Chloroquine phosphate

leahfiish · Mar 27, 2017

125mph said:
Ah, I was under the impression bio-filter causes problems with CP.. and thats why everyone says to use a bare-bone new QT with no bio.

I think ideally you would transfer biomedia from an established filter but use a clean tank.

Humblefish · Mar 27, 2017

leahfiish said:
I think ideally you would transfer biomedia from an established filter but use a clean tank.

+1 A longterm QT can be an issue: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/qt-and-biofilm.292878/

But if you setup a clean QT and then just use bio-media that's been "stewing" in your DT, you should be fine.

cmcoker · Mar 27, 2017

@Humblefish what are your thoughts on this about the interaction between chloroquine and praziquantel?
I read an article in advanced aquarist about quarantine that suggested the 2 should not be mixed because of reduced bioavailability of praziquantel.
I messaged the author, Leonard Ho, and he linked this article as the reasoning.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8161714
It discusses the reduced serum concentrations in humans and mice of praziquantel, when given with chloroquine.
I feel like it's not really relevant since praziquantel is being used as a bath to treat an external parasite. Whatcha think?

Humblefish · Mar 28, 2017

@cmcoker I read this a long time ago and was concerned. So, over a year's time I tested 6 different fish with confirmed flukes. They were treated with CP @ 60mg/gal and praziquantel (powder) @ 7.5 mg/gal. The latter is actually lower than Prazipro's 9.5 mg/gal dosage. 72 hrs after the second prazi treatment, they were all given a FW dip and no flukes were present.

While hardly scientific, this "mini-study" of mine was good enough to convince me that CP's impact on prazi was probably minimal when both were dosed into water. However, a proper study on this would be ideal.

leahfiish · Mar 30, 2017

Just wanted to give an update. I made an appointment last week at a local vet, and told them I wanted to prophylactically treat my fish for ich. I bought a royal gramma from my lfs (which I work at) that has been doing well and eating for the last 2-3 weeks. I wanted a fish that is overall pretty hardy and that I could treat with CP. I kept the fish in a 10g with a heater, airstone, and some hides and am going to add a hob filter with a sponge. I wanted to make sure the fish was doing well in my tank so he could handle the stress of the vet trip. When it was time for my appointment I put him in a bucket with his favorite decoration to hide in and brought him in. I also brought in some articles on cp to show the vet. Specifically, I brought the first post on this thread, the first post on "a place to buy chloroquine", and some articles on ich life cycle and ich management vs eradication. I explained to the vet that the fish came from a system with ich and I have a qt tank that I plan to treat him in. And that I'd rather use cp over copper. The vet looked at the articles briefly for dosing and asked what size tank I'd be using and how long the treatment would be for. He said that he'd never tried this before and said that his office doesn't carry it, and I told him it could be filled through diamondback drugs. He said they use them all the time. So after that he just asked how much I needed and from what I've read you need 30g for diamondback so I just asked for that. And he wrote me a script and said he'd call it in for me and to expect a call from diamondback for billing info.

The cost of the visit was $55, I'll post again when I find out how much the chloroquine costs.

leahfiish · Mar 30, 2017

Got a call from diamondback drugs to arrange payment and shipping - $43.95 after shipping.

Humblefish · Mar 30, 2017

leahfiish said:
Just wanted to give an update. I made an appointment last week at a local vet, and told them I wanted to prophylactically treat my fish for ich. I bought a royal gramma from my lfs (which I work at) that has been doing well and eating for the last 2-3 weeks. I wanted a fish that is overall pretty hardy and that I could treat with CP. I kept the fish in a 10g with a heater, airstone, and some hides and am going to add a hob filter with a sponge. I wanted to make sure the fish was doing well in my tank so he could handle the stress of the vet trip. When it was time for my appointment I put him in a bucket with his favorite decoration to hide in and brought him in. I also brought in some articles on cp to show the vet. Specifically, I brought the first post on this thread, the first post on "a place to buy chloroquine", and some articles on ich life cycle and ich management vs eradication. I explained to the vet that the fish came from a system with ich and I have a qt tank that I plan to treat him in. And that I'd rather use cp over copper. The vet looked at the articles briefly for dosing and asked what size tank I'd be using and how long the treatment would be for. He said that he'd never tried this before and said that his office doesn't carry it, and I told him it could be filled through diamondback drugs. He said they use them all the time. So after that he just asked how much I needed and from what I've read you need 30g for diamondback so I just asked for that. And he wrote me a script and said he'd call it in for me and to expect a call from diamondback for billing info.

The cost of the visit was $55, I'll post again when I find out how much the chloroquine costs.

leahfiish said:
Got a call from diamondback drugs to arrange payment and shipping - $43.95 after shipping.

Glad this worked out for you. Sucks you had to pay $55 just to get a Rx though...

leahfiish · Apr 1, 2017

Humblefish said:
Glad this worked out for you. Sucks you had to pay $55 just to get a Rx though...

Yeah but i don't think it's that bad considering how many fish it can treat, especially since I plan on using 10 gallons.

Sweeper13 · Apr 1, 2017

Has anyone used CP in place of Copperpower or Cupramine during a qt? Looking at doing a massive water change in a qt with copper and then using CP. So,if any copper was left behind, would it kill the fish?

Humblefish · Apr 1, 2017

Sweeper13 said:
Has anyone used CP in place of Copperpower or Cupramine during a qt? Looking at doing a massive water change in a qt with copper and then using CP. So,if any copper was left behind, would it kill the fish?

You can technically mix CP & copper, so there shouldn't be an issue.

Sweeper13 · Apr 1, 2017

Thanks

leahfiish · Apr 7, 2017

Well, my cp finally arrived and I received 2 400mg capsules. It also says on the bottle to discard after 9/27/17 (5 months from when it was prescribed). This isn't really what I was looking for so I think I'll be calling my vet tomorrow. I'm not sure if it's just because I told the vet I was treating in a 10g but with this there's no easy way to re-dose with water changes. Not to mention if I wanted to do a higher dose to account for active outbreaks or sand in the tank or something, I wouldn't be able to. Gah.

billw · Apr 7, 2017

leahfiish said:
Well, my cp finally arrived and I received 2 400mg capsules. It also says on the bottle to discard after 9/27/17 (5 months from when it was prescribed). This isn't really what I was looking for so I think I'll be calling my vet tomorrow. I'm not sure if it's just because I told the vet I was treating in a 10g but with this there's no easy way to re-dose with water changes. Not to mention if I wanted to do a higher dose to account for active outbreaks or sand in the tank or something, I wouldn't be able to. Gah.

Sounds like you didn't specify chloroquine powder. Regarding the discard date, Diamondback told me they were required by law to specify that date and told me it wasn't a shelflife date. I assume it is due to the vet specifying the duration of treatment.

leahfiish · Apr 7, 2017

billw said:
Sounds like you didn't specify chloroquine powder. Regarding the discard date, Diamondback told me they were required by law to specify that date and told me it wasn't a shelflife date. I assume it is due to the vet specifying the duration of treatment.

Yeah I guess I didn't but I know I did ask for 30 grams. I'll update again once I call.

Humblefish · Apr 7, 2017

leahfiish said:
Yeah I guess I didn't but I know I did ask for 30 grams. I'll update again once I call.

Sounds like either Diamondback or your vet messed up. What was written on the Rx? Most are for 30 grams of CP powder.

leahfiish · Apr 7, 2017

Humblefish said:
Sounds like either Diamondback or your vet messed up. What was written on the Rx? Most are for 30 grams of CP powder.

I can't remember the rx, the vet had one of his techs call it in and I don't remember if he gave me a copy of it or not. I'm gonna call on Monday. I don't think I specified powder but hopefully I can get this cleared up without having to spend another $40

125mph · Apr 8, 2017

So when using cp, I see ich is 30 day period. Velvet is listed at 14 days. How long for brook?

Also, can you simply do a water change and run carbon after the prescribed period (14 or 30) or do you have to transfer to sterile tank?

Humblefish · Apr 8, 2017

125mph said:
So when using cp, I see ich is 30 day period. Velvet is listed at 14 days. How long for brook?

Also, can you simply do a water change and run carbon after the prescribed period (14 or 30) or do you have to transfer to sterile tank?

Brook is 14 days as well; however treating for 30 days is never a bad idea no matter which disease.

You can do a WC/run carbon after treatment and observe for 2 weeks to see if symptoms return. However, transferring to a non-medicated HT (before meds are removed from the QT) will always yield a higher success rate.

125mph · Apr 8, 2017

How come the treatment period is less than the fallow period? Is the fallow period of 12 weeks for ich due to the free swimmers can stay for days 50+ days?

Humblefish · Apr 9, 2017

125mph said:
How come the treatment period is less than the fallow period? Is the fallow period of 12 weeks for ich due to the free swimmers can stay for days 50+ days?

Because most fish cannot tolerate >30 days of CP or copper treatment.