Axolotl

Axolotls are aquatic passive mobs that attack most other underwater mobs.

Spawning
After the world generation, axolotls spawn individually below sea level (y63) in a water source in total darkness and where there is a block with  tag (i.e. stone, deepslate, andesite, diorite, granite, or tuff) less than 5 blocks below the spawning space.

Creative mode
Axolotls can be spawned in Creative mode with a spawn egg, axolotl bucket, or with the command.

Colors
Axolotls can be one of five colors: pink (leucistic, referred to as "lucy" in its texture file), brown (wild), yellow, cyan and blue.

$$, the blue variety has a $1/1200$ (0.083%) chance, giving the common varieties a $1199/4800$ (~24.98%) chance individually.

$$ and, the blue variety does not spawn naturally and has a $1199/4800$ (~24.98%) chance chance to spawn when bred.

Behavior
Axolotls are passive toward players and can be attached to leads. Axolotls give Regeneration I for 100 tick per Axolotl in the fight, up to a duration of 2400 tick, and remove Mining Fatigue when a player kills a mob that is in combat with an axolotl.

Axolotls attack all aquatic mobs except turtles and dolphins. They also attack drowned. An axolotl deals points of damage per attack.

After killing a non-hostile mob, there is a two minute cooldown before another non-hostile mob can be hunted. Axolotls prioritize attacking hostile mobs over non-hostile mobs.

If an axolotl takes damage underwater, it may play dead, dropping to the ground for 200 tick while gaining Regeneration I. Hostile aquatic mobs ignore healing axolotls. There is a $1/3$ chance for an axolotl to play dead to recover. In addition, if either a random integer from 0–2 (inclusive) is less than the amount of incoming damage, or the axolotl's health before the damage is dealt is less than 50% of its maximum health, it plays dead.

On land, axolotls move toward the nearest water source because they die outside of water after 6000 tick. Unlike fish, dolphins, and squid, axolotls do not die on land in rain or a thunderstorm.

Unlike most mobs, Axolotls cannot be moved by flowing water. However, they are still affected by Bubble Columns.

As aquatic mobs, they take extra damage from the Impaling enchantment. Unlike other aquatic mobs, they cause nearby pufferfish to inflate.

Axolotls picked up with a bucket and re-spawned do not despawn.

Breeding
Adult axolotls can be led and bred with buckets of tropical fish. After breeding, a baby axolotl spawns and 1-7 experience is generated. The parents cannot be bred again for 5 minutes. The baby axolotl has a $1/1200$ chance to be the rare blue variant; otherwise, it inherits the color of one parent at random. Babies follow adults, and grow to adulthood in 20 minutes. The growth of baby axolotls can be accelerated using buckets of tropical fish; each use reduces the remaining growing time by 10%.

ID




Entity data
Axolotls have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Trivia

 * In the release notes Minecraft Launcher there is an encrypted message T⍑ᒷ ᔑ ̇/𝙹ꖎ𝙹ℸ ̣ ꖎᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ∴⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ᓭᒷᒷᒲ which translates to "The Axolotls are not what they seem"
 * are small salamanders that are endemic to Mexico, which are critically endangered, following Mojang Studios' trend of adding endangered species such as polar bears, giant pandas, sea turtles, and bees into the game for awareness purposes.
 * The probability of a blue axolotl spawning is 1 in 1200 because that is approximately the number of axolotls left in the wild in real life.
 * Axolotls can eat only buckets of tropical fish and not tropical fish items because axolotls in real life only eat living fish.
 * Axolotls are the first amphibian mobs implemented into Minecraft, although it was not the first announced amphibian because frogs were announced at MINECON Live 2019. In addition, Rana was based on a frog.
 * Blue is the only color variant of axolotls not based on real life. The blue variant was a suggestion by user Darkiceflame on the r/minecraftsuggestions subreddit. It is a reference to Mudkip from the series.
 * Even though they are not in the game, the green variant appears in the Caves & Cliffs Part I announcement trailer. When asked on a livestream, Lady Agnes said she cannot say why the green variant was cut from the game.
 * Both the "play dead" behavior and the regeneration ability of axolotls are based on the abilities of real life axolotls.
 * The axolotl is the only mob added in Java Edition 1.17 that wasn't added by a community vote.