# My Review of API Melafix & Pimafix



## Brian757 (Sep 24, 2012)

So I did some reading about API's Melafix for bacterial infections and Pimafix for fungal infections. 

A lot of people online were mentioning that these products contain clove oil, which is known as a euthanizing agent for fish. I could not find and verify this, but they do mention that these contain extracts from "tea trees" & "West Indian Bay trees." Well, I only started my research on these products after I used them in the tank for a day. (I know, probably a bad time to start reading up.)

Well, my interest in them came from my 6" Geophagus Brasiliensis coming down with a sickness. She would hide behind my pieces of driftwood and not eat. It heavily concerned me because she is my largest and basically "show fish" in my 90 gallon. 

Well, I noticed that her tail fin was starting to shred, and I had a school of tiger barbs in my tank that were aggressive, so they were taken out. About two weeks after they were removed, my geophagus started acting up. I came home to find her violently spinning in circles. 

I started using Melafix (Bacterial infection treatment) and it fixed her tail fin, but she still seemed sick. About 3 days after using Melafix, she was getting worse, and still hiding. So I used my net to bring her out of hiding to get a better look at her body. I saw her right pectoral fin swollen with white cottony substance surrounding the inflammation. 

I immediately thought "fungal infection". So I went out and bought Pimafix (Fungal infection treatment) and began treating the tank. By day 2 the inflammation went down 50%. By day 3, she is swimming around the tank and the inflammation has gone down 100%, but the white cottony tissue is still there, at about 50% of what it was. She seems to be kicking back great. 

Sorry this is a long thread but I wanted to give my experience with these 2 products. In retrospect, I probably would've just bought Seachem ParaGuard but these products have brought success to my tank and helped save my prized fish.

All that I can deduce from her injury was that the tiger barbs were nipping at her tail fin and created an open wound, only to create a bacterial infection. And then it led to a fungal infection.

Here is a pic of my Geophagus(Under actinic w/image contrasting adjusted):


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## garstrom (Jan 5, 2014)

Thanks for the post,good info to know...


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Good to hear from you!How's Crush?


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## arenaranger (Jun 5, 2011)

I just recently finished using pimafix to deal with a cottony area on my large red tail tinfoil barb. It seemed to solve th eproblem within a few days. I continued to use the instructed dosage for 7 days as it says on the bottle. No ill effects from the pimafix and everyone is healthy again!


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## Brian757 (Sep 24, 2012)

coralbandit said:


> Good to hear from you!How's Crush?


I'm great! I actually signed in and checked a couple of the most recent threads to see if you were still active here. It's great to see a member I remember still! 

Crush is doing great. He hasn't grown a bit since I was last on here. I've also since bought a fire eel and he is an awesome addition. He only eats blood worms but it's really neat hand feeding him. I will have to update my build thread soon.

How are all of your tanks holding up?!


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Still enjoying fish and trying to continue with breeding German Blue Rams lately.
It is good to hear from you again.Glad to hear crush is still spoiled and healthy!


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## Brian757 (Sep 24, 2012)

coralbandit said:


> Still enjoying fish and trying to continue with breeding German Blue Rams lately.
> It is good to hear from you again.Glad to hear crush is still spoiled and healthy!


Wow, that's a great fish to breed. I've never tried breeding cichlids but I know it's not easy. Dwarfs have so much personality too. You have the resources, I would love to see your current breeding tanks. Any pics?


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