Mine has slowly started taking frozen food and will grab a piece that floats by when I feed my tank, but he is not fast enough to get a lot of food before the rest of my fish finish it off so I need to have pods to make sure he has plenty to eat.
John[/QUOTE]
I had the same problem in my 30G nano. I bought a mandarin that was eating frozen like a maniac in the store. The problem was that he was by himself in the tank at the store, which meant he had no other fish to eat his food. When I fed the frozen at home with the other fish, they would eat it all first. Since I have a smaller tank with no sump, I don't have a ton of pods to supplement the frozen. The little guy started starving and almost died, but I got him out in time and gave him to another BRS member with a large tank, and last time I saw him, he was fat, happy, and much bigger.
Unfortunately, I don't think this helps people with smaller tanks, which usually are the only people that have trouble with these guys.