Easy How To Catch A Coelacanth In Animal Crossing (12 Steps)

How To Catch A Coelacanth In Animal Crossing - The coelacanth (pronounced seel-uh-kanth) is the rarest fish in the game of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, a little rarer than the Stringfish. To catch this rare fish, you need certain conditions to be met in the weather and time, and you have to be lucky. This wikiHow will show you how to catch this fish and get closer to completing the fish encyclopedia.

Preparing to Catch the Coelacanth

Wait for the right conditions. You’ll only ever encounter the coelacanth if the time and weather are right.

It has to be raining or snowing after 4:00 P.M. and before the next day's 9:00 A.M.

The coelacanth has to be caught on a beach.

Get the silver or golden fishing rod (optional). This won't increase your chances of finding this rare fish, but it does help you reach it from farther away.

You can get the silver fishing rod from the museum shop once you have donated a certain amount of fish.

You only get the golden fishing rod once you have caught every type of sea, river and pond fish (not deep sea creatures) so if you want to use a golden rod, your best bet is to get one from a friend who has one.

Equip your fishing rod of choice. You can do this by selecting the equip option from your pockets or using the D-pad on your 3DS (the button shaped like a cross).

Go down the slope to one of your beaches. Since this fish cannot be found in the waterfall area or the river, you'll have to go down onto the beach to catch it.

Choose the longer beach. It'll raise your chances of finding the coelacanth, as there is more space for the coelacanth to spawn in.

You cannot catch the coelacanth on the island as it does not rain or snow there.

Catching the Coelacanth

Go up and down the beach. Use the Circle Pad on your 3/2DS to walk along where the water and sand meet. Go to one end of the beach, then go back to the other end.

If you want to increase your chances of encountering this fish, every time you get to one side of the beach, press the "Start" button on your 3/2DS and select "Save and Continue". This will both save your game, and it will reset all the bugs and fish in the game, increasing your chances of catching it.

Do not hold down the B button. Whilst this will make you run faster it will also scare away any fish.

Wait until you encounter the fish's shadow. A lot of people actually mix up the shadows of the sea bass with the coelacanth. The sea bass's shadow is plump, while the coelacanth's shadow is slim with a pointy face.

Both the coelacanth's shadow and the sea bass's shadows are pretty big.

Sometimes the sea bass's shadow is a little slim and pointy. It's best to just catch it anyway regardless; you can never be too sure.

Catch the fish. Press the "A" button to launch out your fishing rod, and wait until the coelacanth bites. Then, before too late, press the "A" button once more. If you get to an animation of the fish spinning in circles with your character trying to pull in the fishing rod, you have successfully caught it.

If you get a fish that's not the coelacanth, don't fret. It's a rare fish.

If you do get it, you'll know, because your character will go "Holy fish sticks!"

That’s it. Brag about it to your friends (or don't)!

Using the Coelacanth

Donate it to your town's museum. Since your town's museum is probably not going to have this fish donated, donate it. Go in front of Blathers (the owl that you see when you go in), press the "A" button, and select "Make a Donation" with the "A" button. Select the coelacanth. He will say some things about him remembering the fish from his childhood, and he'll put it in the aquarium.

If this fish is already donated, skip this step.

Sell it. This fish, when being sold to Re-Tail, will get you 15,000 Bells.

It's not recommended to sell it. 15,000 Bells is equal to 2 baskets of 9 foreign fruit (fruit that's not the town's national fruit).

You cannot sell this fish at Timmy and Tommy's store as they don't accept fish.

If you have the Bell Boom Ordnance set in your town you may get more than 15,000 bells for it.

Keep it. Go ahead and keep it if you want to show it off in your house. You could also put it into storage, if you want.

Release it back into the water. If you simply have no use for this rare fish, you can release it back into the sea. Doing this is not recommended, however.