The Axolotl is a passive aquatic mob in Minecraft. In this article I’ve compiled as much information as possible, including basic information, stats, as well as more interesting stuff such as facts, bugs and other things you might not know about the Axolotl in Minecraft.

Axolotl facts

1. Axolotls will spin on lily pads. If you spawn them on one they will be stuck on it forever. It appears as if they are trying to go into the water, but can’t for whatever reason the game’s code doesn’t let them. This is pretty cute, though.
2. The green axolotl didn’t get added into the game at the time of release. When axolotls first got added into the game in one of the snapshots, the green variant was not present, even though it was shown at the Minecraft Live 2020 recap.
3. Axolotls will be the first mob in Minecraft with the letter A at the start of its name.
4. Axolotls have an unused texture which resembles an open mouth.
5. There are 5 different varieties of this mob: cyan, gold (yellow), leucistic (pink), wild (brown), and blue. The first four are equally common with a chance of 1199/4800 (or about 24.98%) of spawning, while the much more rarer blue variety has a tiny 1/1200 chance (about 0.083%) of spawning.
6. At the time of me writing this article and the release of axolotls in a snapshot of Minecraft, this mob does not spawn naturally in the game. It is available only with the help of the /summon command, spawn eggs and a bucket of axolotl.
7. Axolotls will despawn over time if they are not spawned via a bucket.
8. Axolotls will not preserve their variety (color) if you pick them up with a bucket. When you spawn them with the bucket again, their variety will reset. This also applies to baby axolotls - picking them up and respawning them with a bucket will make them grow up, regardless of the amount of time left for them to become adults. This is a bug.
9. In real life, axolotls are small salamanders that are endemic to Mexico.
10. They are also critically endangered. Mojang has shown a trend of adding endangered species such as bees, sea turtles, polar bears and pandas into the game to raise awareness to the issue.
11. The axolotl is the first amphibian mob implemented into Minecraft..
12. .. but it is not the first amphibian mob announced, since frogs were announced earlier at Minecon Live 2019.
13. Blue is the only color of axolotls that is not based on real life.
14. Adult axolots can be led and bred with tropical fish or buckets of tropical fish.
15. After breeding, a baby axolotl will spawn. The parents cannot breed for 5 minutes and you will receive anywhere from 1 to 7 experience. The same chance of a blue variety spawning is applied, otherwise it will inherit the color of one of the parents at random.
16. Baby axolotls take 20 minutes to grow and will follow adults. This process can be sped up with tropical fish (or buckets of), which reduces the remaining time by 10% each time you use it on a baby axolotl.
17. Axolotls can be attached to leads.
18. Luckily, they are passive, so they will not get too upset about you leashing them.
19. Axolotls are hostile to fish and squid.
20. Axoltols will only attack drowned and guardians (but not elder guardians) when tempted by a player with tropical fish. On the other hand, drowned and guardians (including elder guardians) will attack axolotls on sight.
21. Axolotls take extra damage from tridents enchanted with the impaling enchantment as they are aquatic mobs.
22. Axolotls were supposed to give the player a regeneration effect and remove mining fatigue if the player killed a mob the axolotl was in combat with. At the time of me writing this article, this is not implemented.
23. Their regeneration abilities are based on their real-life abilities, which are of major interest to science.
24. Axolotls will dry and start staking damage if they are outside of water for longer than 5 minutes (6000 game ticks). This is why they will try to move to the nearest water source as soon as possible.
25. Rain or thunder, however, can protect axolotls from drying up on land without a water source.
26. If an axolotl takes damage, it may pretend to play dead. It has a 2/3 chance to not play dead when attacked by something that is trying to kill it (so it can’t triggered by damage from drying up, for example). Additionally, if a random integer from 0 to 2 (inclusive) is less than the amount of incoming damage or the axolotl’s haerlth before the damage is dealt is less than 50% of its maximum health, it will play dead.
27. Mobs will ignore recovering axolotls.
28. If an axolotl plays dead in water, it will gain the regeneration I effect.
29. When an axoltol is lead with a leash on the ground it will run very fast. Bug or feature?
30. The Dinnerbone name tag, which turns mobs upside down, also works on the Axolotl, but the effect is not very noticeable and this new aquatic Minecraft mob still looks normal.

Axolots constantly spinning on lily pads in Minecraft pictured above

Axolotl stats

• They have 14 health points, which amounts to a total of 7 hearts.
• They deal 2 health points of damage (1 heart).
• They are passive and will not attack the player, so the attack damage they deal will only apply to the mobs they are hostile to: fish, squids, drowned, guardians.
• Items you can use on Axolotls in Minecraft include: tropical fish, bucket of tropical fish, lead, water bucket.
• Axolotl’s hitbox size is 0.6 blocks in height by 1.3 blocks in width.

Axolotl history

• Axolotls were announced at Minecraft Live 2020 on the 3rd of October, 2020. They were shown to spawn in lush caves biome. There was also a green variant of the Axolotl shown at the Minecraft Live 2020 recap, which was not shown at the main event. When axolotls later got added into the game in a snapshot, the green variant was still not there.
• Axolotls were added in a snapshot of Minecraft 1.17 - 20w51a (released on December 16, 2020).

Axolotl Minecraft facts you might not know

I recommend watching the video version of this article to get a demonstration of many of the facts you might not know in Minecraft shown in this article: