green mandarin dragonet

Thats pretty much all Dragonettes eat... stuff from the live rock. I've heard of people feeding theirs live foods before, but I don't hear that often.

Welcome to buying pods every month- that's all Mandarins eat and a tad bit of research before you bought him would have explained it all.
If you cannot provide properly for him please return him before he starves.

These places sell pods-
http://www.floridapets.com/
http://www.ipsf.com/
http://www.aquaculturestore.com/swinverts.html
http://www.copepod.com/
http://www.livebrineshrimp.com/
http://www.essentiallivefeeds.com/

I always had great luck with getting my Mandarin to eat live brine shrimp, but live brine shrimp is not healthy for them since they are 99 percent water making the shrimp nutritionally defecient. Unless you have a tank with a ton of pods and an ongoing supply you will have to buy monthly additions. Linkia's are primarily scavengers so use any kind food like small shrimps, a little extra food, etc. Anyway, hope this helps and good luck.

Our new spotted mandarin at work

tears live brine shrimp up. He was a pig yesterday. He's only been with us for maybe 2 weeks.

As they mature, dragonets will frequently learn to take prepared foods. Fish that are already adult when captured seldom will, but juveniles and the few captive raised ones usually will--the trick is either raising the juvenile up and teaching it, or getting one already taking prepared foods. Live brine will be taken by most, but as mentioned, is not the best primary food source.

The one at my LFS eats flake food but said they got lucky. Most only eat stuff from live rock and sand so a very established tank is necessary with many many hiding places for him to hide. They are mostly night scavengers so the rockwork is important to the dragonettes so they can escape the bright lights durring the day and stay in darker areas.

mandrins should only be added to a well astablished matured tank because of the special bacteria that will grow in you tank

My friend, unless you are an advanced aquarist with delicate species/invert experience, I am sorry you made both of those purchases. I say this not to bring you discouragement, only to educate others. Here are excerpts from my post on another board for both species:

Mandarin Dragonets (Synchiropus picturatus, splendidus)
Sometimes called Psychedelics, gobies, scooters etc., they are not gobies, but in fact a beautiful and fascinating species that most often starve to death due to slow behavior and demand for continuous live foods. This is not an impossible species, (some have good success providing the right care and non-competitive tankmates) just specialized beyond the realm of most hobbyists. Established pod colony or not, you would likely never purchase another one if you could see the millions which have died while in better care than you can provide. I have seen these wild in the lagoons in Micronesia; they are stunning in nature and deserve better than to slowly starve in our glass box... not for beginners or most aquarists for that matter.

Blue Starfish (Linckia)
Over 90 percent mortality in captive systems, usually due to shipping damage.
Not for beginners. While diving in Palau, some of my most vivid memories were formed from these dazzling echidnoderms in shallow water, sunlight dappling on the brilliant blue... makes you appreciate these in a different way, and encourage beginners to avoid them.

I always try to recomend 100 gallon tanks with loads of liverock for mandarins. Not because they need the swimming room but because they need this amount of liverock to sustain them in Pods. Mandarins eat pods on liverock, if you do get it to feed onanything else then you are very lucky and in the minority. The tank als oneeds to be well matured to about 12 months to make sure enough pods are breeding to suport it.

I would return the fish before it s tarves to death. You have already seen that it refuses the food you have given it, this is a bad omen that it wont accept anything but pods.

As for the starfish, again a bad move sorry. So many of these aresold and yet they die usually in a very dramatic and sudden manner about 6 months later. i lost both the red and blue in this manner and no longer keep them. The only starfish I would consider now is the sandsifter as these seem very hardy. Or the brittle stars (but beware fo the green)