A few Mandarin fish photos from Kapali

It seems that Sipidan has been a popular destination this summer among the Wetpixel crowd. There have been a lot of pix posted. Here are a couple of my Mandarin fish photos taken at the bottom of the Kapali steps. I can definitely attest that they are as hard to photograph as everyone has said. It took three days of sitting on the reef at dusk to get these.

I did manage to get some of a mating pair, but given my position on the reef, I could only get images looking down on them.

I have a gallery of Sipidan/Borneo photos at Diving Sipidan

Enjoy.

Thanks Steve - excellent shots of the mandarins and also great to see some other shots of Kapalai and Sipadan. As you say on your website - it is a popular destination for WP'lers this year.

What gear did you use for the shots?

I used a Canon 5D in an Aquatica housing with a Inon 220 and Inon 240. It has the Heinreichs electronics and ultralight arms. This is the first dive trip I have taken them on and I feel it will still take me a long time to really get comfortable with it. In fact, given the problems I had getting the system up and running, I only had one dive to the Yukon (also on my website) to test it all out before heading off to Malaysia. The problems with the gear will be the topic of another missive. I hate when people fire off messages to BBSs when they are hot under the collar. My blood is still to hot to write a coherent diatribe... Give me a few weeks to cool down and maybe I will write an article about how not to buy gear. I like my setup, but I have to keep reminding myself that UW photo gear is not like buying expensive consumer items like stereos or cars. Of course they cost as much!

I should also point out that this was the same trip that Dave Burroughs and Will Chen were on. It was organized by Anacapa dive here in SB. It was an amazing trip. I really liked Kapalai and would definitely consider going back. One week in diving Sipidan was WAY too short, especially considering that it took 31 hours of travel time to get there.

Thanks Steve for the background. Sorry to hear that you have been having issues.

I didn't finish my sentence in my previous post - I was going to say that Michaela and I will be staying at Kapalai in October this year. Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated. We have booked for 9 days 8 nights at this stage because we prob can't afford much more....

The biggest tip is that since your body clock will be whacked by the 15 hour time change, it really doesn't make any difference when you decide to get up in the morning. We got up at 4:30 am to get ready for the 5:30am boat. You want the early boat to see the bumphead parrot fish off of the Dropoff reef. They are amazing. It is like swiming with a herd of Buffalo on the plains. They are each about 4ft long and over 100lbs and there are hundreds of them in the schools. It was truely an awesome sight. You are in the water by 7:00am and then back to Kapalai for breakfast/surface interval. Then back to Sipidan by 8:30. You do a dive and then take an hour surface interval on the island. Finally you are back to Kapali for lunch. Three dives before lunch! You can do an afternoon dive on the reef, or just rest and do a night dive by the steps. Since Kapali is literally on stilts in the water 30 miles from shore, the house reef is really very nice. I did all of the Sipidan with my 17-40 zoom and 15mm FE, and I used the 100mm macro on the house reef. The only disappointment was when we went to Mabul and I had my 17-40mm when they guide found the pygmy seahorses. I didn't even think of trying. Instead I got a photo of someone else trying to find them.

I recommend that you hire a guide to help with finding the Manadarin fish the first time. They are relatively easy to spot if you know what to look for, but without a guide, you will have a hard time. Oh, I would also mention that you should bring a reef hook. Our first Sipidan dive on the Dropoff had a 3-4 knot current at the end of the dive when we ran into the Bumphead school. I didn't have a hook and had to hold onto a rock with one hand and the camera with the other.

You will also likely be in bed by 9:30pm in preparation for the next day. One other thing, non dive related. The food at Kapali is very good, but they don't go in for western style desserts. Several in our group were going through sugar withdrawl. If you have a sweet tooth, you might want to bring some snacks. Also remember, you are there to dive. There isn't a lot of night life.

Oops, I just noticed that you are in Australia. The time change will be much different, so my comments about your body clock probably wont apply. Even so, IMO you really want to do the 5:30 dive.

Thanks heaps Steve - they are great tips!!

Did you always find it that much current at the Dropoff?

Three dives before lunch! 

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Yikes! We normally get out of bed for lunch

...guide found the pygmy seahorses.  I didn't even think of trying.  Instead I got a photo of someone else trying to find them. 

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Baaaahhhh - they're over rated anyway

I recommend that you hire a guide to help with finding the Manadarin fish the first time. 

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We'll definitely do that, 'round about how much are they?

The food at Kapali is very good, but they don't go in for western style desserts. 

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Perhaps I'll slip some chocolate in the bag for Michaela.

We pretty much live on Asian food at home, so I'm really looking forward to it. Is there much in the way of vegetarian? Michaela likes vego. Our agents assures us, but it would be great to hear from someone on the ground.

Did you always find it that much current at the Dropoff?

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No. It was just the first dive at Sipidan. The other times it was much more moderate. Several of the more seasoned travelers said that it was just like being at Palau. I had never used a reef hook before, but I bought a couple for my wife and myself and found that I used it a few times. For example on the Mandarin fish dive, there was a bit of a current on the house reef and found that I had much better luck if I hooked into a boulder nearby. However the Mandarins are in broken coral on a fairly steep slope. Before long my boulder started to roll down the slope!

Sounds like you were anchored to a pebble mate

Great stuff, Steve.

I stayed at Kapalai back in March and really loved it.

http://www.finsonline.com/blog/fins/?p=32

I did the Mandies once, but I had done many hours under the water that day and decided not to stay until they spawned as I was rapidly running out of no-deco time.

So very nice to see your shots.

Alex

Since I all of the dives were before lunch, I had about a 5hr surface interval. Here was my dive profile for the last Mandarin dive. You don't find many profiles this flat! (+- 1ft). I also love the low air consumption you get from warm water diving.

We pretty much live on Asian food at home, so I'm really looking forward to it. Is there much in the way of vegetarian? Michaela likes vego. Our agents assures us, but it would be great to hear from someone on the ground.

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There were some vegetarian dishs, so your girlfriend won't starve. There was usually a curry with tofu, some potato dish, rice and lots of fresh fruit. However, most of the dishes were nonveg. There was always some sort of calimari or fish. The soup was usually fish or chicken based. There was also some sort of land protein such as chicken or lamb.

The clientelle was quite varied and they seemed to have something for everyone. While we were there, there were Aussies, Japanese, and some Europeans. I gather that for the last few years Americans have been fairly few and far between. At Sepilok, later in the trip, I asked our tour guide if they got a lot of Americans and he said that we were the second group since April.

Thanks Steve - you've been a mine of info!

Much appreciated.

I forgot to recount another amusing story about the Mandarin fish hunt. On advice of WPers, Will Chen and I put red gels on our flashlights and focus lights. The rumor is that the red light won't scare them off. It seemed to work, but I don't know if it was the filters or just the reduced intensity that did the trick. However at the end of the evening, someone asked me if they were as colorful as they are reputed to be, and I realized that all I had seen was red on red on red!

I have a SLX LED focus light on my rig. Apparently the LEDs produce very little red so that when I put the red gel on it I got almost nothing out. What worked the best was the Inon 240 with the Inon red filter on the internal focus light. There was enough light that the camera focused well.

Thanks Steve,

I'm off to buy some of those little INON filter things to stick on my Ike

Try diving the same site at sunrise or soon after. It worked at Mabul. No mating but had curious little fishies.

I'll remember that the next time I'm at Sipidan

We pretty much live on Asian food at home, so I'm really looking forward to it. Is there much in the way of vegetarian? Michaela likes vego. Our agents assures us, but it would be great to hear from someone on the ground.

Being a vego who spent 10 days in Kapalai at the start of August ... I'd have to say I don't have as positive spin on it as others The vego food was bland to say the least. Any "veg" curry I saw had dried squid in it Also the whole group found the food was cold. Stone cold! So I'd recommend squeezing a microwave in in leiu of chocolate The icecream was a good extra to purchase from the bar ... it was 10 ringit, but after 20 days in Malaysia that was a small price to pay for some chocolate cow juice. We had packed some chocolate, though you can buy that too from the bar.

Dive-wise I definitely recommend trying to get on a trip with John (guide) early on ... we didn't find him until the last day, but we saw more critters on that day than the rest of the time there. Also recommend doing the early morning dive to get in the three AM dives.

I have to confess I was disapointed by the diving at Sipidan and the resort at Kapalai. It just didn't stack up to the diving mecca status it seems to have.

HTH

Leander