Overview
There are thousands of possible Tropical Fish, and twenty-two of them have names. The game generates a fish from a shape, a pattern and two colours, and a small set of those combinations match real species and get proper names like Clownfish, Cichlid and Queen Angelfish; everything else is a randomly rolled pattern that is unique to your ocean. That variety is the entire decorative appeal, and an aquarium full of bucketed tropical fish is one of the better-looking builds a player can make cheaply. Mechanically it does one job that matters: a bucket of tropical fish is the only item that breeds an Axolotl, and the bucket is consumed, so an axolotl army means a lot of fishing. The fish item itself is close to useless — it cannot be cooked, restores 1 hunger, and does nothing else. Each fish has 3 health, swims in small schools, and scatters from players. They spawn in warm, lukewarm and deep lukewarm oceans, especially around coral reefs, and also in lush caves, which is often the easier place to find them if the nearest warm ocean is far away.
Breeding axolotls, which no other item does, and stocking aquariums. The game rolls thousands of colour and pattern combinations, 22 of which have their own species names.
Tropical fish exist in thousands of colour, pattern and shape combinations, of which twenty-two have their own names such as clownfish and cichlid; the rest are randomly generated. Mechanically they are just decoration and axolotl food: a bucket of tropical fish is what you breed axolotls with. They swim in small schools, scatter from players, and cannot be cooked into anything useful.
Tropical Fish sits under Passive mobs in Minecraft 1.21.4. Health sits at 3 points (1.5 hearts). Killing one drops 3 experience.
Properties
Tropical Fish has 3 health, which is 1.5 hearts. It drops up to 3 experience when a player kills it. Its hitbox is 0.5 blocks wide and 0.4 tall, which is what decides whether it fits through a gap or a one-block-high opening.
- Health
- 3 (1.5 ♥)
- Experience dropped
- 3
- Size
- 0.5 × 0.4
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Added in
- 1.13
Spawns in
Spawns in warm and lukewarm oceans, especially around coral reefs, and in lush caves.
It is restricted to Warm Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, and Deep Lukewarm Ocean, so it will never turn up outside those biomes however dark it gets.
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Biomes
- Warm Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, Deep Lukewarm Ocean
- Added in
- 1.13
Dimension: Overworld · Added in 1.13
Drops
Killing Tropical Fish drops Tropical Fish and Bone Meal, plus up to 3 experience. Looting raises the maximum on most of these by one per level.
- Tropical Fish: 1
- Bone Meal: 1 (5%)
How it behaves
The Tropical Fish never attacks. The only reason to be careful around one is that killing it is often not what you want: breeding it is worth more than the drop.
Killed by a player it drops up to 3 experience; killed any other way it drops none.
Command
In a world with cheats on, this spawns one Tropical Fish where you are standing.
Summon
/summon minecraft:tropical_fish ~ ~ ~Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How many Tropical Fish variants are there?
Thousands of generated combinations, of which 22 have proper species names such as Clownfish and Cichlid.
What are Tropical Fish used for?
Breeding axolotls — a bucket of tropical fish is the only breeding item — and decorating aquariums.
Where do Tropical Fish spawn?
Warm, lukewarm and deep lukewarm oceans, usually around coral reefs, and in lush caves.
Can you cook Tropical Fish?
No. It restores 1 hunger raw and has no cooked form at all.
How much health does the Tropical Fish have in Minecraft?
The Tropical Fish has 3 health points, which is 1.5 hearts.
What does the Tropical Fish drop?
It drops Tropical Fish and Bone Meal, plus 3 experience when killed by a player.
Where does the Tropical Fish spawn?
Spawns in warm and lukewarm oceans, especially around coral reefs, and in lush caves.
Related pages
How to get it
Tropical Fish spawn in warm and lukewarm oceans, especially around coral reefs, and in lush caves. Catch them with a water bucket — 2 buckets are needed to breed a pair of axolotls, and the buckets are consumed.
Tips
- Stock a bucket supply before breeding axolotls, because each breeding consumes two buckets of tropical fish.
- Search lush caves if the nearest warm ocean is far — tropical fish spawn there too, at much shorter range.
- Do not eat them: raw tropical fish restores 1 hunger, cannot be cooked, and is the weakest food in the sea.
- Bucket the fish you like the look of, since the pattern is rolled at spawn and cannot be reproduced.