Alright, I hate to be the one to potentially spoil the party, but we need to have a little talk about Mandarinfish. If you don’t know what a mandarinfish is, it’s that fish with a face like a cartoon frog making a kissy face and a color scheme not too dissimilar from a Grateful Dead tie-dye shirt. If you gave a child a box of crayons and told them to color in the outline of this fish, the colors and patterns you’d get are exactly what you see on the real fish. They are an unbelievably pretty fish.
For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing a Mandarinfish, I’m guessing it’s now at the very top of your “Fish I NEED to See” list. Some of you have probably already Googled “Mandarinfish” and are currently experiencing a sense of euphoria from the burst of colors and adorable features that popped up when you hit the “Images” tab.
It is at this point that I need to choose my words carefully, as I suspect your expectations for your future Mandarinfish encounters are quite high, and what I’m about to explain might not be exactly what you want to hear.
Big inhale through the nose…
Ok, here goes. First, mandarinfish are quite small—the largest male might only be a couple of inches long. I know they look much larger in pictures, but those photos are taken with macro lenses, making them appear much bigger than they actually are. In addition to being small, they are quite shy and tend to dart in and out of the reef, making them tricky to spot and even harder to photograph. Finally, while you can see them during the day in a few places if you are very lucky, they tend to really come out only at dusk. Each evening, just before sunset, they start to emerge from their colony for their nightly mating ritual. While it can be amusing to watch the lone male as he tries his courtship moves with the different females in the colony, there just isn’t much light in the water at that time of day to bring out the vibrant colors of the fish. From our perspective, three to six feet above them, they tend to appear as a dark green in color. We do take underwater torches (flashlights) with us, which helps illuminate their color, but we have to be careful with the beam of the light, as it can scare them back into hiding.
I don’t say any of this to dissuade you from your ambitions to see or photograph Mandarinfish. Most of our guests return from their Mandarinfish snorkels in Alor or Palau—two of the best places to see these fish—absolutely thrilled, having witnessed their quirky mating behavior. Many guests also come back with wonderful photos, showcasing the Mandarinfish in all their cute and colorful glory. However, despite our best efforts to manage expectations before the snorkels, some guests often express confusion about the Mandarinfish, particularly concerning their color and size. “I thought they would be much bigger and more colorful,” is a common remark after these encounters.
Ok, I did it—I ‘ripped the bandaid off.’ Once again, we absolutely do not want to discourage you from your long-anticipated Mandarinfish experience. We simply want to be completely honest so your expectations are managed and your enjoyment is maximized!
