Tail Fin BITTEN OFF

[AdamsAquarium]

I was at the store and found a fish I liked (balloon molly), upon checkout we noticed its tail fin was almost bitten off completely.

They provided me with "MELAFIX" by API that treats bacterial infections and promotes regrowth of damaged tissue and fins. The instructions are to pour a certain amount daily into the tank for a week.

I'm a little skeptical about this product, can anyone vouch that this is the proper route to take for my freshwater fish? It's only 1 of the fish and I can certainly tell that his swimming strength is significantly impaired.

Does anyone have any other advice?

 

[Angela1108]

It can help yes. I would put him in a qt tank though - you won't use as much and it won't stress the other fish. Also just an FYI it bubbles and makes foam at the top of the tank when you use it with a filter


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[AdamsAquarium]

Angela, thank you. That was good info!

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[Angela1108]

No prob. Pimafix and melafix are very very low end - so big bacteria infections and stuff they won't help too much but I've had pretty good luck with it when a fish scraped against a decoration.


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[Matt68005]

It only treats certain type of bacteria nowhere near what it claims....it's just an API moneymaker, the amount of bad advice in the fish hobby is amazing, not saying anyone here did, but the pet chain stores, are utter crap for meds and advice. If it were me I would go to a dedicated proper fish store and look for a few products such as methylene blue or paraguard or even quick cure. It's better to use a Quarantine tank and meth blue or paraguard, in the fish hobby you really have to read and understand diseases parasites and water quality more than the fish itself. Good luck and read up, be prepared in the future, a bottle of methyelene blue and some salt and maybe an antibiotic will cure most minor ailments/diseases, and it's $6 at a LFS. a real fish store. Avoid chain pet stores and don't ask or accept their advice, they don't know or care at all they just want to sell you sick fish and meds that claim they work for everything but don't......thus they make money.


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[AdamsAquarium]

Thanks Matt, good advice. I think this lady actually cared about her fish, because I wanted the fish and we didn't know it had issues with the fin at the time, she actually gave the fish for free and also provided me with the bottle for free as well. I was very surprised someone at a major pet supply chain would go to those lengths to help me and the fish

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