Cod

The cod is one of those mobs you swim past a hundred times before you ever think about it twice. It is a passive aquatic mob that spawns in ocean biomes, lazily drifting through the water in schools of up to nine like it has nowhere to be and nothing to prove. And honestly, that is a pretty accurate description of its entire existence.

Cod were added as part of the 1.13 Update Aquatic alongside salmon, pufferfish, and tropical fish, turning the oceans from empty blue voids into something that actually felt alive. Before that update, the only “fish” in Minecraft was the item you pulled out of the water with a fishing rod. Now you can see them, chase them, bucket them, and — most importantly — smack them with a sword for a quick snack when you are exploring underwater monuments and forgot to pack lunch.

They are not exciting. They are not dangerous. They will never be the reason you rage-quit. But if you have ever been starving in the middle of the ocean with nothing but a boat and a dream, a school of cod suddenly looks like a five-star buffet. That is the quiet utility of the cod — always there when you need it, never demanding any credit.

Overview / Quick Stats

Attribute	Details
Name	Cod
Namespaced Entity ID	`minecraft:cod`
Alignment	Passive
Dimensions / Hitbox	Java: 0.5 blocks wide × 0.3 blocks tall Bedrock: 0.6 blocks wide × 0.3 blocks tall
Health	3 health points (1.5 hearts)
Armor	0
Base Damage	None — cod are completely passive and do not attack
Movement Speed	Swims at a moderate pace; increases to 1.5× walk speed and 2× sprint speed when fleeing from players or axolotls
Knockback Resistance	0
Follow / Detection Range	Flees from players and axolotls within 6 blocks
Experience Drop	Java: 1–3 XP when killed by a player or tamed wolf Bedrock: 1–3 XP when killed by a player or tamed wolf
Spawn Location	Ocean biomes (normal, cold, lukewarm, frozen, and their deep variants)
First Added	Java: 1.13 (snapshot 18w08b) Bedrock: 1.4.0 (beta 1.2.20.1)
Last Major Change	1.18 — spawn height restricted to Y=50 through Y=64; cod given their own aquatic mob cap

Appearance

The cod has a small, flat, rectangular body with the classic Minecraft commitment to making everything out of right angles. It is brown on top, a lighter tan on the sides, and pale on the belly — basically the color palette of a cardboard box, which feels appropriate for the most unremarkable fish in the game.

It has two dorsal fins, a tail fin, and a small pair of pectoral fins. Interestingly, real-world cod in the genus Gadus have three dorsal fins, so Minecraft’s version is anatomically wrong. Then again, this is a game where you can carry 36 cubic meters of solid gold in your pockets, so biological accuracy was never the priority.

Cod have a simple swimming animation where the tail fin sways side to side, and their body undulates slightly. When out of water, they flop around on their side in a desperate and frankly sad attempt to get back to the ocean. There are no baby or variant forms — every cod looks exactly the same, which makes identifying them in a school roughly as easy as telling apart identical twins at a distance.

Behavior & AI

Schooling: Cod swim together in schools of up to 9 individuals. They wander aimlessly through the water in loose groups, which gives ocean biomes a much more natural feel than the empty blue wasteland they used to be.
Fleeing: Cod will swim away from players and axolotls that come within 6 blocks. Their flee speed is noticeably faster than their idle swim speed, reaching 1.5× normal walk speed and 2× sprint speed. It is not exactly Olympic-level evasion, but they at least make an effort.
Suffocation on land: If a cod ends up out of water, it flops around on its side trying to find its way back. After about 10 seconds on dry land, it starts taking suffocation damage and will eventually die. This is Minecraft’s gentle reminder that fish belong in water.
Despawning: Cod follow standard aquatic mob despawn rules. They can despawn if more than 64 blocks from the nearest player, but cod placed from buckets will never despawn naturally. If you bucket a cod and release it into your aquarium, it is there for good — no name tag required.
Pathfinding: Cod swim at any depth but can only spawn on the “surface” — meaning there must not be a spawnable block above the spawn location with a non-solid block on top. They do not path toward anything specific and have no goal-based AI beyond wandering and running away from things that might eat them.
Immune to drowning: Like all aquatic mobs except dolphins, cod are immune to drowning. They breathe water, not air. Their breathable air supply is 15 seconds (300 ticks), after which they suffocate if still on land.

Abilities, Attacks & Status Effects

Attacks: None. Cod have zero offensive capability. They cannot hurt you, your pets, or anything else. They are the Switzerland of Minecraft mobs.
Impaling vulnerability (Java Edition): In Java Edition, cod take extra damage from tridents enchanted with Impaling. This enchantment affects all aquatic mobs except drowned. In Bedrock Edition, Impaling deals extra damage to any mob in contact with water, regardless of whether it is classified as aquatic.
Bucket capture: Right-clicking a cod with a water bucket (Java Edition) or any bucket (Bedrock Edition) captures it as a Bucket of Cod item. The fish retains its data, including the FromBucket tag, and when placed will not despawn. This is not technically an “ability” of the cod — it is something you do to the cod — but it is the most interactive thing about this mob, so it deserves mention.
Status effects: Cod neither inflict nor are immune to any status effects. They are exactly as vanilla as a mob can get.

Spawning

Spawn Condition	Details
Location	Underwater in ocean biomes, 12–32 blocks from the player
Biomes	Java: Ocean, Deep Ocean, Cold Ocean, Deep Cold Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, Deep Lukewarm Ocean Bedrock: Ocean, Deep Ocean, Cold Ocean, Deep Cold Ocean, Frozen Ocean, Deep Frozen Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, Deep Lukewarm Ocean
Y-Level Range	Y=50 to Y=64 (as of 1.18+)
Light Level	Any light level — cod do not have a light level requirement
Required Block	Water — must spawn in a water block with no spawnable solid block above the spawn point (surface spawning only)
Group Size	Java: 3–6 Bedrock: 4–7
Weight	Cod share the aquatic mob cap with other fish, squids, and dolphins. As of 1.18, fish have their own dedicated mob cap separate from other aquatic mobs.
Edition Differences	Bedrock Edition includes frozen ocean biomes as valid cod spawn locations. Java Edition does not spawn cod in frozen or deep frozen oceans. Group sizes differ slightly between editions.

Interactions with Environment & Other Mobs

Axolotls: Axolotls actively hunt cod. They will chase and attack cod on sight, which means any axolotl near a school of cod is about to have a meal. When an axolotl kills a cod, the player receives the Regeneration status effect if they dealt damage to the cod recently. Axolotls are basically the apex predator of the Minecraft ocean food chain, and cod are squarely at the bottom of it.
Guardians and Elder Guardians: Guardians do not specifically target cod, but their laser attacks can hit fish caught in the crossfire near ocean monuments.
Dolphins: Dolphins do not attack cod, but they can be fed raw cod to trigger their treasure-finding behavior. There is a certain irony in feeding a fish to a dolphin so it can help you find a shipwreck.
Polar Bears: Polar bears do not interact with cod mobs, although they drop raw cod as a loot item themselves.
Boats and minecarts: Cod cannot ride in boats or minecarts. They exist exclusively in water and have no use for land-based transportation.
Fire and lava: Cod take 4 damage per tick in lava, which means they die almost instantly. If somehow killed while on fire, they drop cooked cod instead of raw cod — a useful quirk if you ever find yourself in the extremely niche scenario of lighting a fish on fire.

Drops & Loot

Item	Quantity	Chance	Notes
Raw Cod	1	100%	Always drops on death. If the cod is killed while on fire, it drops cooked cod instead. This drop is not affected by the Looting enchantment.
Bone Meal	1	5%	Java Edition only. A rare drop that has a 5% base chance, increasing by 1% per level of Looting (up to 8% with Looting III). Only drops when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
Bone	1–2	25%	Bedrock Edition only. Drops bones instead of bone meal with a significantly higher chance than Java Edition’s bone meal drop.
Experience	1–3	100%	Drops when killed by a player or tamed wolf. Not a huge amount, but it adds up when you are cutting through an entire school.

Player Uses & Farming

Food source: Raw cod restores 2 hunger points and 0.4 saturation. Cooked cod restores 5 hunger points and 6 saturation, making it a solid mid-game food if you cook it. It is not steak, but it will keep you alive, and you can get a lot of it quickly in ocean biomes.
Cat taming: Raw cod can be used to tame stray cats. You need to slowly approach a stray cat while holding raw cod and feed it until hearts appear. This is one of the most practical uses for cod that players overlook — if you want a cat, bring fish.
Cat breeding: Once tamed, cats can be bred using raw cod. Two tamed cats fed raw cod will produce a kitten.
Dolphin interaction: Feeding raw cod to a dolphin causes it to swim toward the nearest shipwreck, buried treasure, or ocean ruins. This is one of the most useful exploration mechanics in the game, and all it costs is one fish.
Villager trading: Fisherman villagers at the Novice level will buy raw cod as part of their trading inventory. It is not the most profitable trade, but it gives bulk cod a use beyond eating it.
Bucket of Cod: Capturing cod in buckets lets you transport them to custom aquariums or builds. Bucketed cod retain their data and will not despawn when placed, making them perfect for decorative water features.
Farming: Dedicated cod farms are not common because fishing with a rod is generally more efficient for gathering raw cod. However, if you want to build one, the key is creating a water channel within ocean biomes between Y=50 and Y=64 and funneling naturally spawning cod into a kill chamber. Keep in mind that cod require ocean biome water to spawn — you cannot just build a pool in your base and expect them to appear.

Commands & NBT

Summoning a cod is about as straightforward as the mob itself. Here are the most useful command examples:

/summon minecraft:cod ~ ~ ~

Spawns a basic cod at your current position. If you are standing on land, it will immediately start flopping and suffocating, so probably do this in water.

/summon minecraft:cod ~ ~ ~ {FromBucket:1b}

Spawns a cod with the FromBucket tag set to true, which means it will behave as if it was placed from a bucket and will not despawn naturally. Use this if you want a permanent fish in your aquarium without needing to actually catch one.

/give @s minecraft:cod_bucket

Gives you a Bucket of Cod item directly. Place the water wherever you want your fish to live.

Notable NBT keys for cod:

FromBucket — 1b or 0b. Determines whether the cod was placed from a bucket. If true (1b), the cod will not despawn. Defaults to 0b (false) for naturally spawned cod.
NoAI — 1b or 0b. When set to 1b, the cod freezes in place and does not swim, flee, or flop. Useful for decoration or display builds.
Silent — 1b or 0b. Disables all sounds for the cod. Mostly relevant for large aquarium builds where you do not want constant flopping sounds.
Invulnerable — 1b or 0b. When set to 1b, the cod cannot take damage from any source. Pair this with FromBucket and NoAI for the ultimate decorative fish.
PersistenceRequired — 1b or 0b. When true, the cod will never despawn regardless of the FromBucket tag. (Java Edition only.)

Tags, Gamerules & Datapack Hooks

Entity tags (Java Edition): Cod belong to the following entity type tags: #minecraft:aquatic, #minecraft:axolotl_hunt_targets, #minecraft:can_breathe_under_water, and #minecraft:not_scary_for_pufferfish. The last one means pufferfish will not inflate when a cod swims near them — which is a nice little detail about how the game handles aquatic mob interactions.
Gamerules: The doMobLoot gamerule controls whether cod drop items on death. If set to false, no raw cod, bone meal, or experience will drop. The doMobSpawning gamerule controls whether cod can spawn naturally.
Loot table path: minecraft:entities/cod — you can customize this in a datapack to make cod drop whatever you want. Want a cod that drops diamonds? Nobody is stopping you. It feels wrong, but the game will let you do it.
Spawn egg: The Cod Spawn Egg is available in Creative mode and uses a brown and tan color scheme matching the mob’s texture.

Difficulty & Edition Differences

Difficulty scaling: Cod behavior does not change across Easy, Normal, or Hard difficulty. They are passive on every setting, including Peaceful. Since they never attack, difficulty has zero impact on this mob.
Spawn biomes: Bedrock Edition allows cod to spawn in frozen and deep frozen oceans. Java Edition does not. If you are looking for cod in a frozen ocean on Java Edition, you will be looking for a very long time.
Group size: Java Edition spawns cod in groups of 3–6. Bedrock Edition spawns them in groups of 4–7. A minor difference, but Bedrock players will generally see slightly larger schools.
Hitbox width: Java Edition uses a 0.5-block width. Bedrock Edition uses a slightly wider 0.6-block width. This difference is negligible in practice — you will not notice it unless you are measuring fish hitboxes for fun, in which case you might need a different hobby.
Bucket behavior: In Java Edition, you must use a water bucket to capture a cod. In Bedrock Edition, you can use a plain empty bucket. Bedrock makes it slightly more convenient.
Bone drops: Java Edition cod can drop bone meal (5% chance). Bedrock Edition cod drop bones (1–2, 25% chance). The Bedrock drop is significantly more generous in both chance and quantity.
Impaling enchantment: In Java Edition, Impaling only deals extra damage to aquatic mobs like cod. In Bedrock Edition, Impaling deals extra damage to any mob that is in contact with water, not just aquatic ones.

Sounds & Audio

Sound category (Java): Cod use the Friendly Creatures sound category for all entity-dependent sound events.
Ambient sound: entity.cod.ambient — a quiet, bubbly underwater sound. You will rarely notice it over the ocean ambient noise.
Hurt sound: entity.cod.hurt — a short, wet slapping noise when the cod takes damage.
Death sound: entity.cod.death — similar to the hurt sound, slightly longer.
Flop sound: entity.cod.flop — the sound a cod makes when it is out of water, flopping around on dry land. If you have ever accidentally bucketed a cod and placed it on grass, you know this sound well.

History & Major Changes

Java Edition 18w08b (1.13 snapshot): Cod added to the game as a mob. Previously, “cod” existed only as a food item obtained through fishing. The Update Aquatic finally gave the fish a body.
Java Edition 1.13: Full release of cod alongside salmon, pufferfish, and tropical fish as part of the Update Aquatic. Bucket of Cod added, allowing players to capture and transport fish.
Bedrock Edition 1.4.0: Cod added to Bedrock Edition as part of the same Update Aquatic content push.
Java Edition 1.17 (Caves & Cliffs Part 1): Axolotls added to the game, giving cod their first natural predator. Cod now flee from axolotls within 6 blocks, in addition to fleeing from players.
Java Edition 1.18 (Caves & Cliffs Part 2): Cod spawn height restricted to Y=50 through Y=64. Fish given their own dedicated mob cap separate from other aquatic mobs like squids and dolphins. This was a significant change that prevented cod from spawning deep underwater and competing with the overall aquatic mob cap.

Notable Bugs & Quirks

Cauldron surfing: There is a known and officially closed-as-“Won’t Fix” bug (MC-126819) where fish, including cod, can bounce and suffocate on top of cauldrons that fill with water. The fish gets stuck in a loop of flopping on the cauldron lid. Mojang decided this was not worth fixing, which honestly feels appropriate for a bug that mostly just looks silly.
Surface-only spawning: The surface spawning rule means cod will not spawn in underwater caves or enclosed spaces, even if those spaces are full of water in the right biome and Y-level range. If you want fish in your underwater base, you need to bring them there yourself with buckets.
Phantom schools: Cod can appear to swim in schools of up to 9, but this is a visual behavior, not a true game mechanic. Each cod is an independent entity — there is no “school leader” or group AI. They just happen to cluster together when they wander in the same direction.

Advancements / Achievements

Tactical Fishing (Java Edition): The advancement “Tactical Fishing” is earned by catching a fish in a bucket. Using a water bucket on a cod is one of the easiest ways to unlock this. The advancement description says “Catch a fish in a bucket!” and cod are usually the most plentiful fish available.
A Balanced Diet (Java Edition): Eating raw cod or cooked cod counts toward the “A Balanced Diet” advancement, which requires eating one of every food item in the game.
Husbandry (Java Edition): Killing a cod counts toward “The Parrots and the Bats” advancement group under Husbandry, as part of interacting with every type of animal in the game.
One Pickle, Two Pickle, Sea Pickle, Four (Bedrock Edition): While not directly related to cod, the “Marine Biologist” achievement in Bedrock Edition requires collecting a fish in a bucket, and cod is the easiest candidate for this.

Spin-offs, Culture & Trivia

Two dorsal fins: Minecraft cod have two dorsal fins, while real-world cod in the genus Gadus have three. This is one of those details that only matters if you are both a marine biologist and a Minecraft player, which is a surprisingly specific Venn diagram.
Fisherman villager texture: The old texture for raw cod can be seen clipped onto the fisherman villager’s belt. It is a small detail, but it shows that Mojang put thought into making the fisherman profession look authentic before players had any idea fish would eventually become actual mobs.
Pre-1.13 fish: Before the Update Aquatic, fish were purely items. You could catch “raw fish” with a fishing rod, but there was nothing swimming in the water. The transition from item-only to mob-plus-item was a defining moment for ocean gameplay.
Naming conventions: The food item was originally called “Raw Fish” in older versions of the game. It was renamed to “Raw Cod” when the other fish types were added in 1.13, giving each fish species its own distinct item name.
Minecraft Dungeons: Cod do not appear as mobs in Minecraft Dungeons, though raw cod appears as a consumable item in some versions of the game’s content.