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Thread: Melafix or any med to recommend in shrimp tank?

  1. #1
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    Melafix or any med to recommend in shrimp tank?

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    Need your recommendation for medication.

    2 ft densely planted tank with shrimps. Recently put in 5 Choc gourami and 1 got torn apart in a week. Quarrelsome buggers for such a cute little thing. I thought a school will limit aggression and the density of vegetation will keep them living in harmony but apparrently I've miscalculated its territorial range. Now second one has its tail chewed and the damaged tail has rotten to half its size. I cannot catch them out even in its weakened state, as it's still too fast for my net, and I don't intend to be uprooting crypts in my effort to catch it out, so I'm asking for recommendations for a medication that will help stop the infection and also be ok for shrimps.

    I've dosed Oxycure but it didn't seem to stop the tail from rotting further. Would anyone with experience treating fin rot in a plant tank with shrimps comment if melafix be safe and effective? If so, what is the dosage? Should I be dosing according to the bottle or should I half the dose to favour the shrimps? Also, what's the difference between melafix and pimafix?

    Thanks for reading.
    Warm regards,

    Lawrence Lee

    brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
    Philippians 4:8

  2. #2
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    Hi Lawrence, I tried melafix about a month ago on one of my boraras merah who has slightly damaged fins, and it seemed to work.. fins are now completely healed... melafix seemed to promote healing... (i medicated for about 2 weeks according to instructions on the bottle, but i also added about one teaspoon of salt per 10 litres of water too)

    Regarding shrimp sensitivity, I think it's shrimp-safe. I dosed the recommended dosage, and there are many cherry shrimps and mosses in my tank too, which seems to be totally unaffected by the medication (the shrimps went on with their normal active feeding habits)

    The difference between melafix and pimafix, i think is, pimafix is more for fungal infections (didn't tried pimafix before though, correct me if i'm wrong). Also, different ingredients are used; melafix contains tea-tree oil extract, whereas pimafix contains (west-indian bay oil extract).

    That's all I know... lol

  3. #3
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    Hi Lawrence,
    The most effective medication I've tried so far is Tetra Medica, if the portions are correct you should see results within 12 hours. The cons is it'll stain your tank silicon blue and a little costly for a small portion. It went well with my Yamatos and nerites but I can't guarantee other shrimps as I've not tried before.
    I also wish to share with you another observation I noticed. I've been using Melafix for about 3 years now and I find it's potency is not as it use to be but this could be due to the bacterial in my tank getting immune to it or I'm just too demanding( I usually finish the bottle within 3 months so expiry is out of the question and melafix dosage regime is on a day to day basis ) It might be my paranoia though. This is just to share with you hor so don't go quoting me... Hope the info helps but like the chinese say 'cure disease but not cause' my 2 cents separate them and save yourself the trouble....
    Something about the water & the fishes that calms me down.

  4. #4
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    Hi Michael,

    I'm in agreement with your observation over long-term medication. Infact I was just discussing this topic with a researcher working with a pharmaceutical giant Friday night. Observations seem to indicate that switching medicines (for humans) every fortnight, even for vitamin supplements show better response than consistent dosing of the same medication on an extended time.

    I'm not a medication user when it comes to fish, so I thought people use melafix to treat injured fish. Didn't know it can be used as a prophylactic.

    Actually, If I can catch out the injured one, I'd treat it to a salt dip which I'm more familiar. Guess I'll leave it to fend for itself and let nature heal it for now, but if it gets weaker, I may be able to catch it out for the salt bath.

    Gorilla83, thanks for sharing your experience. Did you have to change water or run a carbon to remove the melafix after use? Guess if it can be used as a prophylactic, then there's no need to do a water change after treatment right?
    Warm regards,

    Lawrence Lee

    brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
    Philippians 4:8

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