Buy the purple tang?

[Mschmidt]

Petco has a beautiful purple tang for sale. It may have some stuff on its face. The manager said it came in like that a week ago and hasn't worsened. I want it and have the room, will qt, but $200 is a fair amount of money.
Pics of the fish itself. It's the white cloudy bit on its face I question. Also please look at my cute dog.

 

[Soren]

Petco has a beautiful purple tang for sale. It may have some stuff on its face. The manager said it came in like that a week ago and hasn't worsened. I want it and have the room, will qt, but $200 is a fair amount of money.
Pics of the fish itself. It's the white cloudy bit on its face I question. Also please look at my cute dog.

I believe that is effects from Head and Lateral Line Erosion (HLLE) and is pretty common these days on purple tangs, from what I have heard/seen.
My local LFS keeps them quarantined and has supposedly healed this over a few months on his purple tangs, though I cannot confirm.

If offered proper care, this purple tang will likely show no ill effects from it over the long-term but may always have scarring, at least from what I have read about it.

The final decision is up to you, but you may be able to find a purple tang without HLLE effect for pricing not much higher than $200 if you keep your eyes open.

Edit: On a side-note, the HLLE effects are minimal from what I've seen and the tang looks quite healthy overall.

 

[Mschmidt]

I believe that is effects from Head and Lateral Line Erosion (HLLE) and is pretty common these days on purple tangs, from what I have heard/seen.
My local LFS keeps them quarantined and has supposedly healed this over a few months on his purple tangs, though I cannot confirm.

If offered proper care, this purple tang will likely show no ill effects from it over the long-term but may always have scarring, at least from what I have read about it.

The final decision is up to you, but you may be able to find a purple tang without HLLE effect for pricing not much higher than $200 if you keep your eyes open.

Edit: On a side-note, the HLLE effects are minimal from what I've seen and the tang looks quite healthy overall.

Thanks. I'll do some reading on hlle. I've heard it around, but as it seems to be mostly with tangs, until recently I haven't paid much attention to it.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I’m betting that Purple Tang is from someones Aquarium. Most of the Purple Tangs, I’ve seen at PetCo are Smaller Juvenile. With on exception, and when I pressed the Manager, it was turned in to them.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Hippo Tang HLLE Recovery progress from January 22 2022 - March 5 2022

I got this guy from the lfs basically for free in the hopes I could help him out. Here are two videos taken ~5weeks apart. I fed him appropriately and added vitamins (VitaChem - didn't know about SELCON at the time.) I am encouraged by his progress. January: March:

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Mschmidt]

Hippo Tang HLLE Recovery progress from January 22 2022 - March 5 2022

I got this guy from the lfs basically for free in the hopes I could help him out. Here are two videos taken ~5weeks apart. I fed him appropriately and added vitamins (VitaChem - didn't know about SELCON at the time.) I am encouraged by his progress. January: March:

www.reef2reef.com

I remember a little bit about that from your build thread I think.

 

[DCR]

I do not know what that is but it is not HLLE. It is too blotchy and seems to be on the general body. That is probably a good thing because I have never seen a fish fully recover from HLLE. I would probably watch it for a while in the store if you can and see if it goes away. FWIW, NY Aquatic seems to have the best purple tang deals. He seems to have a connection to Red Sea and East Africa fish. With shipping it will still be over $200, but the quality of his fish is outstanding IME. I purchased a 4" PT a year ago from him at $100, but I have not seen that deal since then.

 

[taulgrl]

Petco has a beautiful purple tang for sale. It may have some stuff on its face. The manager said it came in like that a week ago and hasn't worsened. I want it and have the room, will qt, but $200 is a fair amount of money.
Pics of the fish itself. It's the white cloudy bit on its face I question. Also please look at my cute dog.

That is a cute dog!

 

[Mschmidt]

I do not know what that is but it is not HLLE. It is too blotchy and seems to be on the general body. That is probably a good thing because I have never seen a fish fully recover from HLLE. I would probably watch it for a while in the store if you can and see if it goes away. FWIW, NY Aquatic seems to have the best purple tang deals. He seems to have a connection to Red Sea and East Africa fish. With shipping it will still be over $200, but the quality of his fish is outstanding IME. I purchased a 4" PT a year ago from him at $100, but I have not seen that deal since then.

Just saw he has a powder blue as well. That may win for my tank.

 

[Mschmidt]

That is a cute dog!

Thanks! He freshly bathed too.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I do not know what that is but it is not HLLE. It is too blotchy and seems to be on the general body. That is probably a good thing because I have never seen a fish fully recover from HLLE. I would probably watch it for a while in the store if you can and see if it goes away. FWIW, NY Aquatic seems to have the best purple tang deals. He seems to have a connection to Red Sea and East Africa fish. With shipping it will still be over $200, but the quality of his fish is outstanding IME. I purchased a 4" PT a year ago from him at $100, but I have not seen that deal since then.

It is HLLE. He has recovered significantly since then but he will always be disfigured. Still missing a gill flap and only has regrown part of his dorsal fin.
he has grown significantly since then. He is about the size of the other blue tang he came with now.
a lot more of his skin has grown back too.