YOUR experience with Chloroquine Phosphate

[Jacob D]

Not too long ago myself and a few others from my local club were discussing the use of Chloroquine Phosphate (CP for short) as a prophylactic treatment for ich in QT. CP was originally recommended to me by a friend who is a biologist at a large aquarium. After that I found that a couple other respected reefers that I knew were using it.


The documentation on the web has some inconsistencies between sources and it seems that what most people will tell you about this medication is just what they've heard. I'd like to hear what your personal experience with CP is. I'm also curious if anyone has had corals exposed to it in the same doses needed to treat fish, and if so how did they fare?


Below is essentially a copy/paste of my conversation from our local club forum. These are observations of my experience with CP.

(with regard to fish)
I have used it with mixed results. It's always hard to know what exactly went wrong. I tend to think problems that I ran into could have been caused by a number of things that I either did not catch or did not rectify in time. I have had success with butterflies, wrasses, and dwarf angels in QT with CP. I have had 0% success with tangs so far. I have also lost a couple of Genicanthus angels in QT while under treatment of CP in that specific case it looked like ammonia damage (although I was not able to test the water at the time to confirm) which made me wonder if in fact the bio filter had been compromised by the medication, or the fact that the fish were of larger size.

(with regard to biofilter and inverts)
I don't know how to test (without great effort) to what extent bacteria and which specific ones are affected by chloroquine but I have not experienced any nitrite/ammonia spikes in my QT after using it. As I mentioned I have kept inverts in the QT while the medication is in the system. There are currently snails in there that have survived multiple treatments of it. Several cleaner shrimp have also gone through the process. I had a handful of ricordia that over time (months) melted and/or bleached. This may be due to long term exposure to the drug. I also have a Palau nephthea in there for months that is still doing fine.

This link states that it is non-toxic to bacteria, but toxic to *some* invertebrates. http://www.reefculturemagazine.com.au/cryptocaryon.html

So... My opinion is *some* corals may tolerate it to an extent. Long term it's probably not a good idea. I definitely would not attempt it at all with a tank full of SPS, and probably not anemones. All of the fish and inverts that made it through (5-6 weeks of) QT have done very well.


I'm getting ready to add some more fish, a couple of which are tangs. At this point I think I'm only to give the tangs a week of downtime in the QT and a week of Prazi. I would like to get back into a QT regime including CP but It's difficult to wade through the info on the web/forums. I wish at the times that I had failures I would have been able to look deeper at the underlying causes but unfortunately they all came at times when my daily life was very hectic. If anyone else has used CP I'd appreciate any information that you can share about your experience.

(phew... done just in time for the kickoff!)

 

[sfboarders]

I have use quinine sulphate with success. I bought a blue hippo tang and a flame angel who showed ich as soon as I put them in QT. I used qs for 9 days and no more ich. My ammonia was at 0 but nitrite and nitrate spiked but the fish showed no signs of stress. The ich went away and I kept in QT for 6 weeks. They are now in the DT and look great and no signs of ich.

I will continue to treat with qs in the future.

 

[RBU1]

My question would be.....If snails and inverts are surviving the treatment what makes you think it is killing all the ich?

 

[Jacob D]

I have use quinine sulphate with success. I bought a blue hippo tang and a flame angel who showed ich as soon as I put them in QT. I used qs for 9 days and no more ich. My ammonia was at 0 but nitrite and nitrate spiked but the fish showed no signs of stress. The ich went away and I kept in QT for 6 weeks. They are now in the DT and look great and no signs of ich.

I will continue to treat with qs in the future.

I have also heard good things about quinine sulphate, I have not tried it yet. In case anyone did not know, Chloroquine is a quinine based medication.

 

[Jacob D]

My question would be.....If snails and inverts are surviving the treatment what makes you think it is killing all the ich?

I don't know? Do you any particular reason for asking that?

I only know what I've read, and what my experience has taught me so far, none of which could be considered absolute. CP (quinine) supposedly kills the ich in one particular stage of its life (I don't recall which). Given long enough exposure to CP the reproductive cycle should be broken.

 

[Stuart60611]

One thing qunine sulfate does do is destroy the biological filter. I had a major ammonia spike within 24 hours of using it which I could not control despite doing several large water changes and lost some fish as a result. In fairness, it is possible that it did not destroy the biological filter and instead the ammonia spike was caused by the algae in the system it killed. Either way, it was not a good situation.

 

[theglassocean]

In my experiences using CP, I believe it to be amazing. I have used it on 12000 gallon systems with great results. It is harmless to fish and will easily clean up crypt and a few other problems.
It has never hurt the biological system when ever I have used it. It even cleared up LL on a purple tang in one case. ( I have no idea why).
It will kill all forms of algae, including algae in corals. So never use it in a reef tank. I have found that it will kill inverts such as snails, and later in the cycle, crabs. At times, it will turn the color of the tank a green or brown hue. Perhaps it is diatoms or other algae die off. The only residual issues seem to be a thick dark brown muck at times, but only in certain areas. It will also leave a dark red (algae like) substance on decorations and the glass that is hard to remove.
For established FO systems, I believe it to be the wonder chemical.

 

[Jacob D]

For those of you who have chimed in so far, how many mg/L are you treating with? Do you turn your skimmer off during treatment?

 

[sfboarders]

For those of you who have chimed in so far, how many mg/L are you treating with? Do you turn your skimmer off during treatment?

I used mine in QT with HOB filter with no carbon. I dosed 1/8 tsp per 10 gallons. When I did a WC I just added back what I removed. I did a 10 day treatment.

 

[theglassocean]

For those of you who have chimed in so far, how many mg/L are you treating with? Do you turn your skimmer off during treatment?

The standard seems to be 10 mg/L or 40mg/gal. The skimmer needs to be off and most likely U.V.'s. It's not known if a U.V. will break down the chemical composition of CP or not.

 

[Jacob D]

bump

Anyone else have experience using CP that you would like to share?

 

[blennielove]

Hello All,
I have been using CP to treat my tank starting April 30th 2010. This tank has been infected with C. irritans since, oh... November 2009. I used quinine but I was not dosing the medication correctly and ended up with quinine resistant strain. I contacted Fishman Chemicals and Dr. Fishman recommended Chloroquine which I am using in my 220 FOWLR tank. One week after treatment, no signs of ich and all fishes doing very well. Glad to report that the ONE hermit crab which I thought had died was seen just today, alive and well. My fishes are tolerating the medication well.
Some issues I've learned is that do not dose repetitively, CP is very stable once in solution and stays in the water, only replace what is removed by water change. I read some where online to "redose" once every week for four weeks. Well, I did that for three and my fishes started acting really strange and I got cloudy eyes in my tangs. I contacted Dr. Fishman and he helped me understand. I did several water changes and brought the level back down.
My plans are to treat with CP for another month and a half.
Current inhabitants are: Powder Blue Tang, Atlantic Blue Tang, Kole Tang, Emperor Angel, Cleaner Wrasse, Mystery Wrasse, Pylei Wrasse, Solar Wrasse, Exquisite Wrasse, 5 Firefish gobies, 2 Threadfin Anthias, pair of Clowns, Randall's Goby, Yellow Watchman Goby, 2 Pearly Jawfish, 2 Red Scooter Blennies.
For some who have read my post on Quinine sulfate, yes, I did add more fish to the original gang who were infected.
All responding very well to chloroquine. I would say better than quinine because there were less stress reactions observed.
Skimmer, UV are turned off. Normal light cycle. Ammonia 0, Nitrate/Nitrite 0, pH 8.2 all the time.
BlennieLove

 

[rssjsb]

I'm bumping this to report my experiences and ask a question about dose.

First, the question: On all the real writeups about this med, I always see the dose described in milligrams per liter or milligrams per gallon. I've never weighed it, so I have absolutely no idea how that translates into teaspoons (or fractions of teaspoons). Does anyone know? I've seen the 1/8 tsp/10 gallon dose here and one other place, but have never been sure.

Now the report: I've used chloroquine diphosphate in a 120 gallon FO display tank with a puffer, rabbitfish and a snowflake eel, and also in a 20 gallon hospital tank to treat a kole tang that I didn't have much hope for.

I used 1/8 tsp per 10 gallons. In both cases, I re-dosed water change water, but also did a second dose after 10 days, with no signs of stress to the fish.

It seemed to work really well. The puffer - a milanensis - had a fairly severe case of ich, with spots on his eyes and skin and his skin had even taken on a very unhealthy looking texture and color. The rabbit showed spots on its fins. Of course, the eel had no symptoms. After the second dose, the puffer is completely clear and his skin texture an color has returned to normal. The rabbit has no more spots.

The second dose killed all the vermetid snails in the tank. I saw an epitoke swimming around in there the other day, so there must be a bristle worm in the rock somewhere. There was some die-off of the demon maidenhair algae, but no noticeable ammonia spike. The tiny thriving universe of pods in the tank seemed unaffected.

The kole tang is in fantastic health. It's eating better and getting fat. No signs of ich at all.

I would still like to know the answer to my dose question. I see no signs of ich in the treated fish, but I've been fooled before and had a recurrence when I thought it was kicked.

I guess my major concern is that I didn't use enough. The minor algae die-off makes me wonder because every article I've seen says that it is a very effective algaecide. Maybe I've got a mutant strain of maidenhair.

I really want this to work. I've had too many losses using copper and don't ever want to go through that again.

Thanks.

 

[glassocean]

I'm bumping this to report my experiences and ask a question about dose.

First, the question: On all the real writeups about this med, I always see the dose described in milligrams per liter or milligrams per gallon. I've never weighed it, so I have absolutely no idea how that translates into teaspoons (or fractions of teaspoons). Does anyone know? I've seen the 1/8 tsp/10 gallon dose here and one other place, but have never been sure.

Now the report: I've used chloroquine diphosphate in a 120 gallon FO display tank with a puffer, rabbitfish and a snowflake eel, and also in a 20 gallon hospital tank to treat a kole tang that I didn't have much hope for.

I used 1/8 tsp per 10 gallons. In both cases, I re-dosed water change water, but also did a second dose after 10 days, with no signs of stress to the fish.

It seemed to work really well. The puffer - a milanensis - had a fairly severe case of ich, with spots on his eyes and skin and his skin had even taken on a very unhealthy looking texture and color. The rabbit showed spots on its fins. Of course, the eel had no symptoms. After the second dose, the puffer is completely clear and his skin texture an color has returned to normal. The rabbit has no more spots.

The second dose killed all the vermetid snails in the tank. I saw an epitoke swimming around in there the other day, so there must be a bristle worm in the rock somewhere. There was some die-off of the demon maidenhair algae, but no noticeable ammonia spike. The tiny thriving universe of pods in the tank seemed unaffected.

The kole tang is in fantastic health. It's eating better and getting fat. No signs of ich at all.

I would still like to know the answer to my dose question. I see no signs of ich in the treated fish, but I've been fooled before and had a recurrence when I thought it was kicked.

I guess my major concern is that I didn't use enough. The minor algae die-off makes me wonder because every article I've seen says that it is a very effective algaecide. Maybe I've got a mutant strain of maidenhair.

I really want this to work. I've had too many losses using copper and don't ever want to go through that again.

Thanks.

To be exact, you need a scale. I would roughly calculate 4 grams of CP to about 2 teaspoons. 4 grams treats 100 gallons of water.
It will wipe out snails in a few hours, but I find it really does not hurt crabs.
I have also had past episodes in which it dented nusiance algae but did not kill it. This was rare

 

[RegalAngel]

For Quinine Sulfate, I used the 1/8 tsp/10g in a bare 50g container w/25g SW for 6 days redosing 25% change water daily. No signs of ICH on fish for two weeks.

For my FO 300g tank, I used 1/4 tsp/10g. Two treatements 5 days apart with 25% water change....no Ich.

I will never use Cu again...excellent for quick Ich elimination.

 

[Isayso]

Bumping this thread again
I got the darn ich due to a new fish introduction. That I didn't quarantine properly
Now I got Quinine sulphate 200mg tablet.
I'm in process to catch all the fish and put in a 40 gall Qt
How much should I dose?...
IS it 1 pill (200mg) for 10 gal of water?

Thanks in advance

 

[bvaughn7]

Used CP in a hospital tank for velvet and ich. Treated all fish for 15 days. Lost my Anthias and Fairy wrasses. Tangs came through fine - both a Yellow and Hippo. Anthias and wrasses may have needed more oxygen in the tank. If I have to treat wrasses again I will add micro bubble to the water column. This was an emergency situation. Posting for others to have the info. Ammonia and Nitrite spiked in the hospital tanks but I did water changes every 4 days or so, sometimes less. All fish are now in QT while my DT sits fallow for 76 days. I have 2 hospital tanks and 2 QT tanks moving forward. All inverts and corals will go through 5-week QT. New fish will go through 10-day CP and then another 2-week QT if I see no signs of ICH/Velvet. Hard lesson learned.

 

[scooter31707]

I have used CP with great success, but I only use it for velvet and as a preventative of velvet during the QT process. For ich I use the TTM.

 

[jason77777]

I have used CP with great success, but I only use it for velvet and as a preventative of velvet during the QT process. For ich I use the TTM.

Where do you get the CP?

 

[Isayso]

I got mine from a friend pharmacist