Why Fish Bolt or Ignore You
Boids behavior is driven entirely by nearby flockmates, not by the player directly. Fish do not have a special "flee the player" rule, so any scattering you see is the flock reacting to a disturbance that broke its cohesion. Understanding this stops you from expecting fish to behave like vanilla mobs that track you.
Using This in Practice
1. Approach slowly. A sudden entry into the water (splash, boat, or diving in) can shove fish apart, and Separation will push them away from the crowding point before Cohesion pulls them back.
2. Herd with walls, not with your body. Because fish only steer relative to each other, you can guide a school by placing blocks that funnel them, letting Cohesion drag the group along the corridor.
3. Use predators as a tool. Dropping a hostile aquatic mob into a tank creates a moving disturbance; the school will split and re-form around it, which is great for screenshots and ambience.
4. Test in a small pool first. Behavior is easiest to read when the flock is dense, then scale up to your main build.
What to Expect
Fish will reform into a group after a disturbance rather than staying permanently scattered, provided the tank is open enough for them to find each other again.
