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Tem muitos produtos de "grife" ou proprios para aquario q na realidade é possivel encontrar no mercado comum a preços acessiveis, resta apenas manipular
MELAFIX
Bem utilizei em um flame angel
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=40539&hilit=melaleuca
A partir deste topico
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43599&p=439951&hilit=melaleuca#p439951
Melafix é um antibiotico natural da API leve feito a partir da Malaleuca Australiano (Melaleuca alternifolia), muito facil de encontrar em farmacias de manipulação, no caso comprei na UltraFormulas a um custo de 20 e poucos reais se nao me engano.
Ele é diluido a 1%, ou seja para cada 99 ml de água destilada, 1 ml de oleo.
Para usar: Agite bem antes de usar, remova carvão ativado, desligue UV ou ozonio se tiver e adicionar 5 ml de Melafix generico para cada 10 galões ou 27 litros de água do aquário. Dose diária durante 7 dias. Após 7 dias fazer uma TPA de 25% água e continuar o tratamento se necessário.
Uma referencia sobre melafix
Melafix organic aquarium and pond treatment for wounds, torn fins, ulcers USE: Repairs damaged fins, ulcers, mild eye infections, and open wounds, often caused by rough handling, fighting, and occasionally “ammonia burns”, although a fish bath or hospital tank with Methylene Blue is often more effective.
Melaluca tea extract also promotes re-growth of damaged tissue and fins when used as an antiseptic.
References:
*Fish Bath Information
*Methylene Blue from AAP
About Melaleuca
Melaleuca tea leaves Melaleuca alternifolia is a plant that belongs to the family Myrtaceae, of which aboriginals of New South Wales (Australia) have long used as an antiseptic.
The oil is a natural antimicrobial allelochemics Phytoncide obtained from the leaves of the tea tree contains marked germicidal activity owing to the presence of terpunen-4-ol and is useful in eliminating germs.
Other constituents in the oil extracted from this plant like alpha-terpineol and linalool are also play a major role in maintaining the anti-microbial activities.
The oil is acquired from the tea tree leaves through a process of steam refinement.
While a third of the oil contains different terpene hydrocarbons like pinene, terpinene and cymene, the remaining part comprises mainly of oxygenated terpenes.
The terpenes are mainly terpinen-4-ol that may form up to 60 percent of the total oil derived from the tea tree leaves.
However it is noteworthy that Melafix employs the TTO found in the related Melaleuca leucadendron tree (AKA the Cajeput tree) found in SE Asia, New Guinea and surrounding areas.
This is important, as there is much less scientific studies backing up the use of TTO (tea tree oil) found in Melaleuca leucadendron vs. Melaleuca alternifolia.
This admittedly leads me to question why API chose to use this form of TTO vs. the better documented Melaleuca alternifolia.
More about Aquatic uses of Melafix;
Melafix is sometimes effective against early stages of Aeromonas bacteria which often attack open wounds, sores, and abrasions.
However the main use of Melaluca (Melafix) is as an antiseptic or bactericidal for MILD wounds, torn fins, mild eye infections, etc. on fish for which it is a good product to have on hand as a first response treatment as one would for a human antiseptic such as "Neosporin".
As well it is noteworthy that Melafix (TTO) is more useful in “battling” Aeromonas by aiding in healing the fish prior to this opportunistic gram negative bacterium even gets a “foot hold” (especially since TTO has little proven effectiveness against full blown gram negative infections).
More about: Aeromonas bacteria
As to eye infections, Melafix is an excellent first response to eye infections and often is all that is needed for mild case, however more serious case generally should included medicated baths, direct applications of medications to the eye (such as Methylene Blue or Potassium Permanganate), along with in tank treatment with stronger gram positive medications such as Erythromycin.
Eye Infection Reference:
Aquarium Answers, Eye Infections, Streptococcus
Product Reference:
Melafix from AAP
Potassium Permanganate
Erythromycin from AAP
Melaluca tends to be more effective against gram positive bacteria (which is often the cause of eye infections), which are less common in aquatic diseases, making Melafix a lesser choice to Pimafix which is more effective against gram negative bacteria (as noted earlier, they can be combined).
More importantly, MULTIPLE excellent University level human and veterinary studies (most out of Australia) show that Tea Tree oil (used to manufacture Melafix) can be an effective EXTERNAL treatment against many bacterium.
HOWEVER there is little evidence of internal effectiveness (it is toxic internally as well), so the use of Melafix to treat systemic infections (which aquatic infections often are) such as Septicemia is TOTALLY useless!
For this reason I still have to scratch my head as to the use & recommendation of Melafix to treat these infections as all scientific evidence says NO, so those who claim it helped are making anecdotal statements, that are likely explained by other reasons/answers.
I have used Melafix quite a bit with mixed results.
Sometimes though this product gets reviews that are very inaccurate from both sides; some claim it is useless (it is not) others will recommend it for everything of which this product has many limits.
I think this is where I want to pull my hair out as those who over recommend Melafix as well as those who say it is useless really understand what Melafix really works best on or should be used for.
An absurd claim put out by an old Goldfish site that is present in some Google Groups is that Melafix will burn the gills of injured fish; I have NEVER seen ANY evidence of this and quite the opposite I have found it soothing to the fish with wounds (see the university study link that disproves this common internet myth).
If you doubt this try pouring some Melafix on an open sore you have and see what happens!
First Response use of Melafix; I am attempting make the point in this article that Melafix or Melafix combined with Pimafix is a good first response treatment for mild/moderate injuries, torn fins, damaged gills (often from high ammonia).
However I urge readers to exercise more scientific and less anecdotal thinking when using Melafix.
Since Melafix has been proven scientifically to be primarily effective only on gram positive bacterium which are far less often a cause of serious aquarium and pond bacterial infections than gram negative infections such as Columnaris, the use of this product for said infections is totally useless. Gram negative Pseudomonas MAY be the only possible exception but this is not generally a common cause of virulent infections in fish. More importantly, my use of test samples from virulent fish sores in the 1990s showed not activity by Melafix against the the bacterium involved.
HOWEVER since many gram positive infections can be first invaders in injuries, sores, torn fins, etc., the immediate use of Melafix can help prevent opportunistic bacteria such as Aeromonas or Columnaris to get started in the first place. Use as a first response product is where I have found Melafix most useful and why I feel it should be part of of every fish keepers on hand arsenal, I just caution its use for most full blown fish infections (though combining with Pimafix can improve results in some instances).
Infection Resources:
Aeromonas Bacterial infections in aquariums, ponds
Columnaris, Fungus, Saprolegnia
My point about thinking scientifically means that if, for example you had a fish with symptoms of Aeromonas (which is an extremely opportunistic infection that often strikes in less than optimum conditions) and then changed water and performed other maintenance tasks that improved water conditions, while at the same time used Melafix to treat the fish, then your fish recovered; this is NOT proof that the Melafix cured your fish. More than likely the water improvement tasks helped the fish fight the infection themselves.
Making such a claim is an example of anecdotal information as this is not a scientific method of making accurate assessments of aquarium treatments, unfortunately this is how these types of aquatic urban myths get started and are then spread via non or poorly moderated forums such as Yahoo Answers.
Even with gram positive infections such as Aquatic Streptococcus which Melafix may be effective for (in mild cases or in conjunction with other treatment methods), the potential user should note that the ingredients in Melafix are not very strong against a virulent Streptococcus infection.
Compare Melafix to Bactine in use for fishMelafix’s properties as an antimicrobial are limited (at least at the concentrations found in Melafix). However I do find it useful for a first response to injury of all kinds to fish where I HAVE observed some good results here and often the fish are more calm (IMO) after use of this product.
The best way to think of Melafix (Melaluca) is to compare it to human use of Neosporin or antiseptics like Bactine after a cut, abrasion or similar.
Melafix has similar properties and uses and like Neosporin or Bactine and similarly does not take the place of stronger treatments for more serious infections or injuries.
An analogy so as to better understand how and what to use Melafix for is these:
Would you use Bactine for an abrasion, mild bite/sting or cut?
Yes, as would an aquarist with Melafix
Would you use Bactine for this same cut that developed a Staph infection?
No, nor would you use Melafix, you would advance to a stronger antibiotic such as Kanamycin or Erythromycin
Would you use Bactine if you were severely injured by shrapnel, leaving a gaping wound?
No, nor would you use Melafix for a severe injury (a medicated bath, possible with salts, Methylene Blue, Kanamycin, etc. would be the first course followed by a hospital tank with an antibiotic such as Kanamycin & Nitrofurazone or Triple Sulfa).
As with Pimafix (and even more so since it is effective for less bacterium), I do not recommend Melafix for serious infections, rather a first line of defense as already noted and in combination with the slightly more effective Pimafix.
Possible Dangers:
As with Pimafix, I would be careful in Marine Aquarium use, although with fish generally this is not a problem (although effectiveness is questionable since marine fish diseases even more so than freshwater diseases tend toward gram negative). With marine reef tanks I would not recommend the use of Melafix.
Many claim that Melafix can cause problems with Labyrinth fish and Pencil Fish, which research has shown to be a half truth.
I have used and tested Melafix on many Labyrinth fish (in particular Bettas) and not found these results as claimed.
Further more, one aquarium website incorrectly stated that the "oils" in both Pimafix and Melafix are dangerous to Labyrinth due to the need to "breath air".
I can correct this incorrect statement in that part of the patent for Melafix (& Pimafix) is the process of refining of the oil OUT of both these products.
This can EASILY be proved by adding Melafix or Pimafix to the water and watching for it to float on the water, which it does not.
HOWEVER before implying this person in that aquarium website does not know what she is talking about, Melafix can and does cause foaming, which at least in theory could be a problem with certain fish.
I would also refer to my analogy I used to explain anecdotal concerns with Pimafix as to the use of Tylenol in humans.
I would venture a guess that those who have had problems are certainly not imagining it, however that some sort of chemical reaction happened (again I refer to my Tylenol/alcohol combination analogy I made in the Pimafix section).
My reason for making this statement is that I and others in my profession have used Melafix with Labyrinth fish/Pencil fish and have not observed fatal reactions.
Current Research/Hypothesis
Currently the best scientific information shows that there may be link between the tea tree oil in Melafix and toxicity in Labyrinth fish/Pencil fish, but this link is NOT what many in aquatic forums are anecdotally assuming.
The best information points to liver function, which would explain why some (such as myself) have not observed this problems in our tests, as admittedly the early studies did not initially focus on over doses or chemistry variables in the water.
Basically Tea Tree oil (melaleuca, Melaleuca alternifolia) is a phenol-containing essential oil.
Its active ingredients are cyclic terpenes which have a similar structure and action to turpentine (a known liver toxin).
The acute toxicity for the major terpenic compounds (linalool, ocimene, alpha-terpinene, 1,8-cineole, terpinolene, camphene) is 2 - 5 g/kg body weight, which is considered a moderately toxic range.
From a toxicologic point of view Tea Tree oil is comparable to oil of turpentine, which is readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and then finds its way to the liver.
What may be the problem is that under certain conditions Melafix may be toxic to the liver in Labyrinth fish/Pencil fish.
My current hypothesis (based on early tests), is that since the best research shows similarities between TTO and Turpentine (both are terpenes, but then so is beta carotene), is that in an acidic environment, in particular an environment with nitric acid (which is quite possible in an aquarium), the chemical reaction can produce chemicals that may harm the liver in certain fish that have a tendency to ingest the water around them such as Labyrinth fish/Pencil fish (via the surface).
Certain terpenes such as turpentine are actually explosive when combined with nitric acid (this chemical reaction is used in rocket fuels!).
On a small scale (aquarium environment) some similar reaction may be happening that with certain fish can cause death. This would also explain why this problem has never been noted in marine fish even though they constantly drink the water around them, since marine fish are always kept in an alkaline environment.
This would also explain why this reaction has not been observed in my tests with Melafix (even at double doses) with Labyrinth fish/Pencil fish since I conducted these tests in a balanced Redox mineral/electrolyte environment.
At this point my advice is to maintain a non acidic environment, proper mineralization and Redox, which is something I have been a big proponent of for many years now based on scientific evidence of the benefits therein.
Since most evidence points to this conclusion, this may be the link in this problem, especially since the TTO found in Melafix (and all terpenes) is a known Redox reducer and an acidic/oxidizing environment of ANY cause could cause possible undesirable effects.
Another evidence pointing toward this conclusion is that based in emails, browsing of Forums (Betta forums in particular), and speaking with clients and colleagues; is that in almost every case where Melafix has been a problem the person using this product was incorrectly keeping the Betta in an acidic, poorly mineralized, poor Redox environment of which they were unfortunately given misguided advice to do so.
This also brings up an important point about Melafix use in general for all fish and that is that both Melafix and Pimafix are acidic and negatively affect Redox Balance, so while these products certainly have their place in aquarium use, continued use will most definitely cause issues with Redox Balance and therefore long term fish immunity.
The use of products such as Wonder Shells can counteract this problem and these should definitely be used with Melafix (if only fragments of AAP Wonder Shells), however these are not the solution for long term use of Melafix and therefore use of Melafix for longer than 10 days should be avoided.
Product Resource: Wonder Shells; Unique Versions only from AAP
I recommend reading these articles:
Importance of Minerals, Electrolytes, GH, KH in Aquariums
Aquarium/Pond Redox
PLEASE reference this excellent university level study for more about the positives and negatives of Tea Tree oil found in Melafix:
Tea Tree Oil: a Review of Antimicrobial and Other Medicinal Properties
Also this excellent fact sheet from the University of Western Australia:
Tea tree oil has broad-spectrum in vitro antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activity
DOSAGE: Refer to Melafix instructions or to purchase, please see this site:
API Treatments; Melafix
Further Resources:
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/TTO/01-10.pdf
US Patent for Melafix
Is Gram Positive Tea Tree Oil Safe for Pets
