Mabul & Kapalai · Malaysia · Reef · Muck & macro · Night
Mandarin Valley
Mandarinfish dancing at dusk among black sea urchin spines
Area photo: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE · CC BY-SA 2.0
A shallow coral slope off Kapalai, dived slowly for its critter density: stonefish and frogfish sitting camouflaged on the way down, cuttlefish and squid over the sand, and the mandarinfish that give the site its name coming out to dance at dusk. Photographers come for the profile as much as the fish, since it is shallow enough to stay under for hours.
Where it is and how deep
4.2269° N, 118.6846° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive starts as a slow descent down a coral slope, kept on your left shoulder. Go too fast and you will swim straight past the camouflaged residents: stonefish and frogfish that sit still and watch you go by. The slope is shallow, around 10 metres for most of the dive, so nothing about the profile limits your time and you stay down as long as your air and the light allow.
Down closer to the sandy bottom there are often several cuttlefish, their skin pulsing through camouflage patterns as they react to your movements, and squadrons of squid jetting past. The wreck of a small fishing boat lies in around 18 metres of water and the cuttlefish tend to linger near it; it also shelters ghost pipefish in various colours, longnose hawkfish, crocodilefish and nudibranchs.
Come back at dusk and the site earns its name. Over the channel, amidst the corals and sponges, mandarinfish come out to dance among the black spines of sea urchins. They are rare and timid, so the technique is to pick a patch, settle above it and wait rather than swim a route, and to keep hands and knees off the bottom while you wait, because the stonefish are still there.
Marine life and season
- Mandarinfish
- Frogfish
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Squid
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good |
Season follows Mabul & Kapalai: Diveable year-round with little seasonal variation; muck subjects are present in all months.
Know before you go
- Stonefish are present and venomous; they sit camouflaged on the bottom, so keep hands and knees off the rubble, especially when settling in to wait for mandarinfish.
Dive videos
Mandarin Valley, Mabul 4K · FishyVentures on YouTube
Questions divers ask
When is the best time to dive Mandarin Valley?+
At dusk. The mandarinfish the site is named for come out to dance as the light goes, and they are rare and timid enough that you need to be in position and waiting rather than swimming past.
How deep is Mandarin Valley?+
Shallow - most of the dive is at around 10 metres, with the wreck of a small fishing boat at about 18. There is little or no current and shore access from the Kapalai and Mabul resorts, so it suits long dives.
Sources
- Mandarin Valley dive site — Divezone
- Diving Sites - Kapalai — Dive The World
In The Logbook
- When does coral spawn? The moon's calendarBig animals · 10 min read
- Night diving: the best night dives in the worldNight diving · 12 min read
- The best muck diving in the worldMacro & muck · 6 min read
More dive sites in Mabul & Kapalai
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Chromodoris, phyllidia and pyjama slugs over sand and rubble
Frogfish in red, yellow and black under the platform legs
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