Filling up your island’s museum with fish and bugs is one of the most enjoyable parts of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Once Blathers opens his doors, most players likely bombarded the narcoleptic owl with a barrage of the fish and bugs they’d stockpiled while the Museum was being built.
The two-day wait for Blathers’ museum is small change compared to what could happen, however, if you miss out on some of Animal Crossing’s time-sensitive fish and bugs. There are six fish and one bug that will all be disappearing from your islands by the end of March, and they won’t be back for quite a while – the earliest returns in June, and the longest won’t be back all the way until December!
Don’t worry though, we’ve got you covered. We have put together a list of these elusive critters to help you avoid having holes in your collection for months at a time. Follow these guides and you won’t have to miss out.
Bitterling & Yellow Perch
These tiny little guys can be found in Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ rivers. They have very small shadows, so they might be easy to overlook, but they’re available 24/7, so no need to panic if you miss one.
These guys are among the most common and easiest to catch fish on this list, but they won’t be returning to your island streams until all the way in November, so make sure you turn one into Blathers before then.
Yellow Perches are similar to Bitterlings in a lot of respects. They’re only found in the river, they can be caught around the clock, and are a rather easy and common catch. The only real differences are that the Yellow Perch has a larger shadow, and that they’ll return a bit earlier in October instead of November.
That’s still just about a seven month wait though, so it might be good to double check and make sure Blathers has one already on display.
