Minecraft: Can You Breed Fish? (Tropical, Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish & Others)

The world of Minecraft features a wide range of excitement for players, not to mention a plethora of incredible creatures. Some of these creatures can be tamed and befriended, while others can be observed from a distance, such as fish. Many players still wonder if you can breed fish in Minecraft as a result.

Fish in Minecraft

There are tons of different mobs in Minecraft, from deadly enemies to adorable and fluffy friends. Some mobs in Minecraft are pretty aggressive, stopping at nothing to make sure your Minecraft character meets their demise, but others can be tamed and bred to create Minecraft bases packed with loyal animals. A more recent Minecraft update brought a spread of fascinating aquatic species as well, as seen below.

Fish are classified as an aquatic mob in Minecraft, primarily residing in various water bodies such as rivers and oceans around the Minecraft overworld. There are four main types of fish in Minecraft, namely Tropical fish, which come in a variety of patterns and colors, as well as Cod, Salmon, and Pufferfish. There are also other aquatic creatures, namely Dolphins and Squid.

They can spawn inside a water block at any Y-level between 50 and 63 in Minecraft Java Edition, specifically from 13 blocks below sea level up to inside the block one above it. Below are the specifics on where each of these aquatic Minecraft mobs lives and spawns in the game:

Tropical Fish

• Warm Ocean
• Deep Lukewarm Ocean
• Lush Caves at any Y-level.

Cod

• Lukewarm Ocean
• Deep Lukewarm Ocean
• Ocean
• Deep Ocean
• Cold Ocean
• Deep Cold Ocean
• Deep Frozen Ocean

Salmon

• Deep Lukewarm Ocean
• Ocean
• Deep Ocean
• Cold Ocean
• Deep Cold Ocean
• Frozen Ocean
• Deep Frozen Ocean
• River
• Frozen River

Pufferfish

• Warm Ocean

Dolphin

• Warm Ocean
• Lukewarm Ocean
• Deep Lukewarm Ocean
• Deep Ocean
• Deep Cold Ocean

Squid

• Warm Ocean
• Lukewarm Ocean
• Deep Lukewarm Ocean
• Deep Ocean
• Deep Cold Ocean
• Deep Frozen Ocean
• Frozen River

Fish-like mobs, such as the creatures brought within more recent updates, are not classified as fish in the game. Mobs like these would have aquatic traits but will feature other characteristics as well, such as Axolotl, Guardian, and Elder Guardian.

Can you breed fish in Minecraft?

While most Minecraft players are more interested in obtaining fish as a source of food in the game, they can be a pretty unique and fun way to add more life and vibrance to your Minecraft survival base. Typically, Minecraft players would need to identify the animal or mob’s favorite food and feed it to two adults in order to get them to enter Love Mode on the spot, after which they would breed.

Fish are not classified as breedable creatures, but according to some Minecraft players, there may be a way to get them to breed naturally by using Kelp. This could work well for all fish species in the game – Tropical, Cod, Salmon, and Pufferfish, as well as larger aquatic creatures like Dolphins and Squid.

Below is the method for potentially breeding fish in Minecraft.

1. Collect Raw Kelp and keep it in your inventory.
2. Locate the fish species you want to breed.
3. Equip the Raw Kelp.
4. Right-Click on two adult fish while holding the Raw Kelp.
5. The fish will enter Love Mode, and one of the fish will head off to lay eggs.
6. After a few seconds, the eggs will hatch into the same species.

Much like frogs in Minecraft, fish will have babies on their own, by finding a suitable area and laying eggs. Players can help the process or encourage fish to breed in a specific location, such as by either spawning fish or by setting up a survival base in a biome near a river or ocean.

How to spawn fish in Minecraft?

Fish spawn automatically, depending on the species and location, and they can only be manually spawned when players use Minecraft’s Creative Mode. If you want to spawn a fish in Minecraft using Creative Mode, you will still need the correct egg type – this means you would need Salmon eggs for spawning Salmon, Pufferfish eggs for spawning Pufferfish, and so on.

From this point, players will need to left-click the body of water that they’d like the fish to spawn in. The fish will then be spawned manually and will remain in the same body of water – this is the most reliable way to create your own fish farm or aquarium in Minecraft. According to the Minecraft Wiki:

“The spawn block and the block below can be any kind of water, such as a source block, falling water, bubble column, kelp, or even a waterlogged block (as long as the fish can be placed at the bottom center of the spawn block without colliding with anything solid). The block above must be pure water, such as a source block, falling water, or flowing water of any depth.”

The block above the spawn block cannot also be a bubble column, so fish no longer spawn inside bubble elevators, although Minecraft Bedrock Edition does allow fish to spawn in bubble columns. In Java Edition, fish can spawn within a 24 and 64-block spherical range away from the player’s character.‌

If this spawning method can be combined with the theorized fish breeding method with successful outcomes, the possibilities are endless. You can spawn the fish species you want on your Minecraft base and breed them to get the aquarium of your dreams.

Although it’s not technically possible to breed fish in Minecraft vanilla, there are a few ways you can gain more control of their population for aquatic pets or for food farming purposes. Still, if all else fails, there is also a nifty add-on that players could use to enable fish and even dolphin breeding in Minecraft.

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