questionable data about melafix

[dodgefreak8]

hey everyone I was surfing around and found this post on another forum. I don't know anything else other than this. On a side note though I have not found melafix to work on anything I have used it on. some people have differant opinions but I just stick with clean water and salt if need be.

"I tried Melafix for fin rot, and after one dose, I quit using it and it cured fin rot without the recommened doseage..

The package says it cures mouth fungus also which is actually a bacterial disease..I bought some fishes from the LFS with mouth fungus...I dosed it for a couple of days and it was not helping..Then I wanted to look in the net to see what Melafix cures and their experience about mouth fungus since the bacteria (flexi bacteria, columnaris bacteria)in mouth fungus is a strong bacterial disease....Then I read this from a Dr. Johnson from koivet.com:

"Melafix is promoted to have antibacterial properties but our research has shown this is not the case. We treated an inhabited system for five consecutive days and then ran CFU (colony forming unit) tests on the water and found a typical population of Aeromonas hydrophila/caviae, and Citrobacter freundii, as well as Serratia spp."

"MelaFix is NOT bactericidal as claimed."

 

[rallysman]

good find. thanks for the info. that makes me want to look for more articles on it.
All i know about it is that it has helped heal wounds on a few of my fish very quickly.

 

[fishnutham]

interesting info i know it mostly natural ingredients so i've never used it for anything more then scrapes and mild cuts just to help things along, i'm lucky that all i've had problems curing was nemotodes and a small case of cloudy eye which i correected with a water change and addind a uv sterlizer .

 

[gman]

I had a clown knife with a bad bacterial infection (it was so bad that the top of its back was sticking out of the water 1/4 an inch). This guy was in really really bad shape. I put in the melafix and he was 100% better about a week later.

 

[dodgefreak8]

did you do any water changes or anything? Could there have possably been any other factor to this success instead of the melafix? Here are my experiences with melafix/pimafix

1st silver aro got swim bladder infection tried melafix/pimafix first with waterchanges aro got worse and eventually died.

bosemani rainbow got a bacterial infectoin on his side dosed melafix for recommended dose and infection got worse. dosed with maracyn and maracyn 2 infection cleared in 5 days

got some kind of massive disease in my feeder molly tank dosed with melafix/pimafix lost 12 out of 20 mollies switched to maracyn and maracyn 2 only lost 2 more mollies others cleared up

mouth fungus on 2 blue rams dosed melafix/pimafix for 2 weeks no improvment dosed maracyn and it cleared up in 7 days

i'm not contesting melafix's ability to heal superficial wounds faster than normal but it its far from a cure all.. I have had very good luck with increased water changes, addition of salt and if needed an increase in temp. these are just my findings not scientific proof..

 

[MrfisH]

It has worked for me everytime. Who stated it was a cure all teatment?

 

[hardb0iled]

I've never used Melafix or any other kind of medication and my fish's scrapes and knocks always heal quickly Like within a few days - I think things that make the water change color are a great placebo!

 

[rallysman]

I've never used Melafix or any other kind of medication and my fish's scrapes and knocks always heal quickly Like within a few days - I think things that make the water change color are a great placebo!

Well i know you havent used it because it doesnt change the color of the water

When my jag beat the hell out of my clown knife melafix cleared it right up.

i let it go for 2 weeks and didnt see improvement (while doing larger water changes) then after i dosed the tank with melafix it was a few days before he looked perfect.
I am also convinced that it helped my aro grow scales faster, and on my small aro heal its fins that were tattered for some reason.

 

[dodgefreak8]

It has worked for me everytime. Who stated it was a cure all teatment?

its a common misconseption that melafix will fix everything.. if you want to find out search melafix.. just curious though why everyone thinks that it was the melafix that worked.. poeple dump this stuff in there fish heals and they think "thank god for melafix" fish scrapes and torn fins will heal quite quickly without any medication if your water is clean

 

[hardb0iled]

Well i know you havent used it because it doesnt change the color of the water

...busted!

Your right I have never used it! When I was a lot younger I remember putting that 'something or other' blue and green stuff into the water for ich and things(I'm so ignorant when it comes to some things!), but that was a long time ago, since then I've notice as long as the water quality is decent the fish tend to heal quickly regardless and I havent had any kind of tank infection for as long as I can remember. I just think sometimes the less chemical interference with the tank the healthier and more stable it will be.