I've taught 3 anglers to eat frozen off of a tool I made (also taught 4 lions). My newest one (painted black angler) to eat frozen in 4 days. Now he swims up to the top when he sees the tool.
I still believe that any angler or lion fish will eat whatever will fit in it's mouth. A zebra can't change it's stripes.
Yea, my Volitan Lionfish would even eat flakes. He ate whatever I fed. That was before the frozen mysis availability. So they either got flakes, glass shrimp, or gold fish back then.
That was my first saltwater 75 gallon bow predator tank that I bought used with the old Marineland sump and giant biowheel, with a skimmer that used an airline and air stone, lol.
I'm actually glad the tank sprung a leak in a way and killed all the fish, not the 80 gallons of saltwater on the carpet.
Because I was 18 then, now 39, and the internet was in its infancy, there wasn't forums like this. I had 6 fish in that tank that would've grown well over a foot each. A Volitan Lionfish, Lunare Wrasse, Harlequin Tuskfish, Blue Line Grouper, Panther Grouper, Clown Trigger, Niger Trigger, Huma Huma/Picasso Trigger, Dog-Faced Puffer, Porcupine Puffer, Angler, and a Long Horned Cowfish. I even hatched a Banded Cat Shark egg in the sump. There were a few others but can't remember. I liked odd looking, unusual fish. None were close to full size when the tank leaked from the bottom seam.
But coming from freshwater back then, I didn't think stores would sell fish to people that got that big and they never said how big they would eventually get. Glad we have info available to new people in the hobby so they don't make the same mistakes.