The aquatic Axolotl in Minecraft is an adorable animal that you can find underwater, hidden away in dark caves. You’ll want to bring a few Potions of Water Breathing with you to make sure you can spend enough time swimming around to find them. Thankfully, they have a distinct chirp that gives their location away, making them a bit easier to find.
Although you cannot tame Axolotl, you can handle them in two ways. The first is with a lead. While holding the lead, you’ll be able to drag them around with you and bring them anywhere you go. The other method is using a water bucket. While holding the water bucket, interact with an Axolotl, and they’ll enter the bucket. You can then carry them around everywhere with you, even across the land.
It’s important to keep Axolotl inside water buckets while traversing land because they cannot survive out of the water. If you were to dump them onto land, they immediately attempt to find the nearest water source. At the same time, they’re steadily taking damage over time, and if they don’t seek water quickly enough, they die.
You don’t want to bring an Axolotl out of water. The only way they can survive is by having them in a water bucket, and you’ll be holding them in your hands or your inventory. Outside of this, they do not survive it. If you want to bring Axolotl with you on your adventures or back to your settlement, make sure they have a small water source to swim around.
