Director Brett Piper said Bill Links, who made some good money as one of the producers of a movie called Deadtime Stories (1986), wanted him make a movie with "fish monsters and tits." After they wrote the script, Links complained saying they turned it into a comedy. Piper told him, "You ask for a movie about 'fish monsters and tits' and you expected me to take it seriously?" Links wanted a movie more like Humanoids From The Deep (1980), but Piper felt that movie was "altogether too nasty a movie for my tastes."
Brett Piper said in an interview that producer Bill Links was a nightmare. Because of him, what should have been a two week shoot turned into a total mess, which Piper said almost always happens when investors want to get involved as active producers. You spend half your time trying to get the movie made and the other half doing damage control, trying to deal with the problems your "producer" is creating.
Production manager Steven E. Williams, who plays a bit part in the film, had worked on the Ohio indies Beyond Dream's Door (1989) and (the long-belated) Heartland of Darkness (2022), which both starred Nick Baldasare (Mel Duncan). He was instrumental in getting Baldasare cast in the movie.