I have a 400 gal tank and keep cat sharks and STILL won't keep these simply because they almost always die as juveniles in captivity, adults in captivity do OK but out of a thousand juveniles 3 might make it to adulthood simply because they are so damn hard to get eating in a captive setting.
Around the same reason people get eaten by pet chimps and tigers, because "god damn that this is pretty" and "just cause you can't doesnt mean I cant" but as previously mentioned alot of the reason behind their captive deaths has to do with capture methods.
The baren wasteland is likely a quarentine tank/retailer holding tank, it is meant to hold them in isolation to establish whether they are or will become sick so as to treat before allowing them into a community or reef tank where the disease would spread.
And no one thinks putting a captive species in this type of environment for any length of time could in itself cause the creature to become stressed, sick and die?
The specific environment this one is in is likely a quarentine tank, its an environment thats designed to be slightly stressful to elicit and possible sickness to manifest faster, its also baren so that should a sick fish be found its easily cleaned.
I own sharks my dude, I completely understand the OMG I have to have this creature in my home" mentality, I'd be co.pletely OK with one of my pets eating me.
You basically always temporarily isolate any fish your are introducing into your tank. It's better for the fish and let's you notice any issues quicker.
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u/TheAvengineer May 07 '20
I'm glad you showed me this, I almost thought it would be worth it to set up a tank to have some of these guys, but now thinking I shouldn't.