White Spot / Fin Rot - Melafix?

Question

We recently brought a fish, and after a week we noticed white spots on his tail. We gave him some white spot treatment and did a 25% water change, and after a few days there was still no improvment. As he is now lying on the bottom of the tank all the time we visited local pet store who advised us to use Melafix instead. He implied that Melafix will fix all the problems - but I fear this is too late for our fish. Does melafix help with whitespot? Can we use the white spot treatment and melafix together? Just looked at him now and he appears to have a bit of fin rot on his tail too. =(
Help!

Answer 1

Melafix is generally a poor choice for treating white spot aka ich. You would do well to use one of the following treatment methods.
Ich is a parasite in your aquarium. To dispel some common myths it is not caused by poor water quality or low temperatures, or ammonia, or dirty filters or anything else like that. It does not lurk around in a tank waiting to attack fish, it does not only attack weakened fish, it is not airborne. None of that is true. It is caused by a specific parasite and must be introduced into the tank. This usually happens when you bring in new fish from an infected tank. The best treatments for ick in a tropical aquariums is:

Change a large portion of the water, about 50-60% while cleaning the gravel very well.
Clean the filter and change all the media but leave out the carbon.
Add 1 tablespoon of salt per gallon of the tank.
Raise the temperature to 88-90 F. Raise it slowly, about 1 degree per hour. You may need to add an air stone or two depending on the type of fish and how heavily the tank is stocked. Treat for at least 7 days after you see the last white spots on any of the fish. After the treatment return the tank temperature to normal.

OR

Use a good ick medication as directed on the bottle. Try to find a medication that used Malachite Green as the active ingredient. (CAUTION: Malachite Green is a known carcinogen. Be careful not to get it on your skin!) Quick Cure is a good choice.
Change 25% or more of the water daily being sure to clean the gravel as you do so.
Continue the treatment for at least 7 days after you see the last white spots on any of the fish. After the treatment, return the carbon to your filter.

This will work and will remove the ich from your tank.

Fin rt is another story entirely and should be treated with antibiotics such as Maracyn, Maracyn TC or others commonly available at pet stores. I would however caution you to be very sure your fish has an illness before treating your tank with any medications. Often the medications can cause additional problems. For example, antibiotics will kill the beneficial bacteria in your tank right along with the harmful bacteria and as a result you can expect an ammonia problem to occur that you will also need to deal with.

Feel free to email me if I can help further.

MM

Answer 2

Melafix will not cure white spot, it is about the only thing it wont cure but it does wonders for everything else including fin rot. Go to your pet shop and get WS3 for white spot. Depending on size of tank you put a certain amount in every second day until spots are gone and then once more after they are gone. When you are finished treating do a 25% water change. You can use Melafix at the same time. Get some tonic salts as well and add them too. Good luck.

Answer 3

For white spot i use Protozin i swear by this stuff its great, cleared up my white spot nicely, i could see a big change after a day or 2 and by the 3rd day it was gone.

Also turn the heat up a few oC till it clears then return to the normal tank temp.

Fin rot is most likely a water quality problem and you should get this sorted a.s.a.p

To get your nitrates down (which is probably causing you the problems) I would suggest a 50% water change and vac your gravel and then do a 25% water change every other day until it under 20ppm.

The problem you will have is that you will have to keep adding the meds (replace what you took out) everytime you do a water change.

Before you start to siphon your tank i would take a water sample to your lfs and have them test the water.

Best of luck :)

Answer 4

Sounds like your fish may have whats called "ick". I'm currently treating my goldfish with Melafix and trust me, it works wonders. Just follow the directions on the back of the bottle and do a 7 day treatment. When the 7 days are over, make a 25% water change and you should be fine. I've used Melafix in the past as well, and it has solved all of my problems.
You may also want to get test strips to test the ammonia in your tank water. High levels of ammonia cause tail and fin rot on your fish. You can buy them at your local pet store. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Melafix doesn't work on anything. Change the water. Most problems with fish begin with the quality of the water. 25% if the tank is full of ammonia or nitrite does little of nothing. Change bigger 75% see if there is improvement in a few days. Don't add any meds. Get the water in the right perameters. If this is a new tank, the tank is cycling and fish will die if the water is not kept clear of ammonia and nitrite. It can take 7 weeks to cycle. Change water and leave the filter alone. Clean out the filter when ammonia and nitrite have dropped to zero and there is some reading for nitrate.

Answer 6

If there's one remedy i always make sure i have is Melafix
It cures most things as soon as i see any sign of white spot or fin rot i use it
I think its really good

Answer 7

people love selling fish treatment to you because they are sooooo expensive the problem is there are no guarantees they will work your best option is to improve the environment of your fish tank water changes filter cleaning "pooh" hoovering etc

Answer 8

try it... i think it does'nt harm...