How to Breed Fish in Minecraft: Everything to Know

You can’t breed fish in Minecraft. Cod, Salmon, Tropical Fish, and Pufferfish have no love mode, no breeding food, and no baby versions in the game.

You can still build fish farms and aquariums, though. Players stock ocean builds by catching fish in Water Buckets and releasing them into a tank, where they become permanent residents instead of despawning. A fish farm in this context is a fish collection, though, so you won’t be multiplying them.

There is real breeding to be done underwater, just not with fish. Axolotls and Turtles are both aquatic mobs with full breeding mechanics. Axolotls are combat pets that heal you, and Turtles are Scute sources. In this guide, we’ll be covering how to breed both, how to manage the fish you can’t breed, and how to build a pond that keeps everything alive.

What Item You Need For a Minecraft Fish Farm?

The most important item for a Minecraft fish farm is the Water Bucket. A fish caught in a Water Bucket and released somewhere else is permanently tagged. These fish will never despawn, no matter how far you travel or how long you stay away.

You’ll also want a stack of water source blocks, not flowing water. Fish need real depth to swim in, and flowing water pushes them into corners where they can beach themselves on an edge and suffocate.

A pond built from source blocks placed side by side stays still, and your fish stay where you put them. Axolotls are the exception here because flowing water can’t push them.

Beyond that, you’ll want:

• Glass for walls.
• Fishing Rod or Bucket for collection.
• Kelp or Seagrass if you want the tank to look alive.

How to Breed Axolotls

To breed Axolotls in Minecraft, you must feed two adult Axolotls a Bucket of Tropical Fish each. They enter love mode, a baby spawns, and you get 1–7 experience.

Where to find Axolotls: they spawn underwater in Lush Caves, and only where there’s a Clay block less than five blocks below the spawn space. Lush Caves are the biome with Azalea Trees growing above them, so a surface Azalea is your best signpost for digging down.

Note that, you must use a Bucket of Tropical Fish Axolotls for breeding them, and not the singular Tropical Fish item. Handing an Axolotl a raw Tropical Fish does nothing.

After breeding, an Axolotl can’t breed again for 5 minutes in Java Edition or 1 minute in Bedrock Edition. Babies take 20 minutes to grow up, and you can shave 10% off the remaining time by feeding them a Bucket of Tropical Fish.

Axolotls attack Drowned, Guardians, Squid, and most fish, and give you Regeneration when you finish off a mob they were fighting.

How to Breed Sea Turtles

To breed Turtles in Minecraft, feed two adult Turtles Seagrass. One of them becomes visibly larger and carries an egg. Pregnant Turtles will start heading home because they can only lay eggs in the beaches they originally spawned in.

Turtles can be found in Beaches during day time. Snowy Beaches and Stony Shores don’t spawn them. Turtles can’t be attached to a Lead, but they’ll follow a player holding Seagrass within 10 blocks.

It’s possible to carry Turtle eggs to different places, but you’ll need a Silk Touch Pickaxe for the job. This tool lets you harvest Turtle Eggs and place them wherever you want. Zombies, Husks, Drowned, Zombie Villagers, and Zombified Piglins can trample Turtle Eggs and destroy them, so make sure to give them enough protection as well.

Turtle eggs only hatch on Sand, Red Sand, or Suspicious Sand. They crack three times before hatching, progress fastest at night, and typically take 4-5 in-game days.

How to Manage “Un-breedable” Fish (Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish)

Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish, and Tropical Fish cannot breed in Minecraft because they don’t have love mode. There is no food that triggers breeding for them.

However, you can collect Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish, and Tropical Fish to create an aquarium. If you catch a fish with a Water Bucket and release it into your build, that fish won’t despawn. Many players decide to build aquariums, in Towny servers for example, for the aesthetics.

Here’s where you can find these fish in the game:

• Cod: normal, cold, and lukewarm oceans.
• Salmon: cold and frozen oceans, plus rivers
• Tropical Fish: warm and lukewarm oceans, and Lush Caves.
• Pufferfish: warm and lukewarm oceans.

How to Build the Perfect Breeding Pond

A good breeding pod in Minecraft should be deep, still, and lit. Build the walls from Glass so you can actually see your fish, and so mobs can’t suffocate. Fish and Axolotls pushed against solid stone corners by movement can take damage, and Glass keeps the whole tank visible so you’ll notice problems before you lose a stack of Tropical Fish.

Aim for at least 2 blocks of water depth. Axolotls specifically won’t pathfind toward water less than 2 blocks deep. For light sources, we’d recommend Sea Pickles as they glow underwater.

Common Fish Problems and Their Fixes in Minecraft

• My fish disappeared.
  • If your fish disappear, it means they weren’t bucketed. Fish that swim in on their own, or that you moved with anything other than a Water Bucket, despawn when you leave the area.
• My Turtles won’t lay eggs.
  • If you’re experiencing this, than it means that the pregnant Turtle might not be on their home back. Turtles only lay on the block they hatched or spawned on, within 9 blocks. Either breed them at their original beach or use a Silk Touch Pickaxe to relocate a batch of Turtle Eggs and let the next generation call your build home.
• My Axolotls won’t breed.
  • Check that you’re using a Bucket of Tropical Fish, not the Tropical Fish item.
• My Axolotl died on land.
  • Axolotls survive 5 minutes out of water and need water at least 2 blocks deep within 16 blocks to find their way back. Deepen the pond and close off any escape routes.
• My Turtle Eggs keep breaking.
  • Something is walking on them. Zombies and their variants stomp eggs, so make sure to up your defences.
• Growing up takes too long.
  • Feed babies more of their breeding food.

Fish FAQs in Minecraft

• Is there any way to breed fish in Minecraft?
  • No, Cod, Salmon, Tropical Fish, and Pufferfish cannot be bred and have no love mode in Minecraft. The closest thing to breeding aquatic mobs is breeding Axolotls with Buckets of Tropical Fish or Turtles with Seagrass.
• What’s the rarest fish in Minecraft?
  • Among actual fish, rare Tropical Fish are hardest to find in Minecraft. If you count aquatic mobs more broadly, the Blue Axolotl is the rarest at a 1 in 1,200 breeding chance.
• Is it possible to farm fish in Minecraft?
  • Yes, it’s possible to farm fish in Minecraft. Catch them in Water Buckets and release them into an aquarium where they’ll never despawn.