What Do Salmon Eat In Minecraft?

Salmon are one of the many passive mobs that inhabit the rivers and oceans in the Minecraft world. As fish mobs, salmon exhibit some unique behaviors and have specific dietary requirements. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the feeding habits and nutritional needs of salmon in Minecraft.

An Overview of Salmon

Salmon spawn naturally in ocean and river biomes in groups of 3-5 They are neutral mobs, meaning they won’t attack players. Salmon drop 1-3 raw salmon items when killed, which can be cooked into cooked salmon Cooked salmon restores 6 hunger points, making it a decent early-game food source.

Salmon exhibit some realistic fish behaviors. They naturally swim upstream against river flows andwaterfalls. They pull against the line before being reeled in when hooked by a fishing rod. Salmon also flop up and down randomly while idling.

What Do Salmon Eat?

In real life, salmon are carnivorous and eat other smaller fish, aquatic insects, plankton, and fish eggs during certain life stages However, diet and feeding mechanics for passive mobs are not simulated in Minecraft.

Salmon in Minecraft do not need to eat anything to survive. They don’t aim to find food or get hungry like the player does. Their hunger bar simply stays full at all times.

It’s also not possible for players to feed passive mobs like salmon. You can’t feed salmon fish food or other things like you can with dogs, cats, horses, etc. Salmon are simply self-sustaining aquatic mobs.

So in essence, salmon in Minecraft don’t eat anything! While this diverges from real-life salmon behavior, it streamlines gameplay mechanics by removing hunger requirements for passive mobs.

Breeding Salmon

While salmon don’t need to eat, they still need to breed to spawn baby salmon.

Breeding two salmon together spawns 1-7 baby salmon, which then mature into adults. To breed them, the player needs to feed each of the parent salmon 1 tropical fish.

Tropical fish can be caught via fishing in any ocean biome. It’s also the only item that triggers salmon breeding, as they ignore all other food items.

After being fed tropical fish, salmon enter love mode and spawn babies nearby. The babies take 20 minutes to fully mature.

Farming Salmon

While salmon don’t eat, farming them for food is still an important activity. Killing adult salmon yields raw salmon, which can be cooked for better hunger restoration.

Salmon spawn naturally in groups of 3-5 in ocean and river biomes. Players can locate a spawn area and repeatedly return there to farm more salmon.

For automated salmon farming, players can transport salmon from rivers to a man-made pond using buckets or boats. Dispensers with tropical fish can be set up to automatically breed the salmon. Then the adults can be killed to harvest raw salmon.

Hoppers below the kill area collect dropped salmon items, which get routed to furnaces for automatic cooking. The cooked salmon gets stored in chests for easy access.

With this automated farm, players have an infinite supply of cooked salmon without needing to actually feed the salmon.

Differences from Real-Life Salmon

Minecraft simplifies some real-life salmon behaviors for straightforward gameplay. Here are some key differences:

• Real salmon are carnivores and eat smaller fish, while Minecraft salmon do not eat anything.

• Players can breed Minecraft salmon using only one item (tropical fish). Real-life salmon breeding involves the female laying eggs which get fertilized externally by the male.

• Minecraft salmon never get hungry and their hunger stays full. Real salmon need to actively hunt for food to survive and will starve if food is scarce.

• Minecraft salmon drops can be easily cooked for players to eat. Many real-life salmon species are unsafe for humans to eat raw due to parasites.

While salmon in Minecraft don’t actually eat anything themselves, they can still be a valuable food source for players through farming. Understanding their simple dietary and breeding mechanics makes salmon a hassle-free passive mob to have in your Minecraft world. With an automated salmon farm, you’ll have a constant supply of cooked salmon to keep your hunger bar filled when adventuring and exploring.