I'm actually still not done the museum after all these years (side eying my art gallery), and it got me thinking about donations to the museum in general and what other people do. I'm pretty quick to donate any of my first catches like bugs, fish, fossils, etc. to Blather's, however I'm more hesitant when it comes to art. It feels so much harder to get genuine art pieces, and I personally like to use some of the art for decorating on my island which has slowed me down lol. I think it took me about a year to get another valiant statue to donate after I had my first one. I really wanted to keep a genuine one for decoration, even though I also like using the fakes. I don't have much use for most of the other donate-able items, and for the few I do, I find are easy enough to obtain again.
So what do you tend to do with your first catches or finds?
I always donate them. I’m so glad they added the thing in the critterpedia that shows you if you’ve donated things, because in NL every time I went fishing / bug catching, I’d go to the museum just to make sure everything was donated
i make it a habit to double check if i've donated something or not and if i haven't already done it, then off to blathers i go :>
doesn't matter if it's bug, fish, sea critter, or art... he gets the first dibs on them nods nods
i will say it does suck when i later want to work on a build idea with the genuine pieces of art... but i suddenly am no longer able to run into a genuine piece with redd even Q-Q
I usually give my first catch of the fish and bugs that I find on my island to Blathers.
The ONLY exception was when I caught a scallop for the first time and Pascal came up asking if he could have it. I was delighted to meet Pascal and gave him my first scallop I caught. This meant that I had to dive for another one to give to Blathers
I do because otherwise I probably won't remember. It can get really confusing with my side characters, though. I will catch something new then have to go check the museum, sometimes to realize a different character already donated it.. (Mostly thinking about New Leaf here)
I always donate the first creature of its kind so I don’t make museum progress harder. Subsequent catches, I release or sell, depending on the species.
Every time I find a new bug/fish/sea creature I donate it immediately to Blathers otherwise I tend to forget. I then save 3 bugs or fish for artwork and after I get the artwork I usually sell them for bells. If I like the bug/fish/sea creature as a decoration I might keep some depending on the theme I want.
I always donated the first of everything to the museum in all of the games. I don't know when I catch it if they're rare or common, but I'd rather not have to try to find it again if it happened to be a super rare catch. I think I finished the bugs in NH, but the fish critterpedia is not done. The Mahimahi is not mahine and alludes me. I actually gave up after I spent a good hour or more farming and crafting fish bait only to then use it to only catch seabass and nothing else. And sometimes the game lagged so it didn't register some of the fishbait I tossed.
I do donate my first catch of each creature to Blathers, yes. I feel that it's best to do it and get it out of the way so that I know it's done and am then free to do whatever it is I want to do with any caught thereafter, whether that be selling them to Timmy & Tommy to earn some money, collecting them up to give to Flick or CJ to make models out of, or maybe keep as a pet. Also, considering I've only ever encountered and caught one Barreleye, despite playing since launch, it's just safer.
Absolutely. My museum is my priority. Even without that my main income comes from turnips, so I don’t usually have to rely on selling fish etc like I did in new leaf
I like trying to complete the museum so always try and donate the first catch, especially handy if it is a very rare bug/fish that I likely won't find another one of for a while. Every now and then though when I'm selling a bunch of thinks at Nook's I'll accidentally sell something I'd meant to donate and have to go and hunt it again for Blathers.
I'm pretty quick to donate any of my first catches like bugs, fish, fossils, etc. to Blather's, however I'm more hesitant when it comes to art. It feels so much harder to get genuine art pieces, and I personally like to use some of the art for decorating on my island which has slowed me down lol. I think it took me about a year to get another valiant statue to donate after I had my first one. 
I really wanted to keep a genuine one for decoration, even though I also like using the fakes. I don't have much use for most of the other donate-able items, and for the few I do, I find are easy enough to obtain again.
