Under investigation in this paper is a quintic derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation with time-dependent coefficients (TDCs) for certain hydrodynamic wave packets or a medium with the negative refractive index. Breathers under zero background are generated by modulating bright solitons based on the N-soliton solutions given by the existing literature with N being a positive integer. Under zero background, with certain wave numbers fixed, based on the discussions of the influences of these TDCs on the phase difference, we know that: the dispersion \(\lambda (t)\) causes that the soliton state shifts between one breather and one bound state soliton, whereas the self-steepening \(\alpha (t)\) and cubic nonlinearity \(\mu (t)\) can make one breather destroyed, maybe forming a special soliton tunneling process. TDCs are easier to make the breather under zero background destroyed than the constant coefficients, which is caused by the effects of t on the breather properties. Under zero background breathers can be constructed by bright solitons when we adjust their phase differences, whose properties can be retained after interacting with a bright soliton, such as the unchanged waveform. Double pole propagating in an approximate bound state can consist of two peaks under zero background or a peak and a valley under non-zero background. Separation distance between two peaks or between a peak and a valley is not constant but varies with \(\log t\) .
