I remember why I don't buy melafix anymore.
So I have a sorority of female bettas and two of them somehow got injured and lost some scales. I have never seen any of these fish fight and I've had them for well over a month now and they lived in a communal tank before that so I legitimately do not know how they got hurt.
My only other tank is a plastic tank that isn't the cleanest and I don't have great luck with so I didnt want to originally use it as a quarantine tank. So I kept them in the main tank, kept an eye on them, removed the carbon filter, did a big water change and ran to the store to look for some form of wound care the next day.
It's been a while since I had a sick fish and this is the first open wound situation I have ever dealt with so I'm relying on Google results at this point.
One site says use Bettafix or diluted Melafix.
One site says never use either of those but rely on water changes and salt because those use tea tree oil and that can coat a betta's labyrinth and effect their breathing.
One site says never use salt because it's an irritant for bettas and suggested things that my local pet store does not have.
One site says use Pimafix because it might be a negative something or the other infection. [Note: that went over my head, I have no clue what they were talking about and don't remember anything but 'negative' and 'positive']
And then I got numerous results on how to identify different diseases in my fish tank and how to repair ripped fins. Considering my search was 'open wound betta' those were not helpful.
Went to pet store and decided to just read the damn labels. Ended up buying Melafix because it says that it is used for open wounds on the website. Five days in and my bettas look worse. Then I remembered that I had used this product before and it sucks ass. It does nothing.
So I'm going to go buy some slime coat+ and use the standby of change most of the water every other day and make sure to add in salt each change. Oh and I dug out the old 5 gal and stuck the two in that.
Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.