Sharks and Minnows

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Sharks and Minnows is a popular tag game played in swimming pools.

[edit] Rules

Generally Sharks and Minnows is played in the deep end of a large pool. The game starts out with one person selected as the shark and the rest as the minnows. The shark starts in the water on one side of the pool and the minnows usually start on the deck of the other side (if they are playing in water deep enough to dive into). The game starts by the shark calling out "Sharks and Minnows, one two three, fishies, fishies swim to me!" at which point the minnows may begin to dive in to swim to the other wall. If the shark manages to tag a minnow while before he touches the wall, then that minnow becomes a shark in the next round. After all the minnows have either reached the wall or been tagged the shark(s) swim to the other wall and the cycle starts again. If the some of the minnows refuse to enter the pool, the shark may swim to the other wall and tag it; whoever was still out of the pool when the shark tags the wall becomes a shark. The game is played until all of the minnows have been tagged, then the first person tagged becomes the shark who starts the next round.

The game is and/or was called "Sharks and Maidens" in some areas.

There are many variations and additions to these rules:

  • Drain base: minnows who are underwater on the pools drains cannot be tagged out.
  • No underwater tag: sharks can only tag minnows when some part of the minnow is above water.
  • Pull up Shark: addition to rule of no tag underwater, The shark is allowed to force minnows to the surface of the water in order to tag them. The shark is not allowed to pull off goggles or bathing suites. All other means of pulling minnows up are acceptable.
  • "No sharks charge": called by minnows while shark is saying "Sharks and Minnows...", prevents sharks from tagging wall.
  • "All Minnows in": called by sharks immediately after "Sharks and Minnows..." before anyone calls "No sharks charge" to force all the minnows into the pool immediately.
  • Depending on the size of the deep end, the amount used at the beginning when there is only one shark may be limited until he has tagged a certain number of people. This often helps increase turn-around in the game.
  • The game can also be played on dry land with a soccer ball , a square is marked off with cones and all of the kids except one get a soccer ball , when a player with a ball "the minnow" dribbles out of bounds or gets his or her ball kicked out of bounds by the player without the ball "the shark", they are out when only one person with a ball is left he or she will be the shark for the next round
  • This game may also be played in the deep end of a swimming pool with a group of people in SCUBA gear who are the "minnows" and an equal size group of people in snorkel gear who are the "sharks". The minnows must stay in the deep end of the pool and the sharks must make the minnows surface (the equivalent of 'tagging' them) by ripping off their scuba gear or dragging them to the surface.


(Note: these rules are based on the standard method of playing in Smyrna, Georgia. Other regions and countries may have substantially different rules.)

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