Please help

I know it's a horrible thing to say considering how many people have had bad experiences with mandarins, but I really can't manage to kill mine.

I have posted all the possible information I can think of online to see if I am doing something that has allowed my mandarin for three years and counting in a 46 gallon bowfront, with no refugium.

I can't really figure out the reason. My aquarium seems not to run out of pods even with a mandarin in it. Perhaps it's my nastily encrusted skimmer that works as a refugium?

 

I think you mentioned something about clowns laying eggs in your tank? There could actually be something to this if I am correct and don't have you mixed up with someone else. Another member has had success with a mandarin in a small tank and he says he has peppermint shrimp that lay eggs constantly. Since ORA is using prawn eggs to feed there mandarins maybe they are using these eggs as a supplement to there diet.
Heres a good link if you would like to see more discussions on this fish.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/fish-month/mandarin-dragonette-fotm-may-08-a-47991.html
If you go to the last page I also linked some other threads. Good luck.

 

That was me (I?). I have never seen my mandarin eating those eggs though, so it's all conjecture at the moment. Thanks a lot for the links.

I can tell you, from reading the first lines, that we share a lot of the same ideas for hosting a mandarin: The tank must be rich in nutrients for the pods to feed on. Interesting. I also see a lot of star polyps in the picture, I wonder if those are used as a "shelter" for the pods.