This is absolutely true. I had the pleasure of diving with what I was told were painted frogfish in the Red Sea. The water was indeed in the 68-72 F range and a wetsuit was definitely a must while I was diving. I think it would be really neat if you were to set up a tank specifically geared towards the Red Sea area to mimic its natural habitat (probably not real sponges though- as they seem to do poorly in tanks due to their eating habits. But I don't see a huge issue with a few realistic synthetic sponges amongst your corals as that is the natural perching place for the fish). I love this frogfish, and other small predatory species, although I will not attempt them until Im 100% positive that I am able to either breed food myself or make weekly trips to the fish store to re-stock. The painted was definitely the fish that got me looking at preds and now I am on the hunt for Madagascar Coral Crouchers. Best wishes to you and your frog, it sounds like you are a very dedicated keeper who is willing to put a lot of effort into creating the best environment possible for this little guy and I applaud you for it. Keep us posted, especially about his color shift. Are you planning on getting more red/orange tank decor (live corals or synthetic) to help him gain the coloring you desire or are you just gonna let it pan out on its own? Very interesting and informative thread, I hope your fish lives a long happy life with you! It really makes a difference when a fish grows up with you versus getting a mature adult, you really bond with itThis is why I came to that conclusion, 1st, people can not keep these long at all. In the best conditions and cared for by experienced hobbyist they rarely live more than 3 years. Something is very wrong here. I' ve seen reports and even confirmed by people who have seen them while diving, that they are living in waters below 70 degrees. I'm talking about keeping them at about 68-70 degrees. Other species that people could never keep are now being kept long term successfully because of keeping in cooler waters, these include the catalina goby, some varieties of jawfish, and some varieties of trunk fish. People still to this day fail in long term success with the jawfish simply because of keeping the water too warm.
I don't know what the true lifespan in the wild is of the anglers we keep, but it has to be more than 3 years. So we are definitely doing something wrong, or these guys need to be left in the ocean. Unless they came to us with some sort genetic issue which shortens their life, we should be able to provide them at least that they get in the wild.
Since they are listed at the tropical range of 72-78, maybe just keeping them at the bottom of that range, 72.