Melafake

I have always read that people consider Melafix pretty hit and miss. It's considered by many to be the fish disease-treatment equivalent of chicken soup for a cold. Nevertheless, I decided to do some research, as I knew it was 'Tea Tree oil', and I personally find the Tea Tree oil I use as a human cure-all, brilliant stuff.

I discovered that it is not, as a matter of fact, Tea Tree oil. Melafix is made from Cajeput oil, from the tree Melaleuca leucadendron. True Tea Tree oil is made from the Melaleuca alternifolia tree. While both have antiseptic and healing properties, according to research, Tea Tree oil is the most effective antimicrobial.

While researching, I also discovered that people have been making their own version of Melafix, dubbed 'Melafake'. Well, no need to tell me twice. I had all the ingredients right here at home! The only thing that didn't sit right with me was, well, people were advocating the mixing of oil and water, and nothing else. I didn't understand how something at a dangerous concentration that would sit on top of the aquarium water could possible help fish. I decided to research further, as an idea was brewing.
I had here at home something called 'essential oil dispersant', and I got to thinking, well, this stuff is designed to be used in baths to make oil blend into water so it is obviously safe for humans, what about fish? All the company would tell me was that it was 'all natural', not what it was made from. Further research into all this yielded the knowledge that a dispersant had been used with TTO in other tests, and proved to be a satisfactory medicine.
I just so happened to have a fish that was going to die if I did nothing, so I went ahead and mixed:
0.6ml Australian Tea Tree oil
0.6ml Dispersant
58.8ml Distilled water


It certainly blended well. My main concern was safety at this point, and efficacy as a secondary point (as in, even if it kills germs, it is of no use to me if it kills fish also!), so I did a 50% water change on my sick fish's hospital tank, and added the same dosage rate that Melafix recommends to the new water.

I can't scientifically claim that my Melafake is better than Melafix, nor can I claim it 'cured' my fish, as I was using both salt and daily 20-minute Nitrofuran baths as an adjunct. All I can say is that the fish never showed any distress, and that after treating the fish for 6 days, her symptoms have gone.

I will be using this stuff again. I know the healing property of TTO very well, and can't see why its wonderful properties wouldn't translate to water-borne illnesses.

Most importantly, it doesn't kill your fish!

Girls and Boys

I thought it was about time I uploaded these pictures of my ever-expanding Guppy family. I took them a few weeks ago.

Girls

Jaws:


Selma:


Nina:


Sherbie:


Pagan:


Margarita:


Snakeskin Girls:


Boys

Oscar Wilde:


Jackson Pollock:


Butch:


Blue Monday:


Johnny Cash:


Dorado:


Art the Endler:


Statuses

Jaws dropped about 7 fry today (her first). She was paired with Blue Monday, but as she was a store-bought fish, I am not 100% that the fry are his.

I tried pairing Selma with Jackson Pollock, but it appears to have been unsuccessful. J.P. has always been a very reserved fish, non-competitive, and may not have the drive to father. His big tail slows him down somewhat, and he is also showing signs of old age. I'll be very disappointed if I never get any fry from him, though the photo of him is bad, he is a very beautiful fish.

Nina was paired with Smudge, since deceased. Unsure of pregnancy. Pictures of Smudge to follow.

Sherbie is overdue with her drop. She is very big and riding out her time in a drop tank. She was paired with Oscar Wilde, but she is a store-bought fish, so unsure of paternity. Previous to this, she dropped a single fry (a girl by the looks, metallic yellow like her mother) soon after she came to live with me.

Pagan has been unwell. She had been paired with Butch, but soon after returning her to the girl's tank, I noticed she was holding her mouth open. I immediately quarantined her and began treatment with conditioning salts, Melafake and daily Nitrofuran baths. I had seen this symptom once before, and that was when my guppy population was decimated by Columnaris. I didn't see any of the 'saddleback' whiteness I saw before, but the open-mouthed lockjaw thing got worse before it got better. I am so relieved to report that Pagan has her mouth mostly closed today, and should be fit to return to the girl's tank tomorrow. I am unsure of pregnancy at this point.

Margarita was paired with Dorado. I am unsure of pregnancy at this point. She is still quite young.

I have narrowed my many snakeskins down to one boy (Butch) and 4 girls. 3 of the girls are juveniles, and one is one of the F3s pictured. She dropped about 40 fry 3 or so weeks ago, and is starting to worry me with possible dropsy, a problem that seems to plague the females in this line. This has confounded me, as I have always done frequent water changes, and I have also tried to treat them with Metronidazole.

Blue Monday recently appeared with a ragged caudal. I don't know what happened, maybe a case of a non-receptive girl (one of the SS juvies) as he has always been a small fish. I quarantined and treated him, and he has been returned to the boy's tank today.

Johnny cash has a deep belly. He is otherwise acting fine. I tried to Google this deep belly to no avail. I don't think I will be keeping J.C. His brother Ray (not pictured) is a similar, but better fish with a bigger caudal, but he has a yellow streaking in his. I don't know what to call these guys, they seem to carry a neon blue gene, so something along the lines of Neon Tuxedo Red? Hmm. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I lost a brother of Ray and J.C. to dropsy. My first and only male ever to succumb to this bane of my guppy-keeping existence.

Art the Endler is currently paired with two of his daughters, still juveniles. I never see Endlers or Endler hybrids in stores, and to tell the truth, I consider Art to be a more aesthetic fish than 95% of his kind that I see online, including from those who specialise. Art is a father to a new and exciting bunch who have a SS mother. Really interesting fish (although I have to confess that at first, they were accidents!) Pics to follow.

Many and Varied

Some pictures of my fishy friends.

Angelfish:



A baby Albino Bristlenose (Ancistrus):



Adult Male Brown Bristlenose:


Corydoras Aeneus Fry (apologies for the quality, these guys are TINY):



Male Powder/Neon blue Dwarf Gourami:


Male German Blue Ram (his name is Boris ;):


Danio and GBR:


Glass Catfish (hard to photograph!):


Black Ghost Knifefish (his name is Kershaw ;):


Neon Tetras:


This guy is no longer with us. A Siamese Fighter (Betta) that was given to me in a very sad state. He was kept in one of those awful little Fighter tanks before I took him home, named him 'Nitro' and nursed him back to health in a planted 100L. I then made the mistake of moving him, and he died that night. I don't really know why, but I suspect Kershaw):


Platies and their fry (love the one where the platies appear to be watching the guppy dance):






Rummynose Tetras:


Juvenile Silver (Bala) Sharks:

The difference between 'pet fish' and 'lifestyle choice'.

Or, a little tour of my house.

Things have changed a bit around here since I last wrote. I have been enjoying a severe case of Multiple Tank Syndrome (MTS) that doesn't look to be getting better any time soon.

Here is where I am typing to you from, with my favourite fishy resource proudly displayed on-screen:


Here is a collection of treatments and medicines:


A collection of foods:


My Male Guppy tank (female culls go in here as the stores like them pre-hit):


Female Gups:


A breeding tank on my indoor kitchen 'windowsill':


Quarantine/fry tank:


220L Softwater Community:


African Cichlids (I am getting out of these, too aggressive for me. My Goldies will be moving into the tank):


My Goldfish (this tank will be another breeding tank when they goldies move):


My husband's planted community tank (right after a massive plant-trim, believe it or not!):


Even my 8-year-old son has a tank in his room (he chose this as his last birthday gift, hmm... I am a bad influence!):


I have set up another tank on the kitchen sill since taking these pictures, so that means I am now up to 12 tanks in my house!

Some of my other fish

This is Peppa, a Peppered Corydoras Catfish.


This is Bimbo, an Albino Cory.


This is Olly, a Bronze Cory.

I love my Corydoras. Not only are they fun to watch, they vacuum the tank floor for me.


The Goldfish in the front is Taiyou, named for the Japanese word for Sun.


This guy didn't have a name for a while. When I first bought him he was all orange. He looked like the above for a while...


... now he looks like this. He is named Jacko, after Michael Jackson, who also turned white.

(The spot algae is on the glass, not him!)