Tang needs some TLC

[Sharkbait19]

Looking more closely, it seems that it suffered some kind of blunt force trauma to the face—not sure if it was truly a pistol shrimp that did that or if it slammed against a rock at the store, but it seems to have impacted the gills and most of the head. Its wounds look rather similar to my red wolf fish that jumped out of its tank and onto the floor. Even though after putting it back in it began to swim and behave normally, eventually it succumbed to its wounds and died—those marks looked very similar to those I see on the tang, so whatever issue it had might’ve been too major for me to act quickly on it, and the injury may have already been taking its toll on the fish despite it acting somewhat normal.

 

[BryanM]

I wonder why petco got a biota yellow.

Bummer, but kudos for the try!

 

[JumboShrimp]

(They probably thought it was a Goldfish.)

 

[mycalypso]

Sadly the tang passed away. Seemed rather sudden because it began exploring and being active but not long after took a turn for the worse.
I slightly blame myself because I could’ve acclimated it slower and been more attentive to its condition when adding it to the system, but it also may have just had too many issues where the shock of the transfer was enough to make it die. Although it’s $50 I wish I hadn’t spent, I’m glad to have made the effort to give it a better life, because I doubt it would’ve gotten sold at the store and likely would’ve met a similar fate.

You did your best to give him the best shot he had in that situation.
Thank you for doing that for him!

 

[BubbleAlgaeFarmer]

Regarding Petco fish, I have to admit to the fact that my whole tank is curtesy of Petco. I've never had a disease issue nor a death of a fish. I will say that Liveaquaria is a completely different situation and it's a 0% success rate with them. I'd never shop from that site again. Last bit, I've found that buying from petco online has been terrific, but i believe the fish are third party and they've been shipped about as well as any other online store. It's fedex tossing the boxes around that is my concern! When my foxface showed up, the driver was juggling the box.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Regarding Petco fish, I have to admit to the fact that my whole tank is curtesy of Petco. I've never had a disease issue nor a death of a fish. I will say that Liveaquaria is a completely different situation and it's a 0% success rate with them. I'd never shop from that site again. Last bit, I've found that buying from petco online has been terrific, but i believe the fish are third party and they've been shipped about as well as any other online store. It's fedex tossing the boxes around that is my concern! When my foxface showed up, the driver was juggling the box.

I’ve ordered online from petco as well, and it definitely is a lot better. It ships directly from the supplier (quality marine), and even though I still quarantine, the fish arrive in pretty good health. The other plus is that petco has very lenient DOA policies and the prices are reasonable for most fish, especially during their major Black Friday deals.
As far as in-store shopping goes, I’ve had quite a few negative experiences that normally would keep me far away from a Petco. But sometimes you find things that are too good to pass up, and if you know you have the means to bring it back to health, it’s definitely worth a shot.