Axolotls are a fan-favorite mob in Minecraft. These adorable salamanders were added to Minecraft in 1.17 to raise awareness about their status as an endangered animal. With their ability to join players in combat underwater, cure mining fatigue, and grant players the regeneration effect, having axolotls gives players a clear advantage and a great companion in the game.
Given the random chance associated with both finding a lush cave, and then finding axolotls in that lush cave, it only makes sense for players to breed axolotls on their own rather than looking for them. Thankfully, this process is quite easy in Minecraft, and this article will explain how players can do it.
Everything players should know about Axolotls in Minecraft
Finding axolotls and other amphibian information
Axolotls can be found in water that generates in some areas within lush cave biome, which is one of the three cave biomes, with the other two being dripstone caves and the deep dark.
There are five different potential colors of axolotl in the game: brown, gold, cyan, blue, and leucistic (pink). The pink, brown, gold, and cyan colors of axolotl can spawn naturally in water found in lush caves. The fifth color, blue, is only found through breeding.
Breeding axolotls
Axolotls are led and bred with the same item, similar to most other breedable animals in the game. The item that allows players to lead axolotls to new areas, as well as breed them, is a bucket of tropical fish.
Breeding axolotls will result in the player gaining a random amount of experience ranging from one to seven.
Similar to all the other animals that can be bred in the game, there is a cooldown before the axolotls can breed again. In the Java Edition of the game, this cooldown is five minutes, whereas in the Bedrock Edition of the game, this cooldown is only one minute.
The probability of any two axolotls breeding and having a blue offspring is 1/1200 or a 0.083% chance. This means that there is a 1199/1200 or 99.917% chance the offspring has the color of one of the parents, including blue parents.
This means that the odds of getting a blue axolotl greatly increase after the first one. Additionally, once players have two blue axolotls, they should be able to breed them together to get a guaranteed blue offspring.
Baby axolotls take 20 minutes to grow into adulthood, and that time is the same across both versions of the game.
How to get the buckets of tropical fish
Axolotls can be led and bred with buckets of tropical fish. This means that having access to tropical fish is vital for players wanting to get many axolotls or those that are attempting to breed them for the rare color variants.
Tropical fish spawn in a few different water biomes, with the most common being both lukewarm and warm oceans, as well as their deep variants. Additionally, tropical fish can also spawn in water found in lush caves at any Y level, similar to axolotls. Another place where tropical fish can be found is in the new mangrove swamp added in The Wild Update.
Getting a bucket of tropical fish is as simple as using a bucket on the tropical fish. The fish will be picked up along with the water source block the fish is in.