Minecraft Fish: How to Catch Cod, Salmon, Pufferfish, and Tropical Fish

Key Takeaways

Point	Details
Four fish types are obtainable via fishing	cod, salmon, pufferfish, and tropical fish.
Pufferfish has an 11.1%	Pufferfish has an 11.1% catch rate; tropical fish has a 1.7% catch rate.
Pufferfish is poisonous to	Pufferfish is poisonous to eat but can brew Potions of Water Breathing.
Tropical fish cannot be	Tropical fish cannot be cooked; it restores only 1 hunger point.
Both pufferfish and tropical	Both pufferfish and tropical fish can be fed to dolphins to gain their trust and speed up baby growth.
Cod and salmon are	Cod and salmon are staple food sources when cooked in a furnace.

Casting a line into the water in Minecraft can yield four distinct types of fish: cod, salmon, pufferfish, and tropical fish. Each one has different catch rates, uses, and side effects. Here's a quick-reference guide to what you'll reel in and what to do with it.

How Fishing Catches Each Fish Type

When your bobber hits the water, the game randomly selects an item from the fishing loot table. The four fish items are part of the "fish" category. Cod and salmon are the most common, while pufferfish and tropical fish appear less often.

Upon a successful reel-in: A raw cod, raw salmon, pufferfish, tropical fish, junk, or a treasure item appears, flies toward the player, and is added to the player's inventory.

Tropical fish are the rarest of the bunch, with a 1.7% chance per attempt.

Tropical fish can be obtained through fishing, with a 1.7% chance per attempt.

Pufferfish are more common, appearing 11.1% of the time.

Pufferfish are obtainable through fishing, with a 11.1% chance per attempt.

Cod and salmon make up the bulk of catches, but exact percentages depend on edition and enchantments (Luck of the Sea increases treasure chances, slightly reducing fish frequency).

What to Do With Each Fish

Cod and Salmon

Both are excellent food sources. Raw cod and raw salmon can be cooked in a furnace to make cooked cod (restores 5 hunger points) and cooked salmon (restores 6 hunger points). They are simple, renewable food for early-game survival.

Pufferfish

This spiky fish is poisonous to players — eating it inflicts Hunger III for 15 seconds, Poison II for 1 minute, and Nausea I for 15 seconds.

Pufferfish restores 1 () hunger and 0.2 saturation, but inflicts Hunger III for 15 seconds, Poison II for 1 minute, and Nausea I for 15 seconds.

However, pufferfish has two very useful non-food applications:

• Brewing: It is the key ingredient for Potions of Water Breathing.

It is also a brewing ingredient for potions of Water Breathing.

• Feeding dolphins and wolves: You can feed pufferfish to dolphins to increase their trust and make them lead you to nearby underwater structures. Unlike most animals, this does not cause breeding. Wolves are immune to the poison and will heal 2 HP per pufferfish.

Tropical Fish

Tropical fish are colorful but cannot be cooked and only restore 1 hunger point with 0.2 saturation.

Tropical fish restores 1 () hunger and 0.2 saturation.

Their main uses are:

• Feeding dolphins: A dolphin fed a tropical fish will gain trust and swim to the nearest shipwreck or underwater ruin chest.

A dolphin can be fed tropical fish to increase its trust of the player and cause it to interact with the player more often.

• Baby dolphins: Feeding a tropical fish to a baby dolphin speeds up its growth by 10% of the remaining time.

Additionally, tropical fish can be used to make baby dolphins grow up faster by 10% of the remaining time.

• Wolf healing: Heals wolves by 2 HP, though in Bedrock Edition it cannot be used for breeding.

A Brief History of Fishing in Minecraft

Fishing was first added in the Halloween Update (Java Edition Alpha v1.2.0) on October 30, 2010. That update introduced raw fish (the original name for cod) and cooked fish, alongside the Nether and new biomes.

Raw fish Obtained by fishing.

Later, The Update that Changed the World (Java Edition 1.7.2) on October 25, 2013 added pufferfish and tropical fish (originally called clownfish) to the fishing loot table, along with new fishing rewards.

Pufferfish Obtained from fishing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you cook tropical fish? No. Tropical fish cannot be placed in a furnace or smoker. Attempting to cook it yields nothing.

Tropical fish is a food item that cannot be cooked.

Is it safe to feed pufferfish to dolphins? Yes. Dolphins are immune to the poison, hunger, and nausea effects that pufferfish would inflict on a player.

Dolphins are immune to the Nausea, Hunger and Poison effects.

Does Lure enchantment affect which fish I catch? Lure reduces wait time but does not change the loot table composition. Luck of the Sea increases the chance of treasure, which indirectly reduces fish frequency.

Can I get nautilus shells from fishing fish? No. Nautilus shells are classified as treasure, not fish. They appear when you reel in a "treasure" item, not a fish item.

For more details on fishing mechanics, check out the Minecraft Fishing Mechanics and Loot Guide.