Health points |
8 |
---|---|
Behavior |
Hostile |
Classification | |
Attack strength |
Easy and Normal: 1 |
Hitbox size |
Height: 0.3 Blocks |
Speed |
0.25 |
Spawn |
After mining infested blocks or from spawners in strongholds. |
Silverfish are small hostile mobs found hiding in stone-like blocks in mountains, strongholds, igloo basements and woodland mansions.
Contents
Spawning[]
Silverfish spawn from broken infested blocks, which generate in strongholds, underground in mountains and windswept hills biomes, in igloo basements and in woodland mansion false portal rooms. Silverfish do not appear if the block is broken with the Silk Touch enchantment.
Silverfish spawners naturally generate in end portal rooms in strongholds. Silverfish can spawn from spawners only at light level 11 or lower, or on stone types they can enter (stone, cobblestone, stone bricks, etc.) at any light level, and cannot spawn within a 5 block distance of any player[verify]. This is the only renewable source of silverfish and infested blocks.
Drops[]
Silverfish have no drops other than 5 experience points when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Behavior[]

A silverfish being freed from an infested block, which calls for help from other silverfish; causing them to emerge from more infested blocks.
Silverfish attack players, iron golems, snow golems and call other silverfish in the area upon being hit. The silverfish sees through walls and pathfind towards the player.
When they suffer Poison damage or damage inflicted by the player and survive, they cause other silverfish within a 21×11×21 area to break out of their infested blocks. The player can prevent other silverfish from appearing by killing them in one shot.
Silverfish, being arthropods, take extra damage from the Bane of Arthropods enchantment, and receive Slowness IV upon being hit.
When idle, silverfish enter a nearby deepslate, stone, cobblestone, stone bricks, mossy stone bricks, cracked stone bricks or chiseled stone bricks block, transforming it into the respective infested block if /gamerule mobGriefing
is set to true
, as per default. They cannot infest mossy cobblestone, despite being capable of infesting both mossy blocks and cobblestone, and they also cannot infest slab and stairs of these blocks. They are also unable to infest andesite, diorite, granite or smooth stone.
Sounds[]
Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Silverfish hisses | ? | ? | entity.silverfish.ambient | subtitles.entity.silverfish.ambient | ? | ? | 16 | |
Silverfish dies | ? | ? | entity.silverfish.death | subtitles.entity.silverfish.death | ? | ? | 16 | |
Silverfish hurts | ? | ? | entity.silverfish.hurt | subtitles.entity.silverfish.hurt | ? | ? | 16 | |
Footsteps | ? | Used in Bedrock Edition only | entity.silverfish.step | subtitles.block.generic.footsteps | None | None | None |
Data values[]
ID[]
Name | Identifier | Entity tags (JE) | Translation key |
---|---|---|---|
Silverfish | silverfish | powder_snow_walkable_mobs | entity.minecraft.silverfish |
Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
---|---|---|---|
Silverfish | silverfish | 39 | entity.silverfish.name |
Entity data[]
Silverfish have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
Advancements[]
Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Adventure | Adventure, exploration, and combat | — | Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity. | adventure/root
|
![]() | Monster Hunter | Kill any hostile monster | Adventure | Kill one of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_a_mob
|
![]() | Monsters Hunted | Kill one of every hostile monster | Monster Hunter | Kill each of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_all_mobs
|
History[]
Java Edition Beta | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1.7 | The texture (silverfish.png) has been added. However, the mob, itself, is not yet present. | ||||
1.8 | Pre-release | ![]() | |||
Java Edition | |||||
1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | The health of silverfish has been reduced from 20![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 | Silverfish monster spawners are now found in end portal rooms in strongholds. | ||||
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 | Silverfish are now considered arthropods. | ||||
RC1 | Added sounds for silverfish. Before the update, silverfish used spider sounds. | ||||
1.3.1 | 12w26a | Silverfish now summon silverfish from nearby monster eggs whenever they take Poison damage. | |||
1.4.2 | 12w38a | Monster eggs containing silverfish can now generate underground in extreme hills biomes. | |||
1.7.2 | 13w36a | Silverfish can now possess cracked stone bricks, mossy stone bricks, and chiseled stone bricks. However, the first two do not actually generate within strongholds.[1] | |||
? | Silverfish can now rarely spawn inside cobblestone or stone brick blocks.[verify] | ||||
1.8 | 14w06a | Silverfish now pathfind, alert other silverfish of the player when hit, and stop occasionally before moving again (similar to most other mobs). | |||
1.9 | 15w43a | Silverfish can now be spawned from broken monster eggs in the basements of igloos. | |||
15w51b | Silverfish no longer enter into blocks if the game rule mobGriefing is false. | ||||
1.11 | 16w32a | The entity ID has been changed from Silverfish to silverfish . | |||
16w36a | Silverfish can now spawn from broken infested cobblestone in the fake portal room of woodland mansions. | ||||
Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
v0.9.0 | build 1 | ![]() | |||
v0.12.1 | build 12 | Silverfish no longer make sounds while moving. | |||
Pocket Edition | |||||
1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Silverfish can now be spawned from broken monster eggs in the basements of igloos. | |||
1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Silverfish can now spawn from broken infested cobblestone in the fake portal room of woodland mansions. | |||
? | ? | Silverfish once again make sounds while moving. | |||
Legacy Console Edition | |||||
TU5 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | ![]() | |
New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
0.1.0 | ![]() |
Video[]
Trivia[]
- In real life, silverfish are small and wingless insects that are often found in dark areas in buildings and the wooden pilings of seaside piers and trees. They are infamous for damaging paper-based products.
- Silverfish appeared in the April Fools 2.0 update as the redstone bug.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Silverfish spawner room in a stronghold.
A giant stone silverfish as seen in the Java Edition 13w26a banner.
In other media[]
Lego Minecraft Silverfish.
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Silverfish" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.