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Animal Crossing Coelacanth: How to catch a Coelacanth in New Horizons

An ancient fish rises from the depths.

The Coelacanth is one of the rarest fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and catching it is essential to completing the fish exhibit in the Museum.

The issue with the Coelacanth, however, is that it will only appear in the sea during very specific weather conditions, which means you find yourself waiting quite a while for the chance to catch one.

Catching a Coelacanth will also bring you closer to unlocking the Golden Fishing Rod DIY Receipe and completing the Critterpedia.

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Where and when can I catch a Coelacanth in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

Below you can find everything you need to know about the Coelacanth in New Horizons:

  • Coelacanth months - All year
  • Coelacanth times - 24 hours
  • Coelacanth location - Sea during the rain
  • Coelacanth selling price - 15,000 Bells

Just remember - if you want to catch a Coelacanth, then you must go searching for it on a rainy day, because, as long as there's rain, there will be a Coelacanth.

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How to catch a Coelacanth in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

When hunting for a Coelacanth in New Horizons there's only one thing you truly have to remember - Coelacanth's only appear when it rains.

This means that you need to wait a rainy day to catch one and, depending on the time of year, this may take some time. Keep your eyes on the sky, because, in New Horizons, an overcast day can easily become a wet one.

When the rain does finally arrive, you'll want to patrol the shores of your island looking for a huge fish shadow. Thankfully, this shadow is so big that it can be easily spotted.

If you want to draw the Coelacanth to you, then we suggest that you make an awful lot of fish bait from manila clams - one clam for each bag of bait.

With bait in hand, go to the small pier that will be situated along one of the coastlines for your island and start tossing the bait into the water. This pier is not the jetty where Dodo Airlines is located.

Look for the large fish shadow.

We recommend fishing from this pier, because, depending on the time of year, there are a number of fish that can only be caught by fishing from this pier. Choosing this location will not only give you the chance to catch a Coelacanth, but these rare fish, including the Blue marlin, Giant trevally, Mahi-mahi and Tuna depending on the time of year, as well.

Since all of these fish, including the Coelacanth, are available throughout the entire day, it doesn't matter when you go fishing - just make sure that it's raining!

Coelacanth may only be available when it's raining on your island, but it's available throughout the year and, when the weather is right, it can be caught at any hour.


The Animal Crossing 2.0 update and Happy Home Paradise is here! We can help you with the new additions - including where to find Brewster, Gyroids, new villagers, ordinances, new fences, storage shed, new hairstyles, Froggy Chair, group stretching and Kapp'n boat tours. Cooking is now unlockable, so you need to know how to make both flour and sugar, as well as how to grow carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Meanwhile, if you're new to Animal Crossing, our New Horizons tips can help with the basics. From the off, there's fish and bugs to catch, flowers and fruit to grow with. One long term goal is building your Happy Home Academy score. Finally, you need tools such as the new ladder and vaulting pole to fully explore.


If you want to learn more about the fish in New Horizons, then check out our fish guide. If, however, you're looking for more specialised information, then we have pages on the Barreleye, Blue marlin, Giant trevally, Golden trout, Mahi-mahi, Sturgeon, Stringfish, every shark, both turtles, Tuna and both the Salmon and King Salmon.

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