Tadpole

Tadpole
Health points	6HP
Behavior	Passive
Mob type	Animal; Aquatic
Hitbox size	Height: 0.3 Blocks; Width: 0.4 Blocks;
Speed	1
Spawn	From frogspawn
Usable items	Water Bucket; Slimeball; Golden Dandelion [upcoming First Drop 2026];

A tadpole is a bucketable aquatic baby passive mob hatched from frogspawn. They mature into one of the three frog variants depending on the biome in which they mature.

Spawning

Tadpoles hatch from frogspawn in groups of 2-5.

Drops

As with other baby animals, tadpoles do not drop any items or experience on death.

Behavior

Tadpoles swim aimlessly in water. On land, they flop around like fish and seek out nearest water. They die in less than 20 seconds after being out of water.

Unlike frogs, tadpoles are hunted by axolotls.

Tadpoles follow a player that is holding a slimeball.

A player can pick up a tadpole with a bucket of water. A tadpole's health, age, and custom name are preserved when it's picked up in a bucket.

A tadpole grows up into one of the variants of a frog depending on the tadpole's location, as shown on the table below. Tadpoles take one Minecraft day to grow up (20 minutes). Its growth may be accelerated by feeding it slimeballs. Each use reduces the remaining growth duration by 10%.

Variants
Variants	Temperate	Cold	Warm
Biomes
	River Beach Taiga Old Growth Pine Taiga Old Growth Spruce Taiga Birch Forest Old Growth Birch Forest Dark Forest Forest Flower Forest Mushroom Fields Meadow Cherry Grove Plains Sunflower Plains Swamp^{[n 1]} Windswept Hills Windswept Gravelly Hills Windswept Forest Ocean Dripstone Caves Lush Caves Stony Shore Stony Peaks‌^{[JE only]} Cold Ocean‌^{[JE only]} Deep Cold Ocean‌^{[JE only]} Lukewarm Ocean‌^{[JE only]} Deep Lukewarm Ocean‌^{[JE only]} The Void‌^{[JE only]}	Frozen River Snowy Beach Grove Frozen Peaks Jagged Peaks Snowy Plains Ice Spikes Snowy Slopes Snowy Taiga Frozen Ocean Deep Frozen Ocean The End Deep Dark End Barrens‌^{[JE only]} End Highlands‌^{[JE only]} End Midlands‌^{[JE only]} Small End Islands‌^{[JE only]} Cold Ocean‌^{[BE only]} Deep Cold Ocean‌^{[BE only]}	Jungle Bamboo Jungle Sparse Jungle Badlands Eroded Badlands Wooded Badlands Desert Savanna Savanna Plateau Windswept Savanna Warm Ocean Mangrove Swamp^{[n 1]} Basalt Deltas Crimson Forest Nether Wastes Soul Sand Valley Warped Forest Stony Peaks‌^{[BE only]} Lukewarm Ocean‌^{[BE only]} Deep Lukewarm Ocean‌^{[BE only]}

Notes

↑ ^a ^b Frogs spawn naturally in this biome.

Alternatively, a tadpole can be prevented from aging using a golden dandelion, allowing it to remain as a tadpole indefinitely, or until another golden dandelion is used on it to cause its aging to resume.

Unlike all other mobs with baby variants, the tadpole is treated by the game as a completely different mob from the frog.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Tadpole dies	Friendly Mobs	When a tadpole dies	`entity.tadpole.death`	`subtitles.entity.tadpole.death`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Tadpole hurts	Friendly Mobs	When a tadpole is damaged	`entity.tadpole.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.tadpole.hurt`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Tadpole flops	Friendly Mobs	While a tadpole is on land	`entity.tadpole.flop`	`subtitles.entity.tadpole.flop`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Tadpole grows up	Friendly Mobs	When a tadpole grows up into a frog	`entity.tadpole.grow_up`	`subtitles.entity.tadpole.grow_up`	0.1125	1.2	16
	Tadpole hatches	Blocks	When a frogspawn hatches into a tadpole	`block.frogspawn.hatch`	`subtitles.block.frogspawn.hatch`	0.6	1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions ^{[upcoming: BE 26.0]}	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key ^{[upcoming: BE 26.0]}	Volume	Pitch
	?	Friendly Mobs	When a tadpole dies	`mob.tadpole.death`	?	0.65	1.3-1.7
	?	Friendly Mobs	When a tadpole is damaged	`mob.tadpole.hurt`	?	1.0	1.3-1.7
	?	Friendly Mobs	While a tadpole is on land	`mob.fish.flop`	?	1.0	1.0
	?	Friendly Mobs	When a tadpole grows up into a frog	`mob.tadpole.convert_to_frog`	?	varies ^{[sound 1]}	varies ^{[sound 2]}
	?	Blocks	When a frogspawn hatches into a tadpole	`hatch.frog_spawn`	?	1.2	0.6

↑ For volumes, idle1 and idle4 are 0.8, idle2 is 0.82, idle3 is 0.9, idle5 is 0.85, idle6 is 0.9, idle7 is 0.7, and idle8 is 0.3
↑ For pitches, idle1 and idle4 are 0.95, while all others are 0.9

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Tadpole	`tadpole`	`aquatic` `axolotl_hunt_targets` `can_breathe_under_water` `not_scary_for_pufferfish` `sensitive_to_impaling`	`entity.minecraft.tadpole`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Family	Translation key
Tadpole	`tadpole`	`133`	`aquatic` `mob` `tadpole`	`entity.tadpole.name`

Entity data

Tadpoles have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

[NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
- [Int] Age: Represents the age of the tadpole in ticks. When greater than or equal to 24000 game ticks (20 minutes), the tadpole grows up to a frog.
- [Byte] FromBucket: 1 or 0 (true/false) - Whether the tadpole had ever been released from a bucket.

Achievements

Achievements that apply to all mobs:


Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.	20	Silver
		Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear.	Armor stands and players also count for this achievement as they are technically mobs.	10	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Bukkit Bukkit	Catch a Tadpole in a Bucket	—

Advancements that apply to all mobs:

Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.
Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear.	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement.
Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.

History

Announcement

October 16, 2021							Tadpoles are announced at Minecraft Live 2021.

Java Edition

Java Edition
1.19	22w11a	Added tadpoles.
	22w19a	Tadpole hitbox reduced from 0.5×0.4 to 0.4×0.3.
	pre1	Tadpoles no longer drop experience on death.
	pre1	Tadpoles may now be tempted with slimeballs.
1.19.3	22w42a	Tadpoles now have a subtitle for growing up.^[1]
26.1	snap6	Golden dandelions now work on tadpoles.

Bedrock Edition

Bedrock Edition
1.18.10 Experiment Wild Update	beta 1.18.10.24	Added tadpoles behind the "Wild Update" experimental toggle. They can spawn naturally in swamp water sources.
1.18.10 Experiment Wild Update	beta 1.18.10.26	Tadpoles now have their unique sounds.
1.18.30 Experiment Wild Update	beta 1.18.20.21	Tadpole hitbox is now larger.
1.18.30 Experiment Wild Update	Preview 1.18.20.24	The health of tadpoles has been increased from 4HP to 6HP.
1.19.0	Preview 1.19.0.21	Tadpoles are now available without enabling experimental gameplay.
1.19.0	Preview 1.19.0.21	Tadpoles can no longer spawn naturally in swamp water sources.

Issues

Issues relating to "Tadpole" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Render

Screenshots

A tadpole at Minecraft Live 2022
Kai looking down at a tadpole.

Textures

Tadpole texture file.

In other media

Noor rowing near several tadpoles.
Noor releasing a tadpole into a cave.^[2]

References

↑ MC-250311 — The minecraft:entity.tadpole.grow_up sound event doesn't have a translation key — resolved as "Fixed".
↑ "The Wild Update: Where Will You Wander? – Official Minecraft Trailer" – Minecraft on YouTube, June 6, 2022

External links

"Mob Menagerie: Tadpole" by Duncan Geere – Minecraft.net, December 7, 2023.

Navigation

[spawn-1] Frogs spawn naturally in this biome.

[variesfrogvolume-2] For volumes, idle1 and idle4 are 0.8, idle2 is 0.82, idle3 is 0.9, idle5 is 0.85, idle6 is 0.9, idle7 is 0.7, and idle8 is 0.3

[variesfrogpitch-3] For pitches, idle1 and idle4 are 0.95, while all others are 0.9

[4] MC-250311 — The minecraft:entity.tadpole.grow_up sound event doesn't have a translation key — resolved as "Fixed".

[5] "The Wild Update: Where Will You Wander? – Official Minecraft Trailer" – Minecraft on YouTube, June 6, 2022

[n 1]

[sound 1]

[sound 2]

[1]

[2]