melafix fit?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

wright4lfe

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
161
Location
HB, CA
i've got a 8 inch albino tiger oscar and a 6 inch j.d. in a 90 gallon bowfront. over the weekend here in socal the temp got above 90 degrees. since it rarely, if ever, gets that hot, 99% of the homes do not have AC, including my apt. i was out all day sunday and wasn't home to monitor the temp of my tank (i keep it around 78 degrees). when i returned home later sunday night the temp was 89 degrees. i proceeded to do a 25% water change and add cubes into the filter to drop the temp. before i went to bed the temp was 81 degrees.

when i woke the next morning and checked the tank it looked like the face of my o had been torn at by the j.d. but the j.d. looked pretty bad too. they were both pretty aggressive towards each other, but had never been mean to each other in the past.

i proceeded to put up a divider in the tank, do another 25% water change and check the water params...

0 ammonia
7.2 ph
20 nitrates
0 nitrites

i may have my nitrates/nitrites mixed up because i'm at work and can't remember which was which...

after everything was done i added melafix to the tank to start the recovery process. here's where it gets wierd. when i add the melafix the fish jerk and twitch like i threw a twelve volt battery in the water. they do it for 3-5 seconds at the most, then go back to their daily routine....

is the jerking and twitching normal or what?
 
I think water changes were all you needed to do to help your fish. I am not a fan of Melafix myself, I tried it once and my Betta started going crazy until I did two huge water changes :O
 
i added the melafix because of some of the deep wounds on both fish and the appearence of what appeared to be a milky film over the outside of one of the oscars eyes. the film has since gone away. but some of the wounds are still healing
 
I have heard that Melafix is not recommended for bettas, but I have had great luck with the stuff for minor fin problems, in conjunction with an increased water change schedule, like daily or every other day while dosing.

The milky film is "cloudy eye" and is usually due to a mild bacterial infection, and the Melafix may indeed handle this. If not, go ahead and use a broad-spectrum antibiotic.

My guess is that the temperature swings are to blame for most of the trouble. It is almost better just to leave the temp be, since over the course of the day and night the temp will very slowly rise and fall, but the drastic changes are very stressful. Try blowing a fan across the surface of the water until the hottest weather is over.

Good luck!
 
thanks for the advice tank girl, but the tank temp wasn't going to go down anytime soon over the weekend as temps here in socal haven't gone done yet.
 
Okay, so maybe it's fan time then. I think dropping the temp drastically with ice and water changes was stressful in this case, at least I have seen that cause problems.
 
Back
Top Bottom