Do you have a Mandarin?

[s.tan]

I have a spotted female in a 14 gallon biocube, a regular green female in anothe BC 14 and a red scooter dragonet in a BC29. Besides the pods that live in the chaeto (I see them scooting around at night so obviously the mandarins have not eaten all the pods), I've always had great sucess feeding them frozen bloodworms. I think it has to do with the shape of the long bloodworms resembling one of their natural staple foods. When the spaghetti worms living in the sand get hold of the frozen bloodworms, they give them a life-like action that the mandarins cannot resist (its like fishing with bait!). Even without the spaghetti worms, as the mandarins approach with their large pectoral fins, they inadvertently fan the worms and give them a life-like action. I've never had much luck with frozen mysis or any pelleted foods although maybe as they pick at the sand and live rock, they may consume small particles. Hope this helps others who have had problems keeping mandarins and have not tried bloodworms to supplement the naturally occurring pods.