Each vertical feeder section produces a net of 2 eggs every 3.01cycles at the cost of 3kg algae. It is easily scalable to fit your needs, just add more fish feeders to the right. Shown here are 3 feeders but minimum could be 1 if you so desire. You can either send the produced eggs to your 1x1 Pacu stack, or if you want the best hands-free food (omelette)this will sustain 3.7dupes (4.2if cooking and counting the Fish Fillet) using only 1kg algae each cycle (per feeder). If algae is a concern, and to put things in perspective, a single wild puft can sustain 3 of these fish feeders.
Below is the default view. Note that this shows 3 feeders wide but you could make it 1 wide or as many as you can fit in the width of your map. Also note the videoshows the old automation system, but this one is better.
I mostly only frequent the ONI discord, on there my name isMozzy but it seems I can't name change on this. I piqued a few peoples interest with my Pacu farms and then it took ages to explain it. The least I could do is make a decent resource for showcasing it. In general I advocate that if your map started with lots of algae and you aren't interested in omelette, only just lime or fish fillet, it's best to switch from Diffusers to Electrolyzers are soon as convenient, and then don't bother building an algae-restricted farm. Every 21 tonnes of algae you don't care to lose to Pacu stomach this way would produce about 100 Pacu.
I would build this bottom up. Once it's built, you prime it by sending in a single tame egg, or more. That's it. See near the end of the video about how to send one in, if you need help with that.If you must use a wild egg, you would need to configure the counters to stop ejecting every 3 cycles, because that's not long enough to tame a Pacu. This would be a very silly endeavor though. Taming a pacu out in a nearby pool is not hard and not very wasteful of algae considering the efficiency of what you're about to build.
Conveyor:
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Automation:
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This has been tested and proven robust on x3 speed. I believe it's robust on even faster modes (debug's fast forward) but do note this increases the lifecycle length a decent amount because then critters aren't as responsive to gravity. As long as pacu decide to fall within 200 seconds (game simulation time, probably 20 seconds in debug fast mode) then there won't be any problem.
Automation (old, it works butit's just not as efficient or awesome):
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This has a lifecycle of about 3.28 cycles instead of 3.01, so it's a little slower. It's still been tested and proven robust on x3 speed but not for anything faster.
Note: every Signal Counter is on standard mode and has the output also connected to its reset, but they could also be on advanced and not connected to their own reset.
Power:
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Basically power everything except the top 3 rows of doors. It's not necessary to power the bottom two door rows if you don't want tobut doing so can shave a couple seconds off of a lifecycle.
With the old automation the only door I was powering was the one for the water clock.
Here's an image but just link them however you want that won't allow for overloading.
Plumbing:
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Pacu mechanics:
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Eggs can sit on rails for up to 10 cycles and halts incubation during this time. In this farm they sit on railsfor at most 6.66 cycles but this doesn't have any adverse effects. These are good mechanics, as it means I can guarantee every Pacu in a stage is the same age and not need to duplicate automation.
Eggs hatch after 5 cycles thenanother 5 cycles until adulthood.
A baby starts with 450cal, only loses 2cal per cycle while confined (small room). Babies don't have access to Feeder and are confined to preserve calories, otherwise they lose 10 per cycle and start adulthood with 400cal which could be problematic if I allowed that to happen.
Once an adult, it only needs 1kg algae from feeder to gain the reproduction buff (6.66% -> 66.6% per cycle).
In order to retain 66% reproduction rate they still need 8 water tiles per Pacu. The water only needs to be connected, they don't have to be able to path there, so water inside or beyond a mesh tile or fly-screen door works.
They lose 100 calories per cycle while they have the reproduction buff. After a lifecycle (3 cycles) is over, they are ejected from the feeding chamber. At this point they have only eaten 3kg of algae and willlay their 2nd egg at any moment. They have 145 calories remaining and are 8 cycles old. Since they now lose 20 calories per cycle, they will hit zero calories in 7 cycles but this only starts a 10 cycle countdown until death. They will actually die of old age (25) at around the same time, but not before laying a 3rd eggwith over a full cycle to spare.
Sandbox 2020.sav
