# DarwinFish<\/p>\n
**DarwinFish** is a mod that overhauls the underwater ecosystem in Minecraft. It replaces static fish behavior with a dynamic lifecycle, introducing breeding mechanics, genetics, a food chain, and new culinary options.<\/p>\n
## \ud83d\udc1f Ecosystem & Breeding
\nFish now have a complete lifecycle, from eggs to fry to adults.
\n* **Manual Breeding:** Feed two adult fish Seagrass or Kelp. They will form a pair and lay eggs on the bottom of the water body.
\n* **Natural Breeding:** (Can be toggled in the config). When enabled, fish will automatically graze on underwater vegetation and lay eggs without player intervention.
\n* **Growth Cycle:** Eggs take exactly one in-game day to hatch into **fry** (baby fish). The fry will take another full in-game day to grow into adults. All timings are fully configurable.
\n* **Overpopulation Control:** To prevent lag, the mod tracks the number of fish per chunk. If the population exceeds the configured `OVERPOPULATION_TOLERANCE`, fish will trigger survival instincts\u2014they may start attacking each other or eating unattended eggs to balance the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
## \ud83e\uddec Tropical Fish Genetics
\nBreeding tropical fish now utilizes a genetics system.
\n* Offspring inherit the base color, pattern color, and body shape from their parents.
\n* The physical egg blocks placed on the ground will also dynamically change color based on the parents’ genetics.<\/p>\n
## \ud83d\udc0a New Predator: The Pike
\nTo keep the prey population in check, the mod introduces a new freshwater predator\u2014the **Pike**.
\n* **Diet & Hunger:** Pikes actively hunt to survive. If natural breeding is disabled, a pike needs to eat 2 random fish per in-game day to avoid starving.
\n* **Breeding:** In natural mode, a pair of pikes will lay eggs after successfully hunting. For manual breeding, you can feed them raw fish.
\n* **Smart AI:** Pikes are not mindless killers. They will not attack other adult pikes or their own fry.
\n* **Player Danger:** Pikes will defend themselves if attacked. A hungry pike might also bite a player if they get too close (damage scales with world difficulty).<\/p>\n
## \ud83c\udf73 Culinary & Items
\nThe mod expands what you can do with fish and their byproducts:
\n* **Harvesting Eggs:** Right-click on placed fish eggs with an empty Glass Bottle to safely collect them.
\n* **Caviar Sandwiches:** Craft a Glass Bottle of Fish Eggs with Bread to create a highly nutritious meal.
\n* **Cooked Tropical Fish:** Tropical fish can now be cooked in a furnace or smoker.
\n* **Fugu (Pufferfish) Preparation:** Pufferfish and their eggs are highly toxic, even when cooked. To safely consume them, you must wash away the toxins by right-clicking a **Water Cauldron** while holding the pufferfish\/eggs. This gives you a “Cleaned Pufferfish”, which can then be safely cooked and eaten.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
### Configuration
\nMost features can be tweaked via the mod’s configuration file (`darwinfish-server.toml`), including natural breeding toggles, growth times, and overpopulation limits.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
You can contact me in the Discord: https:\/\/discord.com\/users\/790496483949412373<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fish breeding, new features and crafts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":54366,"template":"","meta":{"_minecraft_slug":"darwin-fish","_minecraft_project_id":"Jn2JX8xT","_minecraft_author":"_retrospective_","_minecraft_license":"MIT","_minecraft_downloads":17,"_minecraft_follows":0,"_minecraft_client_side":"required","_minecraft_server_side":"required","_minecraft_storage_type":"zip","_minecraft_archive_name":"darwin-fish.zip","_minecraft_size_bytes":317899,"_minecraft_version_count":3,"_minecraft_updated_at":"2026-05-16T12:35:46.942929Z","_minecraft_date_created":"2026-05-12T01:04:27.385741Z","_minecraft_date_modified":"2026-05-10T19:12:43.953223Z","_minecraft_project_url":"https:\/\/modrinth.com\/mod\/darwin-fish","_minecraft_icon_attachment_id":54366,"_minecraft_imported_at":"2026-06-03T00:48:01+00:00","_minecraft_import_hash":"06db58d5a56637ba332dce63c2ad3f1c","_minecraft_versions":"","_minecraft_links":"","_minecraft_gallery":"","_minecraft_api_metadata":""},"mod_category":[85,104,89,137,158],"mod_loader":[160],"minecraft_version":[36,37],"class_list":["post-54365","mod","type-mod","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","mod_category-food","mod_category-forge","mod_category-game-mechanics","mod_category-mobs","mod_category-neoforge","mod_loader-neoforge","minecraft_version-1-20-1","minecraft_version-1-21-1"],"yoast_head":"\n