Salmon
passiveOurs, not the game's own: how a salmon behaves. Bedrock v1.26.40.05 differs: spawn weight 15 on most Java biome lists (it runs from 5 to 15) against 26 on Bedrock; groups of 1 to 5 on Java against 3 to 5 on Bedrock. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
In Minecraft, the Salmon is classified as a passive mob: it will never attack a player and simply goes about its own behaviour.
You will normally come across salmons in the Overworld, where they appear in River, Cold Ocean, Frozen Ocean, and Frozen River.
In practice you will recognise it quickly, because swims upstream in rivers.
With 3 HP (1.5 hearts) on its bar, killing one rewards 1 to 3 experience.
Players have been encountering the Salmon since the 1.13 update.
Also worth noting: Used to tame cats.
The reason to seek out the Salmon is what it leaves behind: Raw Salmon and Bone Meal, which is worth more than the fight it puts up.
Spawning
Salmons spawn in River, Cold Ocean, Frozen Ocean, and Frozen River.
Because it appears across 6 different biomes, it is one of the easier mobs to track down, and heading to any of them should turn one up before long.
Spawns in water in cold/frozen ocean and river biomes, in groups of 1-5.
Spawns commonly come in batches of 1-5, which is worth remembering when you are deciding whether to engage or retreat.
Left alone far from any player, wild salmons eventually despawn, so use a name tag if you want a specific one to stick around.
With no attack to worry about, the Salmon is something you gather rather than fight, and since it does not breed, every one you want has to come from a fresh spawn.
Where the Salmon spawns
Deep Frozen Ocean and Frozen Ocean are where it stands strongest: weight 15 on the water ambient list and 100% of it, arriving 1 to 5 at a time. The other 4 biomes on its list run from 100% down to 50%.
| Biome | Weight | Share | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
 Deep Frozen Ocean | 15 | 100% | 1 to 5 |
 Frozen Ocean | 15 | 100% | 1 to 5 |
 Frozen River | 5 | 100% | 1 to 5 |
 River | 5 | 100% | 1 to 5 |
 Cold Ocean | 15 | 50% | 1 to 5 |
 Deep Cold Ocean | 15 | 50% | 1 to 5 |
Drops
The Salmon drop table breaks down like this:
Every kill yields 1 Raw Salmon.
On top of that, you may come away with 1 Bone Meal (occasionally, 5% chance).
In terms of experience, each kill is worth 1 to 3 XP orbs.
Raw Salmon is the reason to seek them out, and since they do not breed, each one has to be found rather than raised.
Across many kills the guaranteed items pile up steadily while the chance-based extras trickle in, so consistent farming is the way to build a meaningful stockpile.
As a harmless mob, the Salmon is best gathered opportunistically while you explore, and there is no danger in collecting from it, so it rarely justifies a dedicated trip.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw Salmon | 1 | always | cooked when burnt |
| Bone Meal | 1 | 5% |
It is not the only source of Raw Salmon: the polar bear drops 0 to 2.
Salmon attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Size | 0.7 x 0.4 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.26 blocks |
 Tracking range | 4 chunks |
 Health | 3 points |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Experience | 1 to 3 |
Where the Salmon lands, it has company: the tropical fish on the same 3 health.
Salmon: 7.58% of its category, rank 12 of 52
On 6 of the 66 biome lists (6 spawn entries in total), and 7.58% of every spawn the game puts in its water ambient group is a salmon.
A salmon averages 1 Raw Salmon a kill on the rolls Minecraft Java 26.2 makes for it, before Looting, which puts a full stack of 64 Raw Salmon at 64 kills. Bone Meal runs at 0.05 a kill, 1280 salmon kills for a stack of its own.
| Item | Average per kill |
|---|---|
 Raw Salmon | 1 |
 Bone Meal | 0.05 |
How this average is worked out
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Raw Salmon |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 1 | 64 |
 stone sword | 5 | 1 | 64 |
 iron sword | 6 | 1 | 64 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 1 | 64 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 1 | 64 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 1 | 64 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 1 | 64 |
Behavior & Combat
Behaviourally, swims upstream in rivers. Flops on land and suffocates. Can be picked up with a water bucket.
Its 3 health is 75th of 80, just under the 4 of the chicken.
Because it never attacks, you are in no danger from it directly; the Salmon simply goes about its routine.
The Salmon cannot be bred, so the only way to get more is to find them spawning naturally in their home biomes.
Like other fish, you can scoop it up with a bucket of water to create a "bucket of salmon", letting you carry it home and release it into a tank or pond without it taking damage.
It is a water-dwelling creature and will suffocate if it ends up on dry land, so keeping it in water is essential if you want to transport or keep one.
All told, the Salmon is a low-risk part of the world that rewards patience more than aggression.
Salmon commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:salmon | Puts a salmon on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:salmon_spawn_egg | Hands you the salmon spawn egg, so you can place salmon where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:salmon] | Removes every salmon that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:salmon, spawn egg minecraft:salmon_spawn_egg.
Salmon farm
A salmon farm copies the rule the game already uses for salmon spawns. Spawns in water in cold/frozen ocean and river biomes, in groups of 1-5.
The salmon is heaviest in Deep Frozen Ocean at 100%, out of the 6 biome spawn lists it stands on, so a salmon farm belongs there rather than in the first cave you find.
The game puts 1 to 5 salmon down per roll, so a wide salmon floor beats a tall one.
Each kill is worth 1 to 3 experience and up to 1 raw salmon, which is the number to scale the salmon farm against.
1 to 3 experience per killRaw Salmon up to 1Deep Frozen Ocean at 100%Salmon version history
Minecraft 1.13 brought the salmon in on 18 July 2018, 8 years of salmon by now.
7 other mobs here came with it: the turtle, the cod, the tropical fish, the pufferfish, the dolphin, the phantom and the drowned. 47 of our 88 mobs are older than the salmon, 33 are younger.
All of the salmon data above is taken from Java 26.2, so it describes the salmon as it is today.
What Salmon sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every salmon sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 3 lines a salmon can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.salmon.hurt master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.salmon.hurt |  Salmon hurts |
| entity.salmon.death | Salmon dies |
| entity.salmon.flop | Salmon flops |
