Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
Most everything likes to eat pods, especially wrasses. Even with a pod farm, I was unable to produce enough pods for a single mandarin long term. That's with 500 gallons of water.
I'm playing devils advocate here kinda.lol. I reared both my mandarin and scooter in a small 29g biocube with a small fuge in back. I did not of course attempt the mandarin until many many months later after I had an obscene amount of pods. It took the mandarin and the scooter each a month to eat all the pods that were in the tank. By that point I had gotten them each weened onto frozen foods, which was fortunate cause I was out of pods. I added the scooter about a year before the mandarin and it took that long to get another healthy colony of pods in time for the mandarin. I also purchased an ORA mandarin, cost me $50 but in the end I think it was easier to get him eating prepared due to his upbringing at ORA. NOTE** The ORA mandarin did not eat pellets or any prepared foods after he hit my tank. This is very common but I would still urge you to consider the ORA one if you must add one. I think it m made the difference. As a side note, I ended up moving the dragonettes to a 60g rimless where they eat pellets mostly and are fat and healthy. The small tank approach worked for me and can work if enough dedication is given.
I don't think everyone was trying to be discouraging but I can't help it if I feel like a few were. So far I have had mixed feelings about this forum. It seems that there are a few here who are really here solely to help other and a great many here who are boarder line insulting to those who are beginners, don't have 150g+ tanks with refugiums top of the line lighting and all the other widgets and gidgets. I see a lot of competition daily for who has the best answers and can one up the other guy. ( sorry for the venting)