Cod

Overview

Early ocean survival usually runs on Cod, because it is the fish you can catch in quantity before you own a fishing rod worth using. Schools of three to six spawn in ordinary and cold oceans between roughly Y=50 and sea level, they have 3 health, and a single sword swing takes one down. Cooked, it restores 5 hunger, which is worse than salmon but far better than nothing on a coastal night. Its other job is social: raw cod is one of the two foods that tame a Cat and the only pair of foods an Ocelot will accept, so a coastal fishing trip is a prerequisite for creeper-proofing a jungle or village base. Bucket a Cod and it stops being food and becomes permanent: a bucketed fish never despawns, which is how aquariums get stocked and how players ferry a live fish between bases. Out of water a Cod flops and suffocates in about ten seconds, so anything you want to keep needs a bucket rather than a lead. There is also a 5% chance of bone meal from a kill, a small but real fertiliser source for anyone farming beside the sea.

Cheap coastal food and taming currency. Cooked cod restores 5 hunger, raw cod tames cats and wins an ocelot's trust, and a bucketed Cod is the standard aquarium stock.

Cod swim in loose schools and scatter when a player or an axolotl comes near. Out of water they flop helplessly and suffocate in about ten seconds. Catch one in a bucket and it will never despawn, which is how players stock decorative aquariums or ferry food between bases. They are the cheapest early ocean food and the standard bribe for taming ocelots and cats.

In Minecraft, Cod is classified as a passive mob. It has 3 health points, or 1.5 hearts. Expect 3 experience per kill.

Properties

Cod has 3 health, which is 1.5 hearts. It drops up to 3 experience when a player kills it. Its hitbox is 0.5 blocks wide and 0.3 tall, which is what decides whether it fits through a gap or a one-block-high opening.

Health: 3 (1.5 ♥)
Experience dropped: 3
Size: 0.5 × 0.3
Dimension: Overworld
Added in: 1.13

Spawns in

Spawns in schools of three to six in normal-temperature and cold oceans, between Y=50 and sea level.

It is restricted to Ocean, Cold Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, Deep Ocean, Deep Cold Ocean and 1 more, so it will never turn up outside those biomes however dark it gets.

Dimension: Overworld
Biomes: Ocean, Cold Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, Deep Ocean, Deep Cold Ocean, Deep Lukewarm Ocean
Added in: 1.13

Dimension: Overworld · Added in 1.13

Drops

Killing Cod drops Raw Cod and Bone Meal, plus up to 3 experience. Looting raises the maximum on most of these by one per level.

Raw Cod: 1
Bone Meal: 1 (5%)

How it behaves

The Cod never attacks. The only reason to be careful around one is that killing it is often not what you want: breeding it is worth more than the drop.

Killed by a player it drops up to 3 experience; killed any other way it drops none.

Command

In a world with cheats on, this spawns one Cod where you are standing.

Summon

/summon minecraft:cod ~ ~ ~

Guides and tools that cover this

Frequently asked questions

Where do Cod spawn?

Normal-temperature and cold oceans, including their deep variants, in loose schools between roughly Y=50 and sea level.

How much hunger does cooked cod restore?

5 hunger points. Raw cod restores 2, so cooking is always worth the fuel.

Can you keep a Cod alive?

Yes — catch it in a water bucket. A bucketed fish never despawns and can be placed in any water block.

Do Cod drop anything besides fish?

Bone meal, at about a 5% chance per kill. That is the only secondary drop.

How much health does the Cod have in Minecraft?

The Cod has 3 health points, which is 1.5 hearts.

What does the Cod drop?

It drops Raw Cod and Bone Meal, plus 3 experience when killed by a player.

Where does the Cod spawn?