My first one died a week after I got him
I can't say for sure if it starved
my second I had over 3 years I also raised pods ,brine,mysiss in a 20g long tank divided in 3 parts
I did get my mandarin to eat frozen , pellets and other foods
unfortunately I lost the poor guy after a tank upgrade I think he stressed out
they are very delicate fish , I keep saying I will try again but deep inside I know what it took to keep the lil guy alive
before I started breeding all my own feeders it cost me tons of money every month to replenish the population of pods mandarins can eat from 1500 to 3000 pods a day as they eat almost constantly , a entire population can be diminished with in a day or so
a lot of what you are hearing here is from personal experience
can they be trained to eat frozen and other foods yes , is it always a guarantee no
you can train him to eat frozen and other foods but at any time he can just reject them
here is a good article to read
...I'd like to buy a Mandarin! | Melev's Reef