I am on the Ick management side. Purple Tangs in my experience are tough fish. I bought a purple tang from a pets smart that was dieing covered in ick didn't have a place for him but I got him for 15 dollars. Put him in my tank, I started him out with live black worms, he loved them. He made it through his ick problem. I did re-home him about 2 years later due to him being a well trained new fish assassin. Hope it goes well good luck