Silverfish

Silverfish are small hostile mobs that infest stone and deepslate blocks in mountains, strongholds, igloo basements and woodland mansions. They crawl at their targets to bite them, and attacking them will incite other nearby silverfish to emerge from their blocks and attack the aggressor.

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.^[1]

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.

As of Java Version 1.20.5 Snapshot 24W13A, 1-3 silverfish have a 5% chance of spawning from any entity affected by the new potion effect Infestation that are hurt.

Drops[]

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

Behavior[]

Silverfish infest anim — 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. Silverfish pathfind toward the player, and can see the player through walls.

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.^[2] If the game rule doTileDrops is set to false, the infested blocks are broken, but no silverfish spawn from them.

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 the game rule mobGriefing is set to true, as per default. They cannot infest mossy cobblestone,^[3] despite being capable of infesting both mossy blocks and cobblestone, and they also cannot infest slab and stairs of these blocks.^[4] They are also unable to infest andesite, diorite, granite or smooth stone.^[5]

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Silverfish use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Silverfish hisses	Hostile Creatures	Randomly	`entity.silverfish.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.silverfish.ambient`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
Silverfish dies	Hostile Creatures	When a silverfish dies	`entity.silverfish.death`	`subtitles.entity.silverfish.death`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
Silverfish hurts	Hostile Creatures	When a silverfish is damaged	`entity.silverfish.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.silverfish.hurt`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
Footsteps	Hostile Creatures	Unused sound event ^{[sound 1]}	`entity.silverfish.step`	`subtitles.block.generic.footsteps`	0.15	1.0	16

↑ MC-117609 — Silverfish and Endermites don't make footstep sounds or subtitles

Bedrock Edition:

Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
Hostile Creatures	Randomly	`mob.silverfish.say`	1.0	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a silverfish dies	`mob.silverfish.kill`	1.0	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a silverfish is damaged	`mob.silverfish.hit`	1.0	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	While a silverfish is walking	`mob.silverfish.step`	0.35	1.0

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Silverfish	`silverfish`	`powder_snow_walkable_mobs`	`entity.minecraft.silverfish`

Bedrock Edition:

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.

Java Edition:

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Kill a hostile mob or one of the following neutral mobs: an enderman, a piglin, a zombified piglin, a spider, or a cave spider.	15G	Bronze

Advancements[]

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: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

Video[]

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		Added silverfish.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2		The health of silverfish has 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.
1.4.2		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.^[6]
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.
1.9		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`.
1.11		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		Added silverfish.
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	Added silverfish.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0				Added silverfish.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

In real life, silverfish are harmless 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.