Better Fishtanks in FTB Evolution 2

Better Fishtanks adds functional aquariums to the pack. It is built for keeping fish, whether they come from vanilla Minecraft or from other mods. It does not add any new fish of its own, so it works as a companion to mods that do. This pack includes version 1.3.0-26.1-NeoForge, and it has been in the pack since 1.0.2 or earlier. The project page lists live aquatic plants and more decorations as planned future additions, so don't count them among the features below.^[1][2]

What you get

• The project page describes fishtanks that can house a wide variety of fish, plus an Aquarist Table, which is the central place to craft and manage your tanks and supplies.^[1]
• Fish Bags for moving fish around. The project page says to right-click a catchable fish to store it, then right-click a Fishtank with the filled bag to release it. Its FAQ says to Shift Right-click the tank.^[1]
• A feeding system with Food Containers, each made for one food type: Flakes, Dried Kelp, Mini-Shrimp or Pellets. According to the project page, the containers mean you don't have to feed your fish by hand every day.^[1]
• Passive Fish Eggs from your tanks, in six rarity tiers from Common up to Legendary. You can crack them open for loot in the Aquarist's Table.^[1]
• A large collection of decorations, from tiny stones and branches to shipwreck remnants and tower fragments. The project page lists more decorations as a planned future addition.^[1]
• An Aquarist villager who trades fish-keeping supplies, including rare fish eggs and exclusive decorations. You can find them in Plains Villages, or build an Aquarist Table near an unemployed villager to give them the profession.^[1]

Automation and options

The Fish Tank and Aquarist Table inventories are fully accessible, so pipes or item transfer from mods like Create can insert and extract items. Fluid pipes can fill your tanks with water too. Tanks can also hold lava, which supports mods like Nether Depths Upgrade.^[1]

The project page lists config options for requiring food, for showing water levels as Percent, Buckets or Millibuckets, for letting the Fish Bag capture mobs like Drowned, Guardians or Whales, and for choosing between Vanilla Waterlogging and an experimental Entity Rendering mode.^[1]

Better Fishtanks gives you a place to keep fish, but it does not add any fish of its own. You bring in vanilla or modded fish and build the setup around them. Here is the order I'd make things in: guide, table, tank, bag, then food.^[1]

The Aquarist's Guide

Start with the Aquarist's Guide. It is a shapeless recipe, and the mod ships in-game guide text for the tank, the table, food, decorations and the Fish Bag.^[3][4]

Aquarist's GuideMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Book
• Fish Tank

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:guide_book

The in-pack recipe for the guide.

The Aquarist's Table

Next, make the Aquarist's Table. It is where you craft decorations and fish food, and the mod's own text calls it essential for keeping a tank healthy. It is also where you crack open the fish eggs your tanks produce.^[1][4]

Aquarist's TableMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any plank	any plank	any plank
any plank	Crafting Table	any plank
Stick	Empty slot	Stick

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:aquarist_table

If you want villager trades, build a table near an unemployed villager to give them the Aquarist profession. You can also find Aquarists in Plains Villages. They trade fish-keeping supplies, including rare fish eggs and exclusive decorations.^[1]

The Fish Tank

The Fish Tank is the core of the mod. It holds water, lava, decorations and fish. Fill it with a bucket, or with pipes from other mods.^[4]

Fish TankMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Glass Pane	Glass Pane	Glass Pane
Glass Pane	Iron Ingot	Glass Pane
Glass Pane	Glass Pane	Glass Pane

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:fish_tank

In this pack the tank UI shows water as a percentage, because general.waterDisplayUnit is set to PERCENT. You can switch it to BUCKETS or MILLIBUCKETS.^[5]

The Fish Bag

The Fish Bag is how fish get into your tank. Right-click a catchable fish to store it, then right-click your Fish Tank with the filled bag to release it inside. The in-game guide text also says shift-right-click releases a fish from the bag.^[1][4]

Fish BagMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	Empty slot	Empty slot
Empty slot	String	Empty slot
Empty slot	Dried Kelp	Empty slot

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:fish_bag_item

This pack leaves capturing Drowned, Guardians and whales switched off. These are mob.allowDrownedCapture, mob.allowGuardianCapture and mob.allowWhaleCapture, all set to false.^[5]

Fish food

Don't skip food. general.requireFood is true in this pack, so your fish need to be fed to survive. Well-fed fish also lay eggs now and then. You craft food such as Flakes and Pellets at the Aquarist's Table.^[4][5]

Pellet MixMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Wheat
• Wheat
• any fishe
• any fishe

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:pellet_mix

Craft your own pellet mix for your fish.

Mini shrimp make another food source. They can be caught, cooked and eaten. The Cooked Mini Shrimp comes from smelting.^[1][3]

Cooked Mini ShrimpMod recipe

Smelting

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:cooked_minishrimp_from_smelting

Better Fishtanks lets you build aquariums and manage your own aquatic ecosystem. Here is how the pieces fit together.^[4]

The Fish Tank

The Fish Tank is the core of the mod. It can hold water, lava, decorations and fish. You fill it with a bucket, or with pipes from other mods. Lava tanks are there for mods like Nether Depths Upgrade.^[1][4]

Fish TankMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Glass Pane	Glass Pane	Glass Pane
Glass Pane	Iron Ingot	Glass Pane
Glass Pane	Glass Pane	Glass Pane

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:fish_tank

The in-pack Fish Tank recipe.

The tank screen has slots for Fish Eggs, Tank Floor, Fish Food and Tank Upgrades. It also shows the water level and the fish count.^[4]

The water readout can be shown as a percentage, whole buckets or millibuckets. This pack uses PERCENT, set in general.waterDisplayUnit.^[4][5]

For rendering, general.useEntityWaterRendering is false here. That means the tank uses the vanilla waterlogging system. The entity-based water rendering is labelled a beta mode in the config.^[5]

Getting fish into the tank

You move fish with the Fish Bag. Right-click a fish to catch it, and shift-right-click to release it.^[4]

Once a fish is caught, the bag's texture changes to show it is no longer empty. To populate a tank, use the filled bag on the Fish Tank block. The project page's FAQ says to sneak while doing it.^[1]

Fish BagMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	Empty slot	Empty slot
Empty slot	String	Empty slot
Empty slot	Dried Kelp	Empty slot

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:fish_bag_item

The in-pack Fish Bag recipe.

The mod's own catchable list covers these vanilla mobs: cod, salmon, pufferfish, squid, glow squid, axolotl, tropical fish, turtle, dolphin, frog and tadpole. It also includes the Alex's Mobs seal, catfish and orca.^[6]

The pack's config adds a few rules on top of that list:^[5]

• mob.allowDrownedCapture, mob.allowGuardianCapture and mob.allowWhaleCapture are all false. Drowned, Guardians (including Elder Guardians) and whales cannot be captured unless you turn them on. The config warns that large fish like whales may eat smaller fish in the same tank.^[5]
• mob.allowFishHunting is true, so fish can hunt or hurt each other inside the tank.^[5]
• mob.allowPufferfishPuffing is true, so pufferfish can blow up while in a tank.^[5]
• mob.customCatchableEntitiesByName and mob.customCatchableEntitiesByTag let you make other entities catchable. The name list matches the registry name or display name. The tag list takes "modid:entity_id" for entities or "#modid:tag_id" for tags. The pack's file contains the entries "dummy_shark" and "example:dummy_entity".^[5]
• mob.blacklistedEntitiesByName is empty here. Anything listed there cannot be added to a tank or collected with the bag, even if it is catchable.^[5]

The Random Fish Bag comes from the Aquarist villager and holds a surprise fish. Shift-right-click it to open it.^[4]

Feeding your fish

Fish need food to survive and reproduce. In this pack general.requireFood is true, so you do have to keep them fed. That option is the one that controls whether fish need food to survive.^[4][5]

Food containers store food in a compressed form, so you do not need to feed by hand every day.^[1]

There is one container type per food: Flakes, Dried Kelp, Mini-Shrimp and Pellets. Their items are Container of Flakes, Container of dried Kelp, Container of mini Shrimp and Container of Pellets.^{[4][7][8][9][10]}

A placed container block keeps track of a grid of positions, named from pos_0_0 up to pos_2_2. When you break it, it drops one container item for each position that is set.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Mini-shrimp are a food source you can catch, cook and eat, and Cooked Mini Shrimp is the cooked result. You can also craft Pellet Mix for your fish.^[1][3][4]

Cooked Mini ShrimpMod recipe

Smelting

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:cooked_minishrimp_from_smelting

Cooking mini shrimp is a smelting recipe.

Pellet MixMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Wheat
• Wheat
• any fishe
• any fishe

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:pellet_mix

The in-pack Pellet Mix recipe.

The Aquarist's Table

The Aquarist's Table is where you craft decorations and fish food. It is also where you crack fish eggs open for resources. Its recipe browser has separate Deco, Egg and Food pages.^[4]

Aquarist's TableMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any plank	any plank	any plank
any plank	Crafting Table	any plank
Stick	Empty slot	Stick

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:aquarist_table

The in-pack Aquarist's Table recipe.

The table doubles as a job block. Place one near an unemployed villager to make them an Aquarist. You can also find Aquarists in Plains Villages. They trade fish-keeping supplies, including rare fish eggs and exclusive decorations.^[1]

Fish eggs

Well-fed fish in a tank occasionally lay eggs. Eggs come in six rarity tiers: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Exotic and Legendary. You can trade them or crack them in the Aquarist's Table.^[1][4]

The mod's recipe info lists these egg chances: Common 50%, Uncommon 30%, Rare 15%, Exotic 0.9% and Legendary 0.1%. No chance for Epic is shown in the sources here.^[4]

Automation

The Fish Tank and Aquarist Table inventories are fully accessible. You can use pipes or item transfer systems from mods like Create to insert or extract items automatically. Fluid pipes can fill a tank with water.^[1]

Other mods' fishtanks

The mod can deactivate fishtanks and aquariums from other mods by removing their crafting recipes. It spots them by checking whether an item's registry path contains a keyword from general.otherModFishtankKeywords. In this pack general.removeOtherModFishtanks is false, so other mods' tanks stay craftable. The keyword list is fishtank, fish_tank, aquarium, fishbowl and fish_bowl.^[5]

Better Fishtanks does not have a tier ladder you climb in this pack. What the pack gives you is a small set of crafting recipes for the tank itself, the tools around it and the food. Below are the in-pack recipes, so you can see exactly what each item needs.^[3]

The tank and its parts

The Empty Glass Container and the Fish Tank both have their own crafting recipes in the pack. Here they are as the site renders them.^[3]

Empty Glass ContainerMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	Empty slot	Empty slot
Empty slot	any wooden slab	Empty slot
Empty slot	Glass	Empty slot

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:glass_container

The Empty Glass Container, crafted in a shaped recipe.

Fish TankMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Glass Pane	Glass Pane	Glass Pane
Glass Pane	Iron Ingot	Glass Pane
Glass Pane	Glass Pane	Glass Pane

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:fish_tank

The Fish Tank block, also a shaped recipe.

When you break a placed Fish Tank, its loot table gives the tank block back, as long as it survives an explosion. The Aquarist's Table works the same way and drops itself.^[11][12]

Aquarist's TableMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any plank	any plank	any plank
any plank	Crafting Table	any plank
Stick	Empty slot	Stick

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:aquarist_table

The Aquarist's Table is a shaped crafting recipe.

Catching and feeding

The Fish Bag is crafted with a shaped recipe. Pellet Mix is a shapeless one.^[3]

Fish BagMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Empty slot	Empty slot	Empty slot
Empty slot	String	Empty slot
Empty slot	Dried Kelp	Empty slot

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:fish_bag_item

The Fish Bag.

Pellet MixMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Wheat
• Wheat
• any fishe
• any fishe

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:pellet_mix

Pellet Mix is shapeless, so the arrangement in the grid does not matter.

Food containers such as the dried kelp and flakes ones are multi-position blocks. Their loot tables give you one container item for each filled position, so breaking a partly used container returns only what is still in it.^[7][8]

Guide book and cooked shrimp

The Aquarist's Guide is a shapeless recipe in this pack, so you can craft your own copy. Cooked Mini Shrimp is made by smelting.^[3]

Aquarist's GuideMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Book
• Fish Tank

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:guide_book

The Aquarist's Guide.

Cooked Mini ShrimpMod recipe

Smelting

Recipe id: betterfishtanks:cooked_minishrimp_from_smelting

Cooked Mini Shrimp comes from a smelting recipe.

Better Fishtanks keeps all of its settings in one file, config/betterfishtanks-common.toml. Here is how this pack sets the options you are most likely to touch.^[5]

How the tanks behave

• general.requireFood is true, so your fish need food to survive. Plan a feeding setup before you fill a tank.^[5]
• mob.allowFishHunting is true, so fish can hunt or hurt each other inside the tank. Set it to false if you want a peaceful mixed tank.^[5]
• mob.allowPufferfishPuffing is true, so pufferfish can blow up while in a fishtank. Set it to false to stop that.^[5]
• general.useEntityWaterRendering is false, so tanks use the vanilla waterlogging system. The entity-based water rendering is labelled BETA MODE in the config.^[5]
• general.waterDisplayUnit is "PERCENT", so the Fish Tank UI shows water as a percentage (0-100%). The other allowed values are BUCKETS and MILLIBUCKETS.^[5]

What the Fish Bag can capture

The Fish Bag is how you move fish, vanilla or modded, into your tanks. The pack keeps the bigger and nastier mobs off the list by default.^[1][5]

• mob.allowDrownedCapture is false, so you cannot bag Drowned.^[5]
• mob.allowGuardianCapture is false, so Guardians and Elder Guardians cannot be bagged.^[5]
• mob.allowWhaleCapture is false, so whales cannot be bagged. The config warns that large fish like whales may eat smaller fish in the same tank if you turn this on.^[5]

Custom lists and other mods' tanks

• general.removeOtherModFishtanks is false, so fishtanks and aquariums from other mods stay craftable. If you set it to true, their crafting recipes are removed.^[5]
• general.otherModFishtankKeywords holds "fishtank", "fish_tank", "aquarium", "fishbowl" and "fish_bowl". An item from another mod is treated as a fishtank if its registry path contains one of these. This only matters when the option above is switched on.^[5]
• mob.customCatchableEntitiesByName is set to "dummy_shark" in this pack.^[5]
• mob.customCatchableEntitiesByTag is set to "example:dummy_entity" in this pack.^[5]
• mob.blacklistedEntitiesByName is empty, so nothing is blocked from the tank or the Fish Bag through that list.^[5]

Better Fishtanks is at version 1.3.0-26.1-NeoForge in FTB Evolution 2 1.1.0. It was already in the pack by 1.0.2 or earlier, so it has been with the pack for a while.^[2]

Better Fishtanks 1.3.0

This is the version your pack ships, and the mod's own patch notes list these changes:^[2][13]

• A warning popup now tells you if your fish are starving.^[13]
• Several bug fixes.^[13]
• Some unused content was removed.^[13]
• New config options were added for compatibility.^[13]

The pack changelogs have no entries for this mod, and the mod's patch notes don't name the new config options, so I can't tell you which settings were added. Changes in earlier versions of the mod aren't covered by the sources here either.^[2][13]