Mandarinfish Twilight Rendezvous

Sunset was close at hand, and we were getting ready for a twilight dive on Magic Pier in Pasar Wajo Bay on the southeast coast of Buton Island in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Regularly visited by the Pelagian, a 10-passenger luxury live-aboard dive yacht operated by Wakatobi Dive Resort, the Pier is known for something really special – mandarinfish! Lots of mandarinfish!

If you haven’t yet seen a mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus), here’s what you’re missing. A member of the Dragonet family, mandarinfish are exceptionally striking with a garish coloration consisting of vivid green swirls atop a predominantly orange body fringed in deep blue with yellow accents around the head.

Although mandarinfish are not particularly rare in the Tropical Western and Indo Pacific, finding them with any reliable form of consistency is somewhat limited. This is particularly true if your goal (as it was mine) is to capture images of them during their more amorous exploits.

During a trip in the Philippines at Puerta Galera, I was taken to a “mandarinfish hot spot”. Unfortunately, this site was also well known to every dive operation. The experience for me was neither productive nor enjoyable due