MelaFix@

[RD.]

MPE with the product is at the shop, 22 tanks. When the product was used I observed water condition changes - foaming, odor. Fish seemed to be more listless, almost lethargic.

Also, the motality rate seemed to increase, dramatically, on the tanks that were treated with the product.

Melafix will cause some light foaming (not much in my experience, in fresh water tanks), it does have an odor, which seems a given, it smells like eucalyptus, and I have never noticed any fish acting lethargic, or listless. On that note, when using *any* form of medication one should maintain very good surface agitation to insure good oxygen exchange.

As far as mortality, I have never experienced Melafix to cause any mortalities, nor have I ever read anything but positive experiences with this product. It's probably one of the most common medications used to treat for wounds & abrasions.

A reivew on Melafix:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/melafix.php

It's also important not to use too much of this product when treating a tank. One should take into account the "exact" tank volume minus the substrate, rocks, etc. ... ie a 55 gallon tank holds approx 40 gallons of actual water once you take into account the substrate & decore.

This write up explains it in more detail, and also mentions the foaming.

http://www.fishjunkies.com/Medications/melafix.php

This article explains how much water you really have in your tank, which is something often overlooked when medicating a tank.

http://www.bestfish.com/tips/052198.html

The cheapest way to purchase this product is to get the Pond Care formula. Note that it is a stronger solution than the regular formula, 5% vs 1% in the regular formula.

Having been a former moderator on C-F in the Illness, Health & Nutrition section of that site, I can only say that I have read scores of positive experiences with this product, and not a single negative one. I know people that have been using it for years to treat wounds & abrasions (common occurences in some of the African species) and they have nothing but praise for Melafix.

Edited November 30, 2010 by Vallisneria

[fatpuffer]

I think RD was talking about Iodine Tincture that is used to sanitize superficial wounds, not iodine mineral.

My 2 cents: I have used it for my puffers and they worked wonders. THe puffs fins and tail or any superficial abbrasions healed quickly. The fish were not lethargic or listless in my experience.

Js

[Baos]

melafix has killed everything I ever treated with it. If you think about it another way it's tea tree oil and is toxic. Given small amounts of the poison can kill small organisms. Sensitive fish may also die. I now purely use salt, heat, and water changes with decent results. Just thought I'd pipe up. Most fish I treated with melafix were south American varieties.

[prodogg02]

humm mixed reviews about this stuff i tried melafix marine in my saltwater to get rid of ich and it worked uesd it for a week and nothing died not even my cleaner shrimp seemed to be good stuff just my 2 cents

[RD.]

While Melafix may have helped your marine fish along the path of recovery, I can assure you that it will not cure ich, freshwater, or marine. It's designed for assisting in the healing of wounds, and to help prevent secondary infections.

It will not kill parasites of any type.

I suspect that the mixed reviews would basically boil down to individual fish (their overall condition or immune response) and the individual tank parameters. (temp, 02 level, nitrate/TDS levels, diet, etc-etc-etc)

[Doc_Polit]

Just some food for thought. Another of my peers contacted API on my behalf after I lost an entire Tropheus colony to this crap. See below:

First off I am so sorry to here of your loss ! I hope you will still keep Tropheus and gain lots of insight to what happened regarding your situation . O have never used the Melafix so I don't know that much about this product. I found the following information when I did a search for info regarding Melafix. I hope this article might give some kind of benefits:

I asked why there was inconsistent results between users and indeed, even in my own applications of these products. These chemicals are 'natural' organic compounds derived from plants.

I was told that it was quite simple. . .These products (Melafix and Pimafix) only kill some kinds of bacteria. I asked if he meant gram negative or positive and the answer was, "No." What he meant was that, irrespective of gram stain results, the bacteria that is thwarted by these products is a finite group (which is mostly unknown).

They know, for instance, that Melafix wipes out mycobacterium and a few others. What about the other bacteria?

They don't know. One aquarist's fish could have a type of bacteria that Melafix will kill, and another aquarist will have bacteria it won't touch. So one aquarist may say, "It works!" and the other says "It doesn't work." Both can be right.

There is a small downside to their use, which shouldn't be cause for general concern, but nonetheless the aquarist should be on the lookout for this situation:

Both Melafix and Pimafix are organic compounds. The bacteria in the tank water (not necessarily the ones on the fish) these products don't kill, sometimes use the Melafix and Pimafix as food! This means that when you add these medications to a tank (especially a tank that has not been maintained well or one that hasn't had regular water changes) there is a small chance that a bacterial bloom will ensue and take up dissolved oxygen. This could mean that you could see, under such circumstances, your fish significantly increase their respiratory rate.

I was told an interesting tidbit. . .The above affect seems to be happening quite often in Italy and API hasn't been able to figure out why, yet.

The fish may seem to be desperately trying to get oxygen and, in effect, they are. This will of course be adding a significant stress factor to an already stressed, sick fish. If the aquarist has any doubt or concern about this, perform an oxygen test before and during the treatment for monitoring purposes.

API has not done much work at trying to figure out all the bacteria that these two compounds are effective against. They don't seem to want to go much further with it. Since aquarists don't know the exact bacteria that is infecting their fish, it might be a moot point whether it was of value knowing what bacteria it was good for, anyway. It IS selling to aquarists!

However, in the professional arena (public and private aquariums, for instance) where scrapings and identification of infections are performed, not knowing whether Melafix and/or Pimafix will treat the bacteria isn't worth the risk. You'll find they don't use these medications.

The concern with an aquarist using these products is that it might not work. When that happens, the bacteria causing the problem can continue to multiply and adversely affect the fish. Most fish should be able to survive a 'mis-treatment' if they are well fed with the proper nutrition.

In such a case where Melafix and/or Pimafix can't kill that particular bacteria, the fish suffers longer by not having been given a successful treatment. Usually, the fish should not expire by this lost time IF the fish is given the correct antibiotic treatment immediately after a failed Melafix/Pimafix treatment.

But if the infection has progressed significantly and/or it has become systemic and/or the fish has stopped eating, I'd still suggest a known likely effects of an antibiotic over the chance that Melafix or Pimafix might work. Under these circumstances, the wrong choice of medication could mean the fish will expire because it couldn't hold out any longer for the effective medication.

My bottle now rests in the circular file. I am done with Melafix.

[Evolution]

I'm pro Melafix and Pimafix. I use both and with good results. I also use tea tree oil products for myself. The stuff is fantastic. I believe much of the negative hype about tea tree oil and other holistic remedies stemed from the pharma companies. Bottom line is i do not want to use pharma products, because it is the second highest killer in the US. I want to use natural holistic remedies. Today we see that pharmacies are about 1/3 holistic products and much of which is tea tree and that is because tea tree and other holistic remedies work and without the deadly side effects. Well that and because big pharma now controls the legalities of holistic remedies.

So for my fish and for me it is tea tree!

[shaune]

Melafix just killed all my adult showcase peacock cichlids tank. I took them all ever last piece of substrate and decor and treated with 50% water in my 265 and went to bed.when I woke up I lost all but 3, hundreds of dollars even a couple thousand in fish dead. I will never use this stuff again and I also have a couple friends that said they agree

[jvision]

Melafix just killed all my adult showcase peacock cichlids tank. I took them all ever last piece of substrate and decor and treated with 50% water in my 265 and went to bed.when I woke up I lost all but 3, hundreds of dollars even a couple thousand in fish dead. I will never use this stuff again and I also have a couple friends that said they agree

Removing all of your substrate also removed a significant ammount of your bacterial colony - did you happen to do an ammonia test in the morning?

[RD.]

I took them all ever last piece of substrate and decor and treated with 50% water in my 265 and went to bed

Most likely an ammonia spike killed your fish, coupled with the fact that Melafix somewhat reduces 02 levels, which certainly wouldn't have helped matters.

If you read the comment previous to yours the same scenario applies. A water conditioner that does not neutralize free ammonia (Nutrafin Aqua Plus) was being used to treat chloramine treated tap water, and a large water change had just been performed. (according to the OP) The end result would have been an ammonia spike coupled with lower than normal 02 levels, and that is the most likely cause of that Tropheus tank being wiped out.

While I may not personally be a big fan of using Melafix in an aquarium, IMHO most of these horror stories are a direct result of operator error.

Sorry to hear about your fish.

Edited February 22, 2011 by RD.

[shaune]

on no water change wasnt done i just emptied half my tank i had taken out all the sub and decor 2 weeks ago the tank was still cycyled and i had three fx5 with all live media in it still, sorry if my punctuation is horrid and you miss under stood me .

[RD.]

I still don't understand you ........

[Evolution]

IMHO most of these horror stories are a direct result of operator error.

Bingo!!

How many people read the instuctions before adding a medication?

How many people know proper hospital tank protocol?

It's funny how some people have all the best of everything yet still their fish develop bacterial infections!! Then, after doing some strange tank alterations while the fish are sick, meds are added and then are meds responsible for killing and wiping out a tank!

Logically unsound!

[Koilady]

Here in my Koi business where i import over 5000 Koi a year..I rarely use Mela-Fix or Pima-Fix. They just aren't a good enough treatment because they don't give very good consistent results. I have in the past used Mel-Fix on a couple Goldfish that had been attacked by a Raccoon and literally lost 80% of the scales and their fins shredded so bad they looked like hair. They were swimming somewhat ok and i always give an animal "it's chance" so i treated with salt and Mela-Fix. The repair was quite amazing! In 10 days the fins were normal and in 3 weeks, the scales were all coming back. I would never have believed it if i hadn't seen it myself.

So, why do i not use it very often? Because it doesn't give consistent results and usually i can't wait (actually the fish can't) for me to find the right treatment to save it's life..time is of the essence!

This is something that just happened this winter and was quite scary! I had a couple big female Koi with a bit of fin damage from the summer and another that was injured in a late breeding. I'm a firm believer that water quality is everything and the fish are quite strong and don't always need intervention. This one Koi just wasn't getting better, not worse just not progressing. So i decided to dose the entire system with Mela-Fix..nothing changed. So i switched to injections of antibiotics. Day three of injections i thought i'd put some tea tree oil from the health food store on the Koi. Once i put her back in the tank, she flipped over and was in shock and dying. Imagine my panic when a $15,000 fish is dying right before my eyes. I worked on her to try to snap her out of her shock by rubbing her and smacking her tummy. She was very wobbly but started swimming on her own..thank God!

On occasion a Koi will not take the injection and go into shock..i assumed this was the case, so let her be and no more injections. A couple weeks passed and i though i'd try at least to treat it topically with the tee tree oil again. As soon as i put her back in the water..same thing as a few weeks ago..a dying fish...OMG! So, from this i take it she is sensitive to the tea tree oil...she did come back, barely..from the shock and is still alive and fine today. I have used the tea tree oil on fish before with no issue. I have used the Mela-Fix with no issue and i use it with a pretty high salt level in the water.

Lesson learned..some fish..like people are sensitive to certain things. I can't imagine Mela-Fix to kill an entire population but rather the odd sensitive one. As a side note, with the salt it makes it foam more and looks like the fish are in a day spa and i love the smell..lol

[fishman35]

I never have liked treating the entire aquarium, though I know sometimes you have to. A hospital tank , I think, is still the best way, therefore not effecting fish that really dont need treatment, plus you can experiment abit with treatment. Obviuosly quaranteen tanks are the way to go as well but Im sure most hobbyists dont use them.