Melafix Killed my fish?

[dparks87]

Hey guys, two Fridays ago I picked up a Large moba frontosa for my tank. I also sold a few. The change in fish led to a bit of fighting in my tank. I decided to do a melafix treatment because the fins on my fish had gotten a bit tattered. The tank is 125 gallons. They were six frontosa in it. The filtration is two eheim 2217 classics I also run on tetra tec AP 100. One of the eheims is full of seachem matrix, the other has course pads, scrubbies, and crushed coral. The tank temp is 78 F.
I began the treatment three days ago with a 25% water change. I then started by adding only four capfuls. I noticed no signs of distress. Day two I added four capfuls and I still noticed no signs of distress with any of my fish. On day three I did the first full treatment at six capfuls. I did this treatment in the morning and left for work about an hour after the dosing. I noticed no signs of distress in my fish. When I came home all my fish were at the bottom struggling. I read that gasping could be a sid effect of the melafix but this was much worse. I plugged in a fluval full of carbon and purigen and did a 50% water change. My big Moba male was of course the only one to die . I dont get it? The dosage says 5ml for ten gallons and thats what i followed, I even started slow and worked my way up and I didnt even make it the full seven days as recomended on the package. Have any of you guys had anything like this happen?

 

[komodo182]

I dropped a bottle of melafix in a tank before but just moved the fish very quickly to another tank and did several water changes. This was a 16oz bottle in a 15 gallon tank,lol.
None died. Some went to the surface gasping, but literally, not a single fish died from it.
Not sure if this woudl do anything or not, but was the melafix expired?

 

[CornBread]

Man I'm so sorry to hear that and for that reason I
don't trust none of them damn chemicals

 

[CornBread]

I will call the company and talk to my local fish store to find out if there is anything that they
could do as far as any kind of repaying or something

 

[piggy67]

I seriously dought Melafix killed your fish .I have used it for no less than 6 years wth no problems of any kind and with all kinds of different speces of fish including labryrinth species. I'm not saying it didnt, just i highly dought it..

Dion....

 

[dparks87]

I will call the company and talk to my local fish store to find out if there is anything that they
could do as far as any kind of repaying or something

Thanks man I appreciate that. I will also be doing that today. I tried to call last night but they were of course closed.

I seriously dought Melafix killed your fish .I have used it for no less than 6 years wth no problems of any kind and with all kinds of different speces of fish including labryrinth species. I'm not saying it didnt, just i highly dought it..

I have also used the product many times, The bottle does not expire until 03/13. All the fish were showing effects, and this was at a dosage less than their suggested three day treatment for new fish. I am very confident that if I had not done a water change and added the filter that all the fish would have been dead.

 

[Lupin]

Was your water well aerated?

 

[billyismybigfish]

not sure about what caused the death.

i can say that i have had success with a few api products.

but one things sticks out.

i used pimafix a few months ago on a community tank.

1/2 the dosage, and only one treatment.

my 2 pictus died that night.

the pictus were not even the ones that needed treatment.

sometimes, weird things happen that have no reasonable explanation.

i bought 4 new pictus from snoookn21 and moved on.

i know that i will not ever use pimafix in a tank that has pictus in it.

sorry for your loss.

 

[dparks87]

Was your water well aerated?

I have a AP 100 on the tank. It does not create a ton on air but the fish have not seemed to have a problem with it. Would the Melafix have effected the amount of oxygen in the water? This was not information that was available on the Melafix label, but I did read that gasping is often a side effect of using Melafix.

Billyismybigfish, I do know that scaleless fish can often have trouble with medications. I have a marbled motoro ray in the tank and he showed no signs of stress until the finale and third treatment. Which is when everything went downhill.

 

[dookie]

Anytime the largest fish in the tank die it's most likely due to oxygen starvation. Has anyone done a pH test with this product? Maybe it causes the pH to crash also?