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Can You Use Melafix For Ich On Your Fish?

Melafix is without a doubt of on is not the best treatments on the market for fish keepers to have in their fish keeping accessories due to its low price and ability to treat a wide range of common illnesses in fish.

On top of that, it is a one hundred percent natural treatment too scoring it extra points over some of the competing products out there right now.

Not surprisingly, due to this Melafix has one of the best reputations going amongst fish keepers but its great reputation can also work against it at times as we often see people reaching out and asking if they are able to use Melafix for ich in their fish.

Although ich is not a supported condition by Melafix and API make this perfectly clear on the label, you often see people on social media blindly recommending Melafix as a way to treat ich in fish due to them just presuming that it will get the job done.

Thankfully, more and more people are starting to comment on these social media posts about ich when people reply suggesting Melafix to tell them that they should be using a specialist ich treatment such as super ich cure, we do still see a surprisingly high amount of people reaching out and asking about using Melafix as an ich treatment in fish.

Due to this, we have decided to publish our own article going over using Melafix for ich in fish in the hope that we are able to help as many of our readers as possible.

Can You Use Melafix For Treating Ich On Your Fish?

Melafix is not intended for use in treating ich in your fish and it clearly says this on its label.

The active ingredient in Melafix, tea tree extract will do little to nothing if your fish are suffering from ich and you should always use a specialist ich treatment suitable for the type of fish that you keep.

As we covered in our article going over if Melafix works, Melafix really is an excellent treatment that works very well for a wide range of common conditions in fish but it was never designed to treat ich.

Thankfully, there are plenty of treatments on the market such as super ich cure that will work very well at treating ich in your fish and is often able to rapidly get your fish back to full health.

Depending on the exact setup you have in your aquarium, you may not be able to use a chemical-based ich treatment due to having sensitive fish, plants, snails or shrimp in there.

In this case, you can try increasing the temperature of your tank water but this will only work against weaker ich strains where as the stronger strains will usually require a specialist treatment such as super ich cure to treat the ich breakout.

Why Do People Use Melafix For Treating Ich On Fish?

The main reason that people try to use Melafix for treating ich on their fish is due to getting recommendations from people on social media to try using Melafix.

This is usually due to the person offering the advice not being familiar with Melafix and what it has been designed to treat in fish as Melafix is not an ich treatment and will do little to nothing for your fish during an ich breakout.

The image above is from our Melafix vs Pimafix comparison article and goes over what the two products are able to treat directly from the label of the products.

As you can see, ich is not listed on there and most of the recommendations you see on social media about using Pimafix for ich or Melafix are due to people simply misremembering what the treatments are able to treat in your fish.

We really do think that this is just an honest mistake from people within the fish keeping community who are misremembering what conditions they have used Melafix on in their fish rather than people trying to be malicious.

Unfortunately, though, this really can result in serious consequences for your fish as the longer they are left without being treated correctly, the more likely it will be that the ich breakout will be able to cause some serious long term issues in your fish.

What Should You Use To Treat Ich On Your Fish?

There are a number treatments available for treating ich in your fish that can work very well in different situations.

Our default recommendation for ich is super ich cure but some people prefer to try natural treatments such as increasing the temperature of their water or garlic flakes mixed with their fish food due to the anti-parasitic properties of garlic.

As we covered in our Tetra Lifeguard vs Melafix comparison article, the Tetra Lifeguard can work well as an alternative to Melafix due to the amount of cross over between the two as well as Tetra Lifeguard also being able to treat ich in fish.

The downside of Tetra Lifeguard is that it is a chemical-based treatment rather than a natural treatment so some people do prefer to use Melafix for the non-ich problems due to it being all-natural.

As we mentioned earlier in our article, there are a number of other, natural treatments available that have been proven to work but if possible, we would highly recommend that you go with a chemical treatment if possible as they do have a higher success rate of being able to treat the ich in your fish as fast as possible.

On top of that, you can also have problems with other fish in your tank if you do choose to increase the water temperature to treat the ich as it can push the water parameters out of the recommended temperature range for some fish and put them at risk.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over using Melafix for ich to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand that Melafix is an excellent treatment for a wide range of conditions in fish but it is not a suitable treatment for ich. Thankfully, there are plenty of other cheap treatments that have been specifically designed to treat ich breakouts in fish than you are able to use as we covered throughout the article so they should be able to get your fish back to full health as quickly as possible.