
Babel Fish
Adds a bright yellow fish that, when consumed from a bucket, provides translations and world hints to the player.
Screenshots

About this Mod
VillagerUnknown's Babel Fish
Adds a bright yellow fish that, when consumed from a bucket, provides translations and world hints to the player.
Features:
- Babel Fish Mob
- Babel Fish Translator Status Effect
- Translations and World Hints to Biomes & Structures
Options
- Babel Fish Translation Radius - Radius from players to detect mobs to translate
- World Hint Search Radius - Radius to search for biomes and structures
- Translation Chat Message Entity Reduction Factor - Percentage to reduce chance for messages based on the number of nearby entities
- Translation Chat Message Minimum Chance - Minimum chance to send a translation
- Translation Chat Message Delay - Delay in ticks between sending translations
- Chance for Translation from Sound - Chance to provide a translation when a sound plays.
- Chance for Babel Fish Chatter - Chance for random chatter from the Babel Fish allowing the translations
- Chance for World Hint - Chance to provide a hint to a biome or structure as a translation.
- Chance for Structure Hint - Chance to provide a structure hint instead of a biome hint as the world hint.
Babel Fish Mob
The Babel Fish can talk to players and, when consumed from a bucket, can provide translations for mobs to the player.
Babel Fish have a small chance to spawn in Rivers and a slightly higher chance to spawn in variations of the Warm Ocean.
If you prefer to eat a Babel Fish instead of drink one, Babel Fish can be eaten raw, but it's best to cook them with a campfire, smoker, or furnace.
For some reason, Dolphins really want you to feed them Babel Fish raw.
Babel Fish Translator Status Effect
With the Babel Fish Translator status effect applied, players will see translations in chat whenever a nearby mob makes a noise.
The frequency of chat messages for translations can be controlled through the config.
Translations and World Hints
With the Babel Fish Translator status effect applied, mobs have a chance to provide hints to the locations of biomes and structures in the world.
For example:
- Bees - Flower Forests
- Fish - Ocean Monuments, Ocean Ruins, Ruined Portals in the Ocean, Rivers, and all Oceans
- Villagers - Jungle Temples, Mansions, Pillager Outposts, Swamp Hut, Trail Ruins, Trial Chambers, and all Villages
- Pillagers - Mansions, Pillager Outposts, and all Villages
- Zombies - Deep Dark, Ancient Cities, Mineshafts, and Trail Ruins
- Skeletons - Deep Dark, Ancient Cities, Shipwrecks, and Buried Treasures
- Creepers - Desert Temples
- Piglins - Crimson Forests, Warped Forests, Bastions, and Fortresses
- Enderman - Deep Dark, Ruined Portals, Ancient Cities, Strongholds, Fortresses, and End Cities
- Wandering Traders - Cherry Groves, Jungles, Swamps, Mangrove Swamps, Badlands, Desert, Ice Spikes, Meadow, Desert Temples, Mansions, Pillager Outposts, Beached Shipwrecks, Swamp Hut, Trail Ruins, and all Villages
Support
- Report bugs at https://github.com/VillagerUnknown/BabelFish/issues
- View the changelog at https://github.com/VillagerUnknown/BabelFish/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
Known Issues
- The Babel Fish Translator status effect can impact performance as it frequently uses code similar to the
/locatecommand for world hints. This is controlled by theworldHintSearchRadiusconfig value. By default, this is set to the lowest possible value. Increase this value at your own discretion.
Available Versions
How to Install Babel Fish on Your Server
Order Server
Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).
Set fabric Loader
In the panel under "Egg", select the fabric loader and matching Minecraft version (1.21.5).
Install Mod
Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Babel Fish". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.
Compatibility
Mod Loaders
Minecraft Versions
1.21.5, 1.21.4, 1.21.3 (+2 more)
Server-side
✓ RequiredRecommended RAM
4 GB(min. 3 GB)Frequently Asked Questions
Babel Fish server crashes on startup – what to do?
Most common cause: wrong fabric version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (1.21.5). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.
Is Babel Fish compatible with fabric?
Babel Fish officially supports fabric for Minecraft 1.21.5, 1.21.4, 1.21.3. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.
Server lagging with Babel Fish – how to optimize performance?
Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Babel Fish consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.
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