I've had my mandarin in my tank for about 5 months time, and he looks very healthy. My tank is only 30 gallons, so I"m nost sure why he has survived this long, without my having a separate source of pods. I do have lots of LR, so maybe that helps. Maybe he's nipping at the food I feed the rest of the fish... I usually feed the fish flake food called Brine shrimp plus, from Ocean Nutrition, once a day. Every two or three days, I'll feed them Sally's frozen brine shrimp, instead of the flakes.