African Cichlid tank is sick!

Question
QUESTION: We have a 55 gallon African Cichlid tank consisting of mostly mbuna.  Our tank seems to be infected with something.  Most of the fish have BIG open sores on their sides.  We have had this tank for about a year now so we know the sores are not from them picking at each other.  Some fish are much worse than others.  Many of them have lots of missing scales.  It looks like it could be a bacteria that is eating away at their sides.  Some appear to have white around their lips (lip fungus?).  We did some melafix for a week, and nothing was cured.  We just started with the quickcure last night.  We did a 25% water change (and added salt) after finishing with the melafix.  We feed them omega one cichlid flakes and HBH supersoft frozen food alternative with Krill. We have had 3 fish die over the past couple of weeks.  We are very upset about this whole thing and are willing to try anything to get our healthy tank back again!
ANSWER: Hey Erin,

Sounds like hole in the head, mixed with a bacterial infection in their mouth. Melafix is a joke, and i'd get rid of it if i were you. Switch over to maracyne-one and maracyne-two. The combination of the two medicines will completely erradicate all bacterial problems gram negative and positive in your tank. Hole in the head should stop getting worse, and in a week after the treatment, you should notice it getting better.

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QUESTION: Thanks so much for your quick response!  I do appreciate!  What are the 2 treatments that you recommended to me?  Where can I buy them?  Why are they better?  Why do you say that melafix is a joke?  What do you think about using Quick Cure?  Any other ideas you can give me on how to treat my tank?  I am in tears just looking at our beloved sick fish!

Answer
Maracyn-1 and maracyn-2 are common products at pet stores. I get mine from Petco. Maradel makes both products and should be right next to each other. Melafix is a joke because you'd be better off getting pure aloe, or tea tree leaves because it's far more potent, and tons cheaper. Typically, the effects of the melafix and pimafix are slow, minimal, and not very dramatic. When a fish loses a scale or two, i'd use aloe. If the fish is severely ill, i'd skip aloe and go for strong medications. I didnt mean to offend or cause concern, but the mele/pimafix products are fairly worthless in most severe cases.

Quick cure has it's uses, typically I use them when treating large tanks (100+ gallons) because it's cheaper then maradel products. In your case, it could work as well. I'd really rather go with the maracyn 1 and 2 though, simply because it's more effective immediately.

As far as it goes, you realistically could go with a mild anti bacterial, and hole in the head meds. You could increase the salt to throw off the bacterial problem, and treat the hole in the head separately, there are any number of things you could do, but the easiest and probably safest way to go, is with the maracyn's.

Hope this all helps out, best wishes!