Silverfish

Health points	8
Behavior	Hostile
Attack strength	1
Size	Height: 0.3 Blocks Width: 0.4 Blocks
Spawn	After mining infested blocks or from spawners in strongholds.
Internal ID	JE: 60 BE: 39
Namespaced ID	silverfish

Silverfish are small, bug-like hostile mobs found in strongholds, igloo basements, and mountains.

Drops[edit]

Silverfish have no drops other than 5 when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Spawning[edit]

Infested blocks[edit]

Silverfish spawn from broken infested blocks, which generate in strongholds, igloos with basements, mansion fake portal rooms and mountains biomes. Silverfish do not appear if the block is broken with Silk Touch.

Spawners[edit]

When spawning from spawners, they can spawn only in light level 11 or lower, except on top of stone and its variants,^{[more information needed]} where they can spawn at any light level. They also cannot spawn within a 5 block distance of any player. Silverfish spawners naturally generate in end portal rooms in strongholds.

Behavior[edit]

Silverfish are the fifth smallest mobs in Minecraft, after the baby turtle, the baby bee, normal pufferfish and the endermite; their height is less than that of a slab.

Silverfish can "call" other silverfish in the area upon being hit. These silverfish can see through walls and pathfind until they reach the player.

When idle, silverfish enter a nearby stone, cobblestone, stone bricks, mossy stone bricks, cracked stone bricks, or chiseled stone bricks block, transforming it into the respective infested block. They cannot infest mossy cobblestone, despite being capable of infesting both mossy blocks and cobblestone, and they also cannot infest slab and stairs variants of these blocks. They also (as of 1.15.2) are unable to infest Andesite, Diorite, Granite, or Smooth stone.

When they suffer poison damage or damage inflicted by the player, and survive, they may cause other silverfish within a 21×11×21 area to break out of their monster eggs. The player can, therefore, prevent other silverfish from appearing by killing them in one shot.

Silverfish, being arthropods, take more damage from tools with the Bane of Arthropods enchantment.

Sounds[edit]

Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	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	?	?	`entity.silverfish.step`	`subtitles.block.generic.footsteps`	?	?	16

Data values[edit]

Advancements[edit]

Main article: Advancement

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
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 33 mobs. ‌In Java Edition 1.16.2‌^[upcoming], piglin brutes can also be killed for this advancement. Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 33 mobs. ‌In Java Edition 1.16.2‌^[upcoming], piglin brutes are also required for this advancement. Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

Video[edit]

History[edit]

Java Edition Beta
1.7				The texture (silverfish.png) has now been added. However, the mob, itself, is not yet present.
1.8		Pre-release		Added silverfish.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2		The health of silverfish has now been reduced from 20 × 10 to 8 .
		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.
1.7.2		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]
1.7.2		?		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.
1.11		16w32a		The entity ID has now been changed from `Silverfish` to `silverfish`.
1.11		16w36a		Silverfish can now spawn from broken infested cobblestone in the fake portal room of woodland mansions.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.9.0		build 1		Added silverfish.
0.12.1		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.
Legacy Console Edition
TU5	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added silverfish.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0				Added silverfish.

Issues[edit]

Issues relating to "Silverfish" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[edit]

In real life, silverfish are small, relatively harmless, wingless arthropods 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. During cold temperatures, they are known to enter a sort of "hibernation" by expelling most of the water in their body. During this state, they greatly resemble small stones or gravel, likely inspiring their Minecraft counterparts.
Unlike most Minecraft mobs, they do not have a plush toy.
They appeared in the April Fools 2.0 update as the Redstone Bug.
In Bedrock Edition, letting a silverfish enter regular stone bricks turns them into infested stone instead of infested stone bricks.