Canadians please read, heads up to stock up on meds

[George81]

hey fellow canucks

Just a heads up I read online at that https://angelfins.ca/ Cupramine is going to be prohibited for sale in Canada, prazipro now needs a prescription, Api General cure is in the midst of being pulled too because of new regulations in Canada. Big als told me about the general cure being pulled, the store near me isn’t carrying it anymore.

You can find general cure are jl aquatics, i ordered a bunch.
I picked up a bottle of cupramine, I haven’t seen prazipro but I think some places on line still have it.

I’ve also come across someone selling chloroquine phosphate, I’ve tried contacting them to see how pure it is, called today and sent an email last night. no answer.
Big show frags.

http://bigshowfrags.com/chloroquin-phosphate-per-gram/

Anyone ordered from these guys or ordered chloroquine phosphate from them?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Being an American who cannot understand this, why is Canada doing this?

 

[George81]

I have no idea, big als said “the ingredients are too complex and we aren’t allowed to carry them anymore because of the new rules in Canada.”
I am interested in knowing as well

Edit
So I’m gathering it has something to do with agricultural use of antibiotics and to control unnecessary use. Aquarists might be collateral damage.
But that still doesn’t explain cupramine...

 

[Entz]

Wow that is extremely annoying. Thanks I will have to see if I can find some Cupramine.

 

[George81]

For anyone interested, Darren from big show frags told me the chloroquine phosphate is pharmaceutical grade 99.999% pure. They use it on all incoming livestock.
Just ordered 50 grams.

 

[andrewkw]

Really the stores should be doing this, but everyone should be contacting their MP's and MPP's and voicing their displeasure with this. It's one thing to ban horse antibiotics from being over the counter, but it's another to not allow even basic fish medicine. IMO there are 3 ways this plays out.

Things go back to normal either through complaining or through a new government.
Stores and people just smuggle medicine from the US - people may be able to get away with not medicating their fish and only wipe them out every few years but imagine stores that receive 100s of fish weekly in small spaces not being able to at least put low levels of copper in the system to keep the fish alive until they are sold. Not that I am a big fan of masking disease but at least this does keep them alive.
Fish keeping in Canada takes a drastic turn for the worse. Less stuff coming in, higher prices, serious risk.

I don't think prazipro has a very long shelf life. Cupramine on the other hand should last forever so on a personal level 1 more bottle may very well last me the rest of my life.

 

[andrewkw]

I'm not really sure why the Canadian fish industry isn't doing more to fight this. I read this on facebook last night :

"This has more to do with seachem not have a din number. Drug identification number. Apparently they dont want to pay for that number in which Canada requires it."

Apparently big als the big chain fish store is even forbidden from treating their own fish for it and are looking at other copper based medicines. While I do have one very old bottle and it's supposed to have an indefinite shelf life I am strongly considering purchasing more that I may not need for years. While I certainly hope this is only temporary all these restrictions could effectively eliminate the retail of regular marine fish. Sure you will still be able to get a lot of stuff, but the days of stores bringing in 100s of common fish could potentially end if they cannot treat them at all.

 

[andrewkw]

Unfortunately I was able to confirm with Reef Supplies that cupramine is indeed banned (for now). They are pulling the product today.

 

[Entz]

I rarely use it but I have managed to find a bottle of Curpamine locally. Price=ouch, I think they are raising it since its hard to get lol, but less than shipping a single bottle. + My wallet has barred me from visiting Reef Supplies for a bit

Prazi is the bigger issue, as you say the shelf life is pretty low. I think mine are good for about a year. Though I am not sure what the effectiveness dropoff is.

 

[Kyl]

Here's a short list of what has been pulled from the shelves or banned from over the counter sales, requiring a veterinarian script.

Cupramine - Lacks DIN #
Coppersafe - Lacks DIN #
Kanamycin (Seachem Kanaplex) - Requires vet script
Metronidazole (Seachem MetroPlex) - Requires vet script
Praziquantel (ex. Prazipro) - Requires vet script
API General Cure - See above

Almost the entire 'things to have on hand' list is banned for Joe average to acquire in Canadaland now. I have talked with a local exotic vet, as none of the regular ones will touch fish or do house calls, and at minimum for him to write me a script for something now is a $200-300 initial site visit to see my set up and live stock, then a $40-80 fee depending if a site visit is required for something I haven't previously dealt with, plus the cost of the medication in raw form.

I've said in the past, wrong side of the border for this hobby. Now it's a total gut shot for those of us that try to properly and fully quarantine. I stocked up on general cure and the triple threat knowing they were doomed, but the copper thing is just icing on the cake and I just found out about it earlier this week.

 

[JoshH]

Well this has been quite the shocking read and I was just looking into stocking up the old fish medicine cabinet for my new build. Not even sure what to do now are we just supposed to hope and pray our fish get better?

 

[Kyl]

I will also write my MP and those in charge of the proper files, but aside from the copper change, everything else blow back from past practice by the cattle industry. If that rather large industry lobby group wasn't able to stop it, some random people treating fish won't get the time of day.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

The LFS I workout had to pull General cure, EM and a few others several months ago, I'll have to get some prazi, cupramine and whatever else I can find before its gone. Also I believe Ich X can be added to that list. For me the worst part about this is I get why they have to do it. I recently forgot some of the meds that where illegal and searched "What fish medications are illegal in Canada?".

First thing that came up was a suggested search "What fish medications can be used on humans?", several news stories of people buying them for the antibiotics they contain and then several FAQs like "What fish medication treats chlamydia?" and others all equally disheartening.

One of our stores supply reps stopped in the other day and made some (what I thought to be) good points that aquarium hobbyist blindly sending diluted antibiotics and anti-fungal medications down the drains and into the city water probably isn't the best practice and could in theory create resistant strains of such things. I have no idea how much scientific weight that theory hold but I wanted to share it because it was a perspective I had never really thought of.

 

[actik]

I've been using herbtana....does it work ? No idea but my clown has been doing some flashing. I really hope he doesn't have Gil flukes it wI'll be a real mission to net him for a fresh water dip

 

[NowAndZen]

Being an American who cannot understand this, why is Canada doing this?

Good question. I'm a Canadian who cannot understand this either. I'm pretty new to this hobby, and have been trying for a few weeks now to buy API General Cure. What possible nefarious use does this stuff have that it should be prohibited?

 

[The_Paradox]

Good question. I'm a Canadian who cannot understand this either. I'm pretty new to this hobby, and have been trying for a few weeks now to buy API General Cure. What possible nefarious use does this stuff have that it should be prohibited?

Has more to do with CBRN considerations. Same reason hand soap is not antibacterial any more.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Being an American who cannot understand this, why is Canada doing this?

Because as of 2023 they think that an average Canadian would drink cupramine, use it as a condiment, and start applying it to their wounds as well as use it as eye drops, unless they pay a doctor to teach them how to be an adult human being. Alternatively, it could possibly all be about money and a job security for someone who is working on these regulations, but probably and most definitely not. Lol

 

[Pickle_soup]

Well, we smuggled alcohol from Canada in 1920, I will smuggle fish medicine to Canada in 2020s

 

[Black Clover]

Being an American who cannot understand this, why is Canada doing this?

Cause our government over complicated things. I’ve lost 3 fish now… even vets don’t sell the stuff. My fish are hopeless. So sad… More casualties to follow…