So what does "captive raised" mean anyway? How is that different from "tank acclimated" or some other vague label?
FWIW there is some anecdotal evidence that MI's benefit from natural sunlight, this is a fish that has always fascinated me and I have kept two for well over 18 months each. Both were lost to equipment failures, not poor health. They are the first to go in a low oxygen situation so if power fails they are toast.
Anyway FWIW at The Aquarium in Long Beach they have several of them, huge and healthy looking, in an outdoor pool featuring small sharks. The pool gets several hours of direct sunlight each day. I spoke to an aquarist there and he told me they never were able to keep idols very well until they tried the outdoor pool where they seem to thrive. Most likely it is something in the algae resulting from the natural sunlight but it's not impossible that they directly synthesize some key factor because of it. Just interesting to note that my old reef where I kept them got about 2 hours direct sun each day.
Agreed they should be left alone, not at all suitable for most hobbyists. One thing is they need to be kept in a reef environment but will terrorize it :eek1: I have not heard of anyone successfully keeping one in a FOWLR. I let mine eat whatever they wanted, oh you like candycane? That's OK, here, have another. There are plenty of corals they
won't eat but you spend a lot of money finding out which they are
