Lethal experience with Choloquine Phosphate

[ghostshrimp]

I would like to share an experience with you while treating my fish. Recently i bought some fish for my 75 G and unfortunately some had white spots and i QTed them all. My clown tang died possibly because of Uronema, it had "bruised" skin. I used CP for my tank. My Chromis was deteriorating in condition and started to develop a "hemorrage" under the skin. He wasnt eating anything and was breathing pretty heavily. The CP wasnt working maybe. So decided to feed him with an extremely tiny tube. I used a mixture of food and CP dissolved. It was difficult to catch the fish at first because it was trying to jump out of water again and again for an unknown reason, the clown fish in the tank were doing ok. I force fed maybe just a drop under water while holding it. But then after an other drop the fish went into a spasm. No movement at all. Mouth open and bent body. I tried resuscitating for a while but then gave up.
I am pretty sure it was because of the drug. The drug then went into him might be hardly 1 mg. What do you guys think?

 

[jduck]

The bruising sounds more like secondary infection.

 

[ThRoewer]

"Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy." - Paracelsus

Why would you feed a fish a medication where you have no idea about the proper dose in relation to the fish's weight?
Also, why would you do something so unnecessary in the first place? As long as the medication is dissolved in the water fish will ingest it with the water they constantly drink (yes, saltwater fish need to drink to prevent dehydration).
One milligram was likely several times the lethal dose for this fish. If he didn't die from the toxicity he may have died of liver or kidney failure.

 

[Louis Z]

I feel your helplessness and understand you trying to triage the fish. I do see that often once the fish seems to go down hill it's very hard to reverse. I avoid certain fish stores as I always have sick fish as soon as I get them home. Where as some other stores I have better luck. As for your original treatment at what strength /dose did you use the CP in the tank .

 

[ghostshrimp]

I was pretty helpless at that time. I didnt know what else to do. I was actually watching a fish die. I thought maybe this could help eradicate a disseminated infection. But i am pretty sure it was the medication added with the stress of the fish disease. Anyhow, i dont know if there is anyone who has done a force feeding of medication to the fish. If there is one please let me know because i would like to get an idea on how to do it since i have other fish in the same QT that are literally wasting away. Thanks

 

[ThRoewer]

For how long do you have them in CP treatment and were they eating before?. Prolonged CP treatment seems to sometimes harm fish.
Also, it is a well known side effect that some fish stop eating during CP treatment.

For those reasons I wouldn't use it with problematic eaters or for any longer than 2 weeks.

Force feeding fish is a tricky thing and if it works it likely only works for bigger fish. The likelihood of doing more harm than good is also high. And at best it delays the inevitable.

 

[ghostshrimp]

Well i had them for about 4 days only, i was using about 16mg/L of CP. The medication was having no affect on the system, i could only see the condition of the fish deteriorating with it. I also used metronidazole on the second day at about 5mg/ L to target any protozoa not covered in CP.

 

[ThRoewer]

I don't know if Metronidazole is safe to mix with CP.
I never mix medication, even if deemed to be compatible. There is just too much risk of unknown side effects.