MelaFix – Melaleuca Tea Tree Oil

It’s been years since this was written up, and field experiences have borne out the following:

MelaFix for Superficial Infections in Koi and Fish

Melafix remains effective in many of the “garden variety” superficial bacterial ulcers and sores wherein the fish are not “sick” but have scuffs and scrapes in the skin.
The foaming of the product is initially alarming to most people.
A lot of people overdose with this stuff, causing other trouble. Don’t do that.
Melafix is INEFFECTIVE against deep or systemic infections or infections wherein the fish are sick and or not eating..

No antibacterial treatment is effective against bacterial infections or sores UNLESS issues with temperature, water quality, crowding, feeding and background pollution have been remedied.

Melafix is a patented 1% mixture of CAS Melaleuca (Tea Tree Oil) which is used to enhance healing in fish.

Melafix is promoted to have antibacterial properties but our research has shown this is not the case. We treated an inhabited system for five consecutive days and then ran CFU (colony forming unit) tests on the water and found a typical population of Aeromonas hydrophila/caviae, and Citrobacter freundii, as well as Serratia spp.

Getting Melafix Right Now

Melafix is promoted NOT to damage the function of the biological filter and this was verified to be true. MelaFix has no negative effect on filtration. We treated a cycled inhabited system and checked daily or derangements in nitrogen reduction and found none during our application period.

MelaFix has no effect on pH. We verified this daily along with other tests of water quality, and everything remained in the ideal ranges.

We have treated numerous species of fish in Atlanta and have found MelaFIx to be nontoxic to all species, including freshwater sting rays.

Koi With Wounds in Our Testing

Within three days, healing was impressive.

We treated daily, using NO OTHER ADJUVANTS or other therapies. The wound was never dressed topically and the fish was never injected. No water changes were done. No SALT was applied or present in test tank water. Within three days, healing was impressive.

1. MelaFix does not harm the filter
2. MelaFix does not impact the pH
3. MelaFix is NOT bactericidal as claimed.
4. MelaFix (1% Melaleuca) ENHANCES AND SPEEDS HEALING
5. MelaFix is the most impressive water borne treatment for superficial wounds and bacterial sores I have ever seen.
6. MelaFix is non toxic to all freshwater species tested.
7. MelaFix may obviate the need for injections in superficially infected fish.

I will probably add the recommendation of MelaFix to all my cases where a water treatment is practicable and where healing is urgently needed.
Consider MelaFix most favorably in the following conditions:

• Conditions where many fish are infected and injection is impractical
• Fish are in small enough bodies of water to be treated economically.
• Fish have wounds which are lmited to the body, mouth and fins, without systemic or septic signs.
• Recently handled fish at retail.
• Fish whose ulcers are “almost healed” but stubbornly will not go away. (Also check nitrates)
• Fish with breeding abrasions
• Small species of fish which would not survive or tolerate injection.

Melafix does not harm turtles or other reptiles. Melafix will not clear Ich or any other trematode or protozoan. Ich does not control bacteria but speeds healing. It is possible that positive healing changes in the skin are how the application of Melafix results in improvement of bacterial sores, mouthrot or finrot in affected fish.

My thanks to Aquarium Pharmaceuticals for a 1% and a 5% solutions for testing purposes. Thank you for providing quantities sufficient for replications in at least ten different situations and cases.