Personally I love lionfish. I own a Russell Lionfish and he is very active and eats anything I feed him. However, he was a tank raised lionfish and did not need to be weaned unto frozen food. If you do get a wild lionfish it does take PATIENTS to get them to eat frozen foods. There are lots of articles out there on how to get them to eat frozen foods. Each lionfish personality is different. Some species will remain hidden in the rocks and only come out to feed. They are also nocturnal. So, you wont see them much during the day. However, my lionfish swims up to anyone who approached the tank. So, each species/fish has there own habits and personality. As for stinging, my lionfish always turned his spins away from me or even kept them folded. He was aware that I was a not a threat and did everything not to hurt me. They are smart fish. Problems with lionfish is lock jaw. They are very prone to getting lock jaw due to lack of diet and vitamines. You will need to feed a wide verity of foods. I feed mine squid, mysis shrimp, scallop and silver siders. Of course, they are all raw and soaked in garlic guard. I use am IM needle to inject the liquid vitamins into the food (you can get these from any veterinary hospital). He is hand feed. Besides lock jaw they are very hardy and rarely get sick. I would not recommend putting him with small fish, shrimp, triggers, puffers or eels. He gets along fine with tangs, foxface, butterflies and pretty much anything else he cant eat. I hope this helps.