The advantages of the medications of Melafix, Pimafix, and Betafix are numerous and almost magical. They do a fantastic job of healing fins and tears and are nearly irreplacable in the aquarist's pharmacy, BUT I have to ask you to reconsider their use in the area of one family of fish. I have known that in the family of fish that have Labyrinth organs and have the need to go to the surface to breathe that these medications will cause deaths in a wild and unpredicable manner. It destroys the ability for the Labyrinth organ to function and allow the fish to breathe air as it needs to and they die horribly.
While I am not saying do not use these medications and would never say that no fish should have the benefit of the good that they do, I am simply advising that the harm they do the fish with Labyrinth organs is more than enough to warrant asking you not to use it in tanks containing any of these fish. There are other medications that may take a while longer and more patience to use to treat the problems of these fish but will not take their lives. That is all I am saying. I do speak from personal experience and do know of other owners of bettas and gouramis in particular who lost fish by using these meds in their tanks trying to help them and killing them in the attempt. The solution to their deaths was brought to my attention when I was moderating at another forum and a moderator from a third forum brought it to our attention when she heard of the deaths that were occurring unexplained on our forum and she had found this problem dealing with her own fish. So this is a problem that has cropped up in the cases of many other owners. Please do take this seriously. As I said I am not slamming the medications. They work wonders but not on Labyrinth organ fishes.
A partial listing of the Anabantids (Labyrinth organ fish) are as follows:
Perch
Combtail
Bettas of all types
Gouramis of all types
Ctenopoma of all types
Paradisefish
and while they are not technically Labyrinth organ fish the same effect seems to be present for some reason on the following:
Pencilfish
Thank you for your attention.
Rose
While I am not saying do not use these medications and would never say that no fish should have the benefit of the good that they do, I am simply advising that the harm they do the fish with Labyrinth organs is more than enough to warrant asking you not to use it in tanks containing any of these fish. There are other medications that may take a while longer and more patience to use to treat the problems of these fish but will not take their lives. That is all I am saying. I do speak from personal experience and do know of other owners of bettas and gouramis in particular who lost fish by using these meds in their tanks trying to help them and killing them in the attempt. The solution to their deaths was brought to my attention when I was moderating at another forum and a moderator from a third forum brought it to our attention when she heard of the deaths that were occurring unexplained on our forum and she had found this problem dealing with her own fish. So this is a problem that has cropped up in the cases of many other owners. Please do take this seriously. As I said I am not slamming the medications. They work wonders but not on Labyrinth organ fishes.
A partial listing of the Anabantids (Labyrinth organ fish) are as follows:
Perch
Combtail
Bettas of all types
Gouramis of all types
Ctenopoma of all types
Paradisefish
and while they are not technically Labyrinth organ fish the same effect seems to be present for some reason on the following:
Pencilfish
Thank you for your attention.
Rose