I've tried several times to feed tropical fish buckets to axolotls and they get heart particles but don't ever need, have tried 5-6 times. Axolotls are in a water tank I built, not in the wild. I wait around until the hearts fade. I'm not holding a bucket of tropical fish after I feed them.
As of the latest update 1.17.0.56, axolotls can be bred.