Chloroquine phosphate

[Jay Hemdal]

Just to complicate matters:

Earlier this year, the Shedd Aquarium published a paper showing the chloroquine is degraded by bacteria the same as praziquantel. This went counter to my results, where I was able to measure chloroquine in seawater using an ultraviolet spectrophotometer. Later, I was told that when the bacteria breaks down the chloroquine, it leaves byproducts that still react with the UV spec and gives a false high reading.

It is likely similar to bacterial degradation of prazi, where subsequent doses in the same tank are consumed more quickly.

Here is the abstract to the paper:

Towards understanding microbial degradation of chloroquine in large saltwater systems

Circulating saltwater aquariums hosting marine animals contain a wide range of microorganisms, which have strong implications on promoting animal heal…

www.sciencedirect.com

Jay

 

[pecan2phat]

When I treat with Cloroquine and besides makeup amount for water changes, I was dosing 10% daily. In a sterile HT environment you can usually tell that there is degradation by the algae starting to grow on inert pieces like PVC pipe or even on the glass. That has been my experience with CP.

 

[reef_1]

Hi hello there . Excellent info ! I have a question thought

i just transferred all my fishes Yellow Tang and some Chromes into a HT of 30liters , i just got Chloroquine in tablets of 200mg ,
This is Day one , the dosage is 15mg CP /liter so ineed 450mg ,
the QUESTION IS , i will add 450mg to a bare bottom HT on day one and leave them in there for 4 weeks? no more dosage
i guess its One off process i add the CP and done with it, apparently on water changes do i have to add some mg's?

I got two juvenile clowns in a 25l sterile HT tank and I need to water change 75% every 3-4 days due to ammonia with premedicated water.

(I think water chnages are actually good cause then any possible CP degradation is handled with fresh water and medicine)

With the amount of fish you have in a 30L, watch your ammonia very carefully - you might need much more frequent water changes than me.

 

[ReefHog]

I've been using chloroquine phosphate almost exclusively (except wrasses) for 4 years on roughly two dozen fish and have only had two failures, both in the beginning. The last three years I dose 50ml/g and use very minimum bio filtration (tank seeded sponge in HOB filter). I use Prime daily and do 25% pre treated water changes vacuuming bottom every other day. I also only treat for 14 days then move into new observation tank with full biological filtration for a month.

 

[airvicconcre]

Chloroquine Phosphate *** The information contained here is subject to changes as I experiment and learn more about Chloroquine Phosphate ***

What It Treats – Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans), Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum), Brooklynella hostilis and Uronema marinum.

How To Buy – Chloroquine phosphate (CP) is an antimalarial drug for humans which also treats external parasites that afflict marine fish (and possibly freshwater fish as well.) However, there are a few challenges to overcome with CP. The very first is obtaining it because a prescription is usually required to buy pharmaceutical-grade CP. While pharmaceutical-grade is not an absolute requirement, the closer the medication is to being 99% pure the more effective it is. Many CP failures can be traced back to buying the medication on eBay or from some other unknown source. The best strategy for obtaining CP is to ask your local veterinarian for a prescription which can then be filled by a compounding pharmacy: https://www.diamondbackdrugs.com/chloroquine/

A backup plan is to buy from this source, which has tested 94-96% pure for me (although I cannot guarantee every batch from this source will test the same): https://store.nationalfishpharm.com/items/view/616/chloroquine-phosphate

Sometimes CP is dispensed in tablet form instead of powder. The tablets are fine to use, but the downside is you get less “chloroquine base” out of them so you must dose more. The following was taken from Bob Goemans online book, THE LIVING AQUARIUM MANUAL:


How To Dose – In most cases CP is dispensed in powder form, and a digital scale is needed to accurately measure the dosage (more info on that below). This is the one I use:

Amazon product​

How To Treat – Okay, so you’ve got your CP + digital scale and are ready to dose! Well, this brings us to the next challenge to overcome: Bacteria and biofilm. All medications (except copper) that you dose into water are susceptible to biodegradation. With Chloroquine this can be a major problem because the medication needs to be at a therapeutic level at all times in order to be effective. Therefore, I highly recommend following one of these QT protocols when using CP:

CP Protocol #1 (preferred): Dose 15 mg/L (60 mg/gal) into a bare bottom, rockless QT (see pic below) and treat for 10 days. The tank (and all equipment) should have been cleaned/sterilized beforehand and no biological filtration should be used! The point is to limit the bacteria/biofilm found in the aquarium which could degrade CP. Ammonia can be controlled by dosing Prime/Amquel every 24-48 hours, or by doing water changes. (A Seachem ammonia alert badge can be used for active monitoring.) However, when performing a water change it is very important to dose CP back into any replacement water before adding it to the QT. This ensures that the concentration of medication in the QT remains therapeutic at all times. After 10 days, transfer the fish into an observation tank (see Posttreatment below) at least 3 m (10 feet) away from the QT.

CP Protocol # 2: If you must treat in an established QT with a working biofilter, then you should redose the medication to compensate for possible biodegradation. Start off by dosing 10 mg/L (40 mg/gal) and then subsequently dose 1 mg/L (4 mg/gal) every day thereafter. Daily redosing is ideal, but if that conflicts with your schedule then redosing 3 mg/L or 12 mg/gal every 3 days (for example) should still be adequate. CP has a wide therapeutic range (20-80 mg/gal), so the objective is to keep it within that concentration at all times. After 10 days, transfer the fish into an observation tank (see Posttreatment below) at least 3 m (10 feet) away from the QT.

Posttreatment – To ensure treatment has been successful, transfer the fish into a nonmedicated observation tank for 2-4 weeks. Never transfer the fish directly into your display tank! The point of the observation tank is to ensure treatment has been successful, and symptoms of parasites do not resurface. One way to accomplish this is by housing black mollies (more info) in your observation tank. A freshwater black molly will have no immunity whatsoever to marine diseases, thus making it probable for visible symptoms to show. And evidence of ectoparasites (e.g. ich, velvet, brook) will show up as white spots on a black molly or translucent if a tankmate has flukes.

Pros – Gentle on most fish. (DO NOT USE with Hippo Tangs, anthias and flasher wrasses.) CP treats most external protozoa, and is probably the closest thing there is to a “wonder drug” in our hobby.

Cons/Side Effects – Expensive, hard to get (requires a prescription), powder is heat & light sensitive – so store in a cool, dark place. CP is quickly removed from the water if carbon is used and even by certain filter pads which are made from polyfiber. The medication is also susceptible to biodegradation, which makes dosing in an established QT somewhat unpredictable.

Hello @Humblefish one of my scopas tang got ich, I noticed it just yesterday. Chloroquine phosphate is easily available in India that’s where I’m from. There are two forms of CP tablets available, 250 and 500mg. I have a 180g qt tank. What should be my CP dosing schedule. I would love to save my fish. I’ve read and asked people about Copper treatment and I acquired Cuprion by brightwell however the people I spoke to on R2R were really kind enough and asked me to use chelated instead of ionic copper. There is no way I can find chelated copper power or copper safe here in India. Would the CP treatment suffice? I have a small empty tank 20g which I can use for dosing. Your insight would really be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello @Humblefish one of my scopas tang got ich, I noticed it just yesterday. Chloroquine phosphate is easily available in India that’s where I’m from. There are two forms of CP tablets available, 250 and 500mg. I have a 180g qt tank. What should be my CP dosing schedule. I would love to save my fish. I’ve read and asked people about Copper treatment and I acquired Cuprion by brightwell however the people I spoke to on R2R were really kind enough and asked me to use chelated instead of ionic copper. There is no way I can find chelated copper power or copper safe here in India. Would the CP treatment suffice? I have a small empty tank 20g which I can use for dosing. Your insight would really be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, Humblefish is no longer on this site.

I also would not use Cuprion. The ionic coppers are a lot more difficult to use and have more toxic reactions. I prefer Coppersafe or Copper Power. If those are not available in India, then chloroquine is certainly an option. I can't help you with the dose unless you know the amount of active ingredient in those tablets. Sometimes, tablets have binder and fillers that lower the effective dose from 100%. But, lets say they are 100% chloroquine. The formula to find out how much to add is this:

tank gallons multiplied by dose in parts per million divided by 266 equal grams of medication. So - for a 180 gallon tank dosed at 15 ppm, that would be: 180 * 15 / 266 = 10 grams or 20 500mg tablets.

Here is an article I wrote on chloroquine:

Aquarium Fish: Chloroquine: A “New” Drug for Treating Fish Diseases

While not a panacea or miracle drug, chloroquine is experiencing resurgence in popularity for use in fish-only aquariums and quarantine systems to treat a variety of problems ranging from Cryptocaryon to Aiptasia anemone infestations.

reefs.com

Jay

 

[airvicconcre]

Hello, Humblefish is no longer on this site.

I also would not use Cuprion. The ionic coppers are a lot more difficult to use and have more toxic reactions. I prefer Coppersafe or Copper Power. If those are not available in India, then chloroquine is certainly an option. I can't help you with the dose unless you know the amount of active ingredient in those tablets. Sometimes, tablets have binder and fillers that lower the effective dose from 100%. But, lets say they are 100% chloroquine. The formula to find out how much to add is this:

tank gallons multiplied by dose in parts per million divided by 266 equal grams of medication. So - for a 180 gallon tank dosed at 15 ppm, that would be: 180 * 15 / 266 = 10 grams or 20 500mg tablets.

Here is an article I wrote on chloroquine:

Aquarium Fish: Chloroquine: A “New” Drug for Treating Fish Diseases

While not a panacea or miracle drug, chloroquine is experiencing resurgence in popularity for use in fish-only aquariums and quarantine systems to treat a variety of problems ranging from Cryptocaryon to Aiptasia anemone infestations.

reefs.com

Jay

Thank you very much for your reply. We do get chloroquine here in India with ease. I have a 20g QT where I added my Scopas yesterday and my Hippo today in the morning. From what I read on one of these posts, they mentioned Chloroquine is not safe to use with Hippo tangs.is that true? Your reply have been very helpful Jay. I intend to follow the instruction on the link you’ve added in your post. Thanks again.

 

[airvicconcre]

I

Hello, Humblefish is no longer on this site.

I also would not use Cuprion. The ionic coppers are a lot more difficult to use and have more toxic reactions. I prefer Coppersafe or Copper Power. If those are not available in India, then chloroquine is certainly an option. I can't help you with the dose unless you know the amount of active ingredient in those tablets. Sometimes, tablets have binder and fillers that lower the effective dose from 100%. But, lets say they are 100% chloroquine. The formula to find out how much to add is this:

tank gallons multiplied by dose in parts per million divided by 266 equal grams of medication. So - for a 180 gallon tank dosed at 15 ppm, that would be: 180 * 15 / 266 = 10 grams or 20 500mg tablets.

Here is an article I wrote on chloroquine:

Aquarium Fish: Chloroquine: A “New” Drug for Treating Fish Diseases

While not a panacea or miracle drug, chloroquine is experiencing resurgence in popularity for use in fish-only aquariums and quarantine systems to treat a variety of problems ranging from Cryptocaryon to Aiptasia anemone infestations.

reefs.com

Jay

I made a mistake when I wrote that message earlier. My DT is 180g. My QT is 20g.

 

[ReefHog]

Thank you very much for your reply. We do get chloroquine here in India with ease. I have a 20g QT where I added my Scopas yesterday and my Hippo today in the morning. From what I read on one of these posts, they mentioned Chloroquine is not safe to use with Hippo tangs.is that true? Your reply have been very helpful Jay. I intend to follow the instruction on the link you’ve added in your post. Thanks again.

I prefer using chloroquine as opposed to copper. Unfortunately, Hippo tangs (for some reason) and many wrasses do not respond well to chloroquine. Most other fish respond very well to chloroquine.

 

[airvicconcre]

I prefer using chloroquine as opposed to copper. Unfortunately, Hippo tangs (for some reason) and many wrasses do not respond well to chloroquine. Most other fish respond very well to chloroquine.

I added my Hippo tang to the QT with the similar issue. Should I still use CP?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you very much for your reply. We do get chloroquine here in India with ease. I have a 20g QT where I added my Scopas yesterday and my Hippo today in the morning. From what I read on one of these posts, they mentioned Chloroquine is not safe to use with Hippo tangs.is that true? Your reply have been very helpful Jay. I intend to follow the instruction on the link you’ve added in your post. Thanks again.

For a 20 gallon tank, the CP dose would be: 20 * 15 / 266 = 1.1 grams

I stopped using chloroquine when I saw toxicity issues in various species of fish - notably lionfish and harlequin tuskfish. I know that the range of toxicity is greater, but it is too difficult to determine in advance if a fish will have issues or not. That said, I have not seen any specific issues with hepatus tangs. If you are worried, dose at 12 ppm instead of 15. Most toxicity issues are seen at 20 ppm doses.

Jay

 

[drawman]

I added my Hippo tang to the QT with the similar issue. Should I still use CP?

I don't use CP personally but as you said there are reports of hippo tangs being sensitive to it. Can you get coppersafe?

 

[airvicconcre]

For a 20 gallon tank, the CP dose would be: 20 * 15 / 266 = 1.1 grams

I stopped using chloroquine when I saw toxicity issues in various species of fish - notably lionfish and harlequin tuskfish. I know that the range of toxicity is greater, but it is too difficult to determine in advance if a fish will have issues or not. That said, I have not seen any specific issues with hepatus tangs. If you are worried, dose at 12 ppm instead of 15. Most toxicity issues are seen at 20 ppm doses.

Jay

Thank you. I will start doing that right away.

I don't use CP personally but as you said there are reports of hippo tangs being sensitive to it. Can you get I’ve checked all online vendors and none of them have coppersafe. International shipping will rake

I don't use CP personally but as you said there are reports of hippo tangs being sensitive to it. Can you get coppersafe?

The quickest international delivery for coppersafe to India is around 3 weeks. I don’t believe I have that much time. Cupramine is available and I have cuprion however most of the people on here advised me not to use it hence CP might be the only option.

 

[jasonrusso]

Thank you very much for your reply. We do get chloroquine here in India with ease. I have a 20g QT where I added my Scopas yesterday and my Hippo today in the morning. From what I read on one of these posts, they mentioned Chloroquine is not safe to use with Hippo tangs.is that true? Your reply have been very helpful Jay. I intend to follow the instruction on the link you’ve added in your post. Thanks again.

The dose is 40-50mg per gallon (10mg per liter). I dose it one time and add the correct dose to water changes if you do them. I wouldn't worry about the fillers in the tablets (I would hope they would be fit for human consumption), but if they are 20mg tablets for example, there is 20mg in each tablet.

There is some debate recently, but I have always dosed once. I have cured fish this way and I have never lost a fish in QT after I dosed.

 

[airvicconcre]

Hello. The CP tablets we have here is 250 and 500mg. I am starting my regime in a couple of hours in a 20g QT. My question is, would one dose of CP suffice or do I have to do a water change (saltwater mixed with CP) what filter should I use in the qt or just aerate?

 

[jasonrusso]

So 20 gallons would require 1G (1000 mg) of CP. I don't redose unless I do a water change because of ammonia. It's very hard to grow a bacteria colony with present CP.

I use a foam bubble filter and ceramic media in a HOB filter. No carbon.

 

[jasonrusso]

Hello. The CP tablets we have here is 250 and 500mg. I am starting my regime in a couple of hours in a 20g QT. My question is, would one dose of CP suffice or do I have to do a water change (saltwater mixed with CP) what filter should I use in the qt or just aerate?

Like this

 

[ReefHog]

I use the same dosage (50mg/g) and have seen no long term affects on fish. I started using Chloroquine in 2018. After a velvet outbreak in 2018 I treated the four surviving fish with chloroquine. The hippo tang is the only one that did not survive. He had a bad reaction pretty quickly so I removed him. After reading that they don’t respond well to chloroquine I attempted to treat him with copper. He only lasted a day or so. Now it’s quite possible and probably likely that he was too far gone for any treatment but he wasn’t showing visible signs of parasites when I started treatment so I’d rather play it safe with hippos. You will probably have to do water changes to keep ammonia under control. Ammonia is most likely going to be your biggest hurdle. I know Jays not a fan but I add Seachem Prime ammonia binder daily with 25% water changes every other day for 14 days. Then I remove fish into a third tank for observation for 30 days before they go into the display tank. If you don’t have a third tank, you will have to do the full 30 days in CP.

 

[jasonrusso]

I use the same dosage (50mg/g) and have seen no long term affects on fish. I started using Chloroquine in 2018. After a velvet outbreak in 2018 I treated the four surviving fish with chloroquine. The hippo tang is the only one that did not survive. He had a bad reaction pretty quickly so I removed him. After reading that they don’t respond well to chloroquine I attempted to treat him with copper. He only lasted a day or so. Now it’s quite possible and probably likely that he was too far gone for any treatment but he wasn’t showing visible signs of parasites when I started treatment so I’d rather play it safe with hippos. You will probably have to do water changes to keep ammonia under control. Ammonia is most likely going to be your biggest hurdle. I know Jays not a fan but I add Seachem Prime ammonia binder daily with 25% water changes every other day for 14 days. Then I remove fish into a third tank for observation for 30 days before they go into the display tank. If you don’t have a third tank, you will have to do the full 30 days in CP.

I did the same. Prime and 20% wc every other day. I cured a porcupinefish and lionfish of velvet.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So 20 gallons would require 1G (1000 mg) of CP. I don't redose unless I do a water change because of ammonia. It's very hard to grow a bacteria colony with present CP.

I use a foam bubble filter and ceramic media in a HOB filter. No carbon.

That dose is a bit more than 13 mg/l so right in the "sweet spot" for CP. I think 10 mg/l is a bit too low.

Seeing high ammonia when dosing CP is hit or miss. In old, established aquariums, you often see an ammonia spike due to the huge die-off of algae and micro fauna to occurs when you first dose it. In brand new QT, without a good bio filter, you'll also have ammonia issues. When I dose CP in a properly operating QT (established bio filter, no algae or micro fauna) I won't see any ammonia issues.

People need to be aware that UV light breaks CP down. Turn off UV sterilizers, and no open windows near the treatment tank (silica glass filters out the UV, so light through a window isn't an issue).


Jay