Axolotls are friendly, fun, and unsurprisingly rare in Minecraft. If you are lucky and you know how to catch Axolotls, you can hopefully get a couple of them. But that too is limited to a few of the common variants. So the question arises, how to breed Axolotls in Minecraft to get all types of Axolotls? And well, we have the answer. Whether you want the Axolotls to complete your best house ideas or want a new friend in-game, we have you covered. From the food they eat to creating a base for Axolotls, our guide goes over everything in detail. We will also answer the ever-popular question – how to tame Axolotls in Minecraft? With that said, let’s get started!
Breed Axolotls to Get Rare Variants in Minecraft (2022)
All you need to do beforehand is install the Minecraft 1.18 Caves & Cliffs update to get started with breeding Axolotls in Minecraft. We have divided the process to breed Axolotls into dedicated sections for your ease. Use the table below to explore them at your convenience.
How to Find Axolotls in Minecraft
Before we breed Axolotls, we need to find at least two of them. Thanks to their rarity, this task can take some time. Fortunately, we already have a guide to educate you on how to find Axolotls in Minecraft. You can use it to understand what biome to visit and find these creatures in no time.
How to Catch Axolotls
Once you find Axolotls, you have to catch them. Fortunately, this task is much easier than finding them. You just have to point at them and use a water bucket by right-clicking or using your secondary action key (see GIF below).
The game automatically places them in the bucket and turns them into transportable items. Then you can keep them in your inventory and empty the bucket whenever you want to release the Axolotls. You need to catch at least two Axolotls to breed them in Minecraft.
How to Tame Axolotls in Minecraft
Technically speaking, you can’t tame Axolotls in Minecraft. But, as described above, you can catch and carry Axolotls using a water bucket. Alternatively, you can also put them on a leash using a lead. You can craft a lead using a slime ball and four strings, just as we did in our guide to get bees in Minecraft.
If nothing else suits you, there is always the option to lure them with food. If you holding the Axolotl’s food in your hand, it will follow you wherever you go. Though, staying out of water for too long can harm them fatally. So, irrespective of how you tame them, make sure the Axolotls are hydrated.
What do Axolotls Eat in Minecraft
Much like any other mob in Minecraft, Axolotls also depend on food to get into the breeding state. But unlike any other mob, they depend upon eating tropical fishes. And contrary to common expectation, you can’t directly feed them dead fishes.
Axolotls only eat tropical fishes fed to them alive via water buckets. So, you first need to catch tropical fishes and then feed them to the Axolotls. However, if you directly drop the tropical fishes into their cage, the Axolotls will attack and kill them. They won’t eat those tropical fishes.
How to Get Tropical Fishes in Minecraft
Fortunately, tropical fishes are the most common types of fish in the game. You can literally make a pool of water and sit around it with a fishing pole to catch a tropical fish. Though, their spawn rate is much higher in naturally spawned large rivers and oceans.
As for the catching part, you can go through the tedious process of using a fishing rod. Or, you can make a boat in Minecraft and go to the middle of the ocean to find and catch them using a water bucket (see GIF above). In case you are not a fan of water, make sure to craft a Potion of Water Breathing beforehand.
Create a Place for Breeding Axolotls
Now that you have Axolotls and their food, you need to make their breeding area. For that, make sure you have:
- At least two buckets of tropical fishes
- A 3×3 blocks area filled with water
- Two Axolotls
- 35 building blocks to trap them (Preferably glass)
You can change the number of building blocks and their living area as per your personal preferences. Once you have enough materials, follow these steps to make a breeding area or cage for Axolotls.
1. To begin, make a 2 blocks high boundary around a 3×3 block area. You can use glass to make it easier to keep an eye on the Axolotls.
2. Then, cover the roof of that structure to protect Axolotls from hostile mobs and lightning. You can also add a trapdoor to it to make it easier to place and feed Axolotls.
3. Finally, fill the whole structure to its brim with water. It’s best done from inside the structure.
How to Breed Axolotls in Minecraft
With everything in place, it’s time to start breeding Axolotls. Follow these steps to breed Axolotls in Minecraft:
1. First, place two Axolotls in the breeding area. Do make sure that there is no way for them to escape.
2. Then, feed each Axolotl a tropical fish using a bucket of tropical fish.
3. Finally, all you need to do is wait. Within a minute or so, you will find a baby Axolotl in the cage swimming alongside its parent.
Things to Keep in Mind
Once you have bred Axolotls for the first time, keep these properties in mind before repeating the process:
- The parent Axolotls have a cooldown of 5 minutes in Java edition and 1 minute in Bedrock edition.
- It takes babies 20 minutes to grow into adult Axolotls. Then, you can use them to breed more Axolotls.
- If you want to speed up the growth of baby axolotls, you can feed buckets of tropical fish.
How to Get Rare Blue Axolotls Variant
Usually, baby Axolotls randomly inherit the color of one of their parents. But there is no way to influence this selection or change the color later on. Fortunately, even if you don’t have a rare blue Axolotl, other colored Axolotls can also spawn blue babies. However, the chances of spawning a rare blue variant of Axolotl are very low.
As per Minecraft Wiki, you have a chance of around 1/1200 to get a blue baby Axolotl. Disappointing, isn’t it? Unfortunately, that “1200” is more than the number of real-world Axolotl around the world as of 2020. So, Minecraft is using its platform as a way to bring awareness around the Axolotl’s critical condition as a species.
However, if you are familiar with the best Minecraft commands, you can use them to summon the blue Axolotl. But first, you need to enable cheats in your Minecraft world. Then, you have to run the following command in the chatbox or the command block:
/summon minecraft:axolotl ~ ~ ~ {Variant:4}
Keep in mind that using cheats prevents you from collecting any in-game achievements. So, this should be your worst-case scenario.
Guide to Tame and Breed Axolotls in Minecraft
Just like that, you are now ready to breed an unlimited supply of Axolotls for your bases. They are much easier to breed than most in-game mobs, especially if you have collected enough fish. But if you want to take breeding to the next level, you should try using Allay in automatic Minecraft farms to collect resources easily. In fact, Axolotls can kill aquatic mobs while Allay collects their dropped items, resulting in a cute and collaborative farm. Thanks to the new features being added in Minecraft 1.19, the possibilities are endless and ever-growing. All you need is the knowledge of all the Minecraft biomes and enough time. Then you can go on rampages of collecting, breeding, and farming Minecraft mobs. Having said that, which Minecraft mob do you want to breed? Tell us in the comments!
