The post about needing Tisbe copepods is correct. They are better than Tigger or tigriporous pods. A refugium is a great move.
You can purchase mysis and/or ampiphods from Inland Aquatics in IN or Sachs aquaculture in FL for starters of these.
It is also not difficult to culture tisbe pods. If you can find some Reed's Phtofeast for food (I use the dead rather than live). Then put them in a tupperware or plastic flat container 9 x 14 with a minimum 4" depth. I do small water changes in my tank weekly and just use some of this water when starting or changing water. I know that some people use 5 Gallon buckets; I seemed to have problems overfeeding and the cultures crashing in a bucket.
1. Fill your container up to 2" deep with fresh sea water. Set the culture in an out of the way place where it won't get bumped or dirt in it (not under an air vent).
2. Put a mark on the edge with a sharpie to mark the depth. You will need to manually add RO water to top off to the mark 2 to 3 times per week.
3. Add some Tisbes.
4. Next add a few drops of Phyto. The trick is to keep the water lightly tinted green/brown. If you over feed, the cultures can crash.
5. At the end of two weeks you should be ready to harvest. Get you about some 1/2" plastic tubing siphon all the gunk off the bottom until you have half of the water depth remaining - running it through a filter around 100 to 150 microns (get them off E-Bay or Amazon) to strain the copepods out. Refill with fresh seawater to your 2" mark. Add your harvest at lights out with pumps off for a few minutes. From then on harvest weekly.
6. Get an extra culture vessel. Then once every two to three months strain the whole culture emptying all water and start a new culture in your extra vessel. I have went 6-7 months before cultures started crashing.
If you get two cultures going you can harvest one on Wednesday and the other on the weekend. This keeps fresh new copepods in your tank and gives you a cushion if a culture crashes.
Also I do not use air stones. with the flat culture vessels there is enough air exchange even when the culture develops a film. I assume that the culture may stay a little more healthy with air, but it works without it.
If you get cultures going for about 3 months, by the time you add a mandarian the tank should be self-sustaining and your weekly harvest will keep your fishes fat and happy.
