Tropical Fish help ? Melafix and Primafix and clown loaches?
April 21, 2009 by admin
Filed under Questions and Answers
crazychic asked:
I have recently purchased three baby clown loaches touch wood no problems at moment . I usually like to stock medications for emergencies but have been told to take care with clowns and medication so doing a little research have come across Melafix and Primafix and was wondering if anyone knows if these medications are effective but also safe to use with clowns in the tank ? Do I also have to halve the dose of the medicine as I was told to do with others ? Thanks for any help am just afraid of doing any harm to them .
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I have recently purchased three baby clown loaches touch wood no problems at moment . I usually like to stock medications for emergencies but have been told to take care with clowns and medication so doing a little research have come across Melafix and Primafix and was wondering if anyone knows if these medications are effective but also safe to use with clowns in the tank ? Do I also have to halve the dose of the medicine as I was told to do with others ? Thanks for any help am just afraid of doing any harm to them .
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Marcus on Thu, 23rd Apr 2009 12:50 am
Clowns are extremely sensitive to their water conditions and when they get a bit bigger they are awkward to move. That spine under the eye can cut both you or any net and if it gets caught cause the fish a lot of damage.
Better to treat other fish in a seperate tank to the clowns if you can and never use a full dose of any medication if you can’t.
Clowns are highly susceptible to ick/white spot which is stress brought on and medications will do that as a side effect. Aquarium salt is the safest thing to use with them and again not at full dosage
Jakedzz on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 3:09 am
Never use salt with scaleless fish. Melafix is NOT good for using in tanks with “scaleless” fish either. It causes skin irritation ( which is how it “regrows” the slime coat, btw) , and it drives scaleless fish batty. I’ve heard of scaleless fish jumping out of tanks just to get away from the stuff.
The PimaFix should be fine for fungal / bacterial problems, although I don’t find it particularly effective.
Good medications to have on hand, where scaleless fish are present in tanks are:
Levamisole Hydrochloride – for parasites, particularly worms. explains how to use.
Maracyn Plus w/ biospheres – antibiotic that literally doses only the fish and not the water. Little spheres of medicine, you can’t see, attach to fish and dose it directly. It sounds like a gimmick, but this stuff has worked on every single bacterial outbreak I’ve ever had in an aquarium when other antibiotics were doing nothing.
Rid-Ich – used at half strength in presence of loaches. Used for ich and other external parasites.
Instead of Melafix, have some Tea Tree Oil on hand. It can be bought at Walmart near the pharmacy area. It’s what the active ingredient in Melafix is anyway. Use it ONLY as a spot-on treatment for things like wounds, fin rot, etc. Get some on a Q-tip, take the fish out of the tank, and apply it directly on the fish on the affected wound/spot. Hikari’s Bio Bandage also works very well for this.