, the 11 anniversary fish, and the candle rewards, remain available only until October 6, 2026. Once the celebration closes, the fish leave the game and the cake stops handing out candles, so finish your 11 submissions and redeem Happy2ndYear before the window shuts rather than leaving it to the final hours.
