How to Tame a Nautilus in Minecraft
How to tame a nautilus in Minecraft: feed it pufferfish until hearts appear (1 in 3 chance each), then saddle it for an underwater mount with free air.
To tame a nautilus in Minecraft, feed it pufferfish or a bucket of pufferfish until heart particles appear. Each feeding has a 1 in 3 chance to work, so bring about seven (that covers roughly 94% of attempts). Then put a saddle on it and you have an underwater mount that stops your air from running out. The nautilus arrived in the Mounts of Mayhem drop on December 9, 2025 (Java 1.21.11, Bedrock 1.21.130), and everything below holds in Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.60 as of November 2026.
Where to find a nautilus
Mojang’s patch notes say nautiluses spawn in every ocean biome, warm and frozen included. They don’t hang around the surface: the Minecraft Wiki puts them between Y 38 and Y 58, roughly 5 to 25 blocks below sea level, alone or in groups of up to three.
A few habits make the hunt easier:
- Bring a Potion of Water Breathing or a turtle helmet. You’ll spend a lot of time between Y 38 and the surface until you have a mount.
- Night Vision helps a lot in deep or murky water.
- Untamed nautiluses despawn like other wild mobs, but Mojang’s Java notes say one becomes persistent once you interact with it. Feeding it counts, so don’t wander off mid-attempt.
- Nautiluses are neutral. Hit one and it fights back with a dash attack, so keep your weapon away.
How to get pufferfish
Pufferfish are the only taming food. Mojang’s notes name pufferfish and buckets of pufferfish, and nothing else works.
- Fishing: pufferfish are a normal fishing catch. Cast in open water and sort the pufferfish from the cod and salmon.
- Bucket of pufferfish: find a live pufferfish in a warm or lukewarm ocean and use a water bucket on it. Bedrock 1.21.130 added lukewarm oceans to the pufferfish spawn list.
Raw pufferfish stack to 64; buckets don’t stack. For a taming trip, raw fish win on inventory space. Don’t eat them: raw pufferfish poison you.
How to tame a nautilus in Minecraft, step by step
Once you’ve found one and you’re carrying fish, taming takes under a minute.
- Hold a pufferfish. Nautiluses swim toward players holding one, which saves you chasing it.
- Use the fish on the nautilus. Right-click on PC, the left trigger on Xbox and PlayStation, ZL on Switch, or tap it on mobile.
- Watch the particles. Smoke means that fish didn’t take. Hearts mean it’s tamed.
- Repeat until you see hearts. Each fish is a fresh 1 in 3 roll; misses don’t build up toward a guarantee.
- Put on a saddle. Use the saddle on your tamed nautilus, or open its inventory and drop it in the saddle slot.
How many pufferfish do you need?
The Minecraft Wiki gives each pufferfish or bucket a 1 in 3 chance to tame. That means 3 fish on average, but averages hide bad luck. We worked out the odds of having a tamed nautilus after a given number of fish (1 − (2/3)n):
| Pufferfish fed | Chance it’s tamed by then |
|---|---|
| 1 | 33.3% |
| 3 | 70.4% |
| 5 | 86.8% |
| 7 | 94.1% |
| 10 | 98.3% |
Our take: carry seven. That covers about 94% of attempts, and the leftovers work as breeding food later. Bringing three because “the average is three” fails almost 30% of the time.
How to ride a nautilus
A tamed nautilus needs a saddle before you can mount it. Saddles have been craftable since the Chase the Skies drop: three leather across the top and an iron ingot in the middle. Saddles from chests work too.
Here’s what changes once you’re on, according to Mojang’s Mounts of Mayhem patch notes:
- Dash: press Jump for a burst of speed, like a camel’s dash. A ridden nautilus can dash every 2 seconds, launching up to about 12 blocks.
- Breath of the Nautilus: while mounted, your oxygen stops draining. It doesn’t refill, so surface before you hop off with an empty air bar.
- Roaming leash: a tamed nautilus without a saddle wanders up to 32 blocks; with a saddle, 16.
- Land is a bad idea: you can steer one onto land, but it crawls and takes suffocation damage, so dismount and leave it in water at the shore.
- Removing gear: shears take off its armor first, then the saddle.
How to get nautilus armor
Nautilus armor fits both the nautilus and the zombie nautilus and comes in copper, golden, iron, diamond and netherite. Mojang’s notes add copper, iron, golden and diamond versions to buried treasure, ocean ruin and shipwreck chests, so ocean looting and nautilus hunting fit neatly into one trip. Netherite nautilus armor comes from upgrading the diamond version at a smithing table. Fit armor through the nautilus’s inventory screen, next to the saddle slot.
Can you tame a zombie nautilus?
Yes. A zombie nautilus spawns with a Drowned rider holding a trident and is only hostile while that rider is aboard. Defeat the Drowned and the zombie nautilus turns neutral, and you can tame it with pufferfish the same way. Warm oceans spawn a coral-covered variant that works identically. Here’s how the two compare, per Mojang’s notes:
| Feature | Nautilus | Zombie nautilus |
|---|---|---|
| Taming food | Pufferfish or bucket | Pufferfish or bucket |
| Spawns with a rider | No | Yes, a Drowned with a trident |
| Can breed | Yes, with pufferfish | No |
| Drops when killed | Chance of a nautilus shell | 0 to 3 rotten flesh |
For a single mount, either works. If you want a stable of them, tame regular nautiluses, since only those breed.
Spending a lot of time underwater? See what Aqua Affinity does. For land mounts, see what horses eat in Minecraft, and how to turn on keep inventory if you keep drowning with your gear.
Nautilus FAQ
Can you tame a nautilus with cod, salmon or tropical fish?
No. Mojang’s Mounts of Mayhem notes list only pufferfish and buckets of pufferfish as taming items, in both Java and Bedrock. Other fish can heal or lure one, but they never tame it. That’s why a quick fishing session before the hunt pays off: sort out the pufferfish and leave the cod and salmon for dinner.
Can a tamed nautilus follow you onto land?
It shouldn’t. Mojang’s patch notes say nautiluses take suffocation damage on land, so a nautilus beached on the shore slowly gets hurt. Dismount while it’s still in water and leave it there. A saddled one stays within 16 blocks, so it’ll still be close when you come back.
Seven pufferfish, one saddle, and the ocean stops being the slow part of your world. For the full list of changes, see Mojang’s Java 1.21.11 Mounts of Mayhem patch notes.
Cassia Fenwick
Cassia Fenwick is a staff writer at Console Alley, covering console gaming from the latest hardware questions to the games players return to for years. Her work moves across news, practical guides, reviews, gaming gear, and the wider culture around games. Whether she is breaking down a new console feature or explaining a mechanic in a familiar favorite, she writes with a straightforward goal: help readers understand what matters and what to do next. She pays particular attention to the small details that shape the playing experience. A controller compatibility rule, a battery-life setting, a difficult-to-find resource, or a change introduced by a game update can make the difference between a frustrating evening and a rewarding one. Her published coverage includes Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 questions, Terraria, Stardew Valley, and The Sims 4, with explanations that welcome readers who may be discovering a game for the first time or returning after time away. Cassia's style is clear, patient, and grounded in practical examples. Rather than assuming readers already know the terminology, she begins with the question at hand, adds the context that genuinely helps, and keeps instructions easy to follow. She is interested not only in how a feature works, but also why its design matters—especially when a small interaction, interface decision, or unexpected mechanic changes how a game feels. Outside her gaming coverage, Cassia enjoys colorful postcards, making books, and noticing the shapes, colors, and details built into everyday objects. That curiosity carries naturally into her writing, where overlooked features and thoughtful design can provide a fresh way to look at a game. Her aim is for every article to be useful on its own: approachable enough for a newcomer, specific enough for someone looking for a quick answer, and enjoyable enough to leave readers with something new to explore.
