Melafix and inverts
- Thread starter shellyx
- Start date
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.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
According to the API site, it's safe for snails, shrimps other inverts and the biological filter. I do not have personal knowledge to the contrary. I will however say that many people find Melafix and Primafix to be of little use for disease cure but more for disease prevention. If you have something more serious with your Guppies, this may not be the best treatment.
What is it that you are treating your Guppies for?
Hi Andy thanks for the reply.
I bought guppies a few days ago they have been dropping like flies, when I got them there was a dead one in the bag. Any way I have 1 left of the blues sadly, it starts with a black spot on tail, tail starts to recede they swim strangely and they die. Panicking as its not something I've had to deal with.
I bought guppies a few days ago they have been dropping like flies, when I got them there was a dead one in the bag. Any way I have 1 left of the blues sadly, it starts with a black spot on tail, tail starts to recede they swim strangely and they die. Panicking as its not something I've had to deal with.
Colin_T
Aquarium Advice Addict
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
---------------------
Newly imported guppies regularly carry external bacterial and protozoan infections, both can kill fish quickly but bacteria kill them faster. Salt can sometimes be used to slow or stop the fish dying but not always. Pictures of the sick and dead fish might offer some clues as to what is killing them. You should also test the tank water to make sure that isn't the issue.
---------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.
If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
---------------------
Newly imported guppies regularly carry external bacterial and protozoan infections, both can kill fish quickly but bacteria kill them faster. Salt can sometimes be used to slow or stop the fish dying but not always. Pictures of the sick and dead fish might offer some clues as to what is killing them. You should also test the tank water to make sure that isn't the issue.
---------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.
If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
That actually sounds like a parasite we had on Asian Guppies back in the 80s. The fish would look great upon arrival then within hours the edge of the tails would turn black, then the tail would totally be eaten away then the fish died. All in a matter of hours. The best remedy for that we found was formaldehyde and salt. That was not something that you could treat holistically because it was so aggressive. If you can't use these meds in your setup ( due to plants or other live animals being sensitive to it) place the fish in a hospital tank to treat. The good news was that it never really effected other fish species but really did a number on the Guppies.
Thank you both.
All my parameters are great ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate under 5
Temp 25
Tank has a lot of shrimp, my red lizard whiptail and gobies so I have to be careful what I use.
I lost all 6 metallic blues today, I have 6 variegated guppies left they all look healthy and happy.
Should I treat them? They have no symptoms yet.
To me the blues looked like they had fin rot.
I'll try and link a picture
All my parameters are great ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate under 5
Temp 25
Tank has a lot of shrimp, my red lizard whiptail and gobies so I have to be careful what I use.
I lost all 6 metallic blues today, I have 6 variegated guppies left they all look healthy and happy.
Should I treat them? They have no symptoms yet.
To me the blues looked like they had fin rot.
I'll try and link a picture
