Babel Fish
Babel Fish adds a bright yellow fish that players can eat or use in a bucket to receive translated chat from nearby mobs and to hear hints about world features.
What it does
The Babel Fish Translator status effect is the core of the mod. While it is active, players see translations of nearby mob sounds in chat, and mobs can offer hints about the locations of biomes and structures. The frequency of chat messages and the translation radius are set through the config, along with the search radius for world hints, the chance of a message being sent, the reduction factor based on the number of nearby entities, and the delay in ticks between messages.
Babel Fish spawns as a rare fish in rivers and flower forests, with a slightly higher chance in warm variations, and it can also be found in several structures. A Babel Fish mob spawns in the world, and dolphins are drawn to the raw fish. Eating the fish is preferred to drinking a bucket, and it can be cooked in a campfire, smoker or furnace. The mod requires Cloth Config API, Fabric API, Mod Menu and VillagerUnknown's Platform, and it is published for Fabric only, across 1.21.1 – 1.21.5, under the MIT License. It runs on client and server, so both sides need it, and the source code is open.
Key features
Translated mob chat
Nearby mob sounds are sent to chat as translations while the status effect is active.
World hints
Mobs may point players toward biomes and structures within a configurable search radius.
Configurable chat frequency
Message chance, delay, radius and entity-based reduction are all adjustable in the config.
Fish and mob spawning
The fish appears in rivers and flower forests, and a Babel Fish mob adds to the world.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 4
Use cases
Who it’s for: Players who want mob sounds rendered as chat text and explorers who look for biomes and structures, on Fabric 1.21.1 – 1.21.5 with the listed dependencies.
How it compares
Borukva Fish is server-side only, published for Fabric 1.21.6 – 1.21.8 and released under All rights reserved, so it does not run on a client alone. Bountiful Fish is client and server on Fabric for 1.21.11 under the MIT License, but it is not open source. Rare Fish Finder is client-side only on Fabric for 1.21.4 – 26.2, and it is open source under the MIT License.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babel Fish | Fabric | 1.21.1 – 1.21.5 | Client and server | 2026-04-26 |
| Borukva Fish | Fabric | 1.21.6 – 1.21.8 | Server-side only | 2025-10-17 |
| Bountiful Fish | Fabric | 1.21.11 | Client and server | 2026-04-25 |
| Rare Fish Finder | Fabric | 1.21.4 – 26.2 | Client-side only | 2026-08-28 |
Questions
Does Babel Fish need Fabric API?
Does the server need Babel Fish installed?
Which game versions have files?
In the catalog
Babel Fish is one of 6,151 Food mods on ModsFinder, and one of 2,715 Food mods for Fabric. 15,307 mods support Minecraft 1.21.5.
More from VillagerUnknown
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What the author says
Adds a bright yellow fish that, when consumed from a bucket, provides translations and world hints to the player. The Babel Fish can talk to players and, when consumed from a bucket, can provide translations for mobs to the player.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/villagerunknown-babelfish
- Owner
- VillagerUnknown
- Published
- 2025-01-03
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-04-26
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15