yes, like everything the price of Fish is effected and has gone up quite a bit over the last few years. Mostly due to the cost of getting the Fish here from the South Pacific. Live Aquaria can sell at those prices cause it is just shipped straight out of a wholesaler in LA (unless it is Diver's Den) But $80 for East Coast retail for a tiny Hippo Tang is very high (IMO) We sell our small Blue Hippo Tangs for $50 and we currently have some tiny African Yellow Belly Hippo Tangs that are $40 (but that is cause they where on sale from my supplier. normally they would cost $65)
So really it is going to sepend on the source. each shop uses different suppliers and has a different set of overhead that determnes the markup. (one reason I moved out of Boston...our prices are pretty much 20% lower than they were in Boston, just due to the lower overhead)