purple tang

[Kigs]

Why are they so scarce and expensive these days? i remember when I first entered the hobby, I used to see many of them for sale @ my LFS for a reasonable price. Now I rarely ever see them for sale and when I do, they are EXPENSIVE!

[KuanTi]

right now there's a limited supply coming in. apparently there's only like 1 collector. expect to pay $90+ for a good quality specimen.

[Dejavu]

Collection for the Red sea has been slowed down. Most of your purple tangs come from the red sea, hense the limited supply and increased price.

[xtm]

IIRC when I started around '98 my LFS had 2 of them and they cost about $400 for a tiny specimen, while the Rostratum was pretty much unheard of (at least in my area) I'd say $100 is fair..

Recently, I noticed a sudden increase in price for the Yellow Tang in ALL LFS.. no idea why

[reptilemanmark]

I bought a nice long term captive from my lfs. They had a display tank coming down when I walked in one day. There were 2 purple tangs in the same 150. They were selling them for $100 each :eek2: !! So I grabbed one and he`s a great looking Purple.
He`s about 5" too, the best fish to buy are long term captives if you can. I watched this guy for about a year at this shop. Saddly the fish store just closed. ( Aquarium Discount) Route 73 Marlton NJ.

[James983]

When I first started back in the late 70's you never saw a Purple Tang. All in all, I'd say that the price of SW fish has not increased dramatically since then. They have gone up, but not like everything else we buy.

[JoeMomma]

I just got one last month for $100. There were 3 of them in the store all from the same shipment. I guess it is on the higher end of prices for fish.

[Reef Mongoose]

The price of yellow tangs has increased and will most likely continue to increase because legislation is in the works to restrict collections of yellow tangs in Hawaii which is where most come from

[thecichlidpleco]

xtm, there was a huge thread on the hawaii legislation somewhere around here
here it is
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1306550