Dear Marine Depot,

[jedimasterben]

Chloroquine phosphate is an extremely effective antiparasitic. To be most effective, ensure that there is no light getting into the QT tank. Bright light breaks down chloroquine pretty quickly (though not quickly enough for a reef tank). I don't know yet if I would consider this medication 100% effective or not at this time, but as long as you stick to the feeding regimen and the fish continually eats the pellets for the 21 day period, then no parasites should be able to attach to the fish and survive.

[Halo_003]

Don't the fish need some number of hours of light? My QT will be lit by just a normal spiral bulb, 10000K to hopefully reduce any algae growth.

 

Sounds like a 30 day QT period with this as their main food and most fish should be ready to go in the display. Excellent. Looking forward to hear your feedback with it.

 

This might be a dumb question but I just got back from work. (2:20AM)

 

Are angels sensitive to it? I know they're sensitive to copper.

[jedimasterben]

No, fish do not need any light. Like I said, light degrades the stuff pretty quickly, and you want as much as possible left in the water in a QT tank. Typical CP dosage is 10-15mg/L to the water column.

 

No fish are sensitive to it as far as I know. It doesn't work the same way that copper does, so you don't have anything to worry about.

[NirvanaandTool]

How would you be sure the fish is getting enough/not enough CP via this food? Is it possible to overdose CP? Feel like it would be better to straight treat the tank with CP if you are treating ich. The food seems like its a decent idea for a fish in a reef that you cant get out into a hospital tank but seems risky to inverts/corals. But if you have a bare QT tank, I'd rather just directly treat for ich.

My $0.02 at least.

[Cove]

Canada needs a Marine Depot like you guys

[jedimasterben]

How would you be sure the fish is getting enough/not enough CP via this food? Is it possible to overdose CP? Feel like it would be better to straight treat the tank with CP if you are treating ich. The food seems like its a decent idea for a fish in a reef that you cant get out into a hospital tank but seems risky to inverts/corals. But if you have a bare QT tank, I'd rather just directly treat for ich.

My $0.02 at least.

As far as medicating directly, food just doesn't stay inside the fish for long enough for the medication to keep building up, and I'd presume that there is not a large amount of CP in the food, so it should be a non-issue. Luckily it doesn't take but a small amount of the med to be effective, especially of dosed internally.

[tibbsy07]

If the chloroquine is in the food, you shouldn't need to worry about the light, I would think. Most of the effective chloroquine will be ingested and either metabolized or expelled as waste, but then it wouldn't have much of an effect anymore.

[Marine Depot]

Ok, so after opening the canister of food, there is a little folded piece of paper with instructions. The jist of it:

 

• Feed fish twice daily
• Feed for minimum 21 days for marine aquariums
• Feed for minimum 10 days for freshwater aquariums
• Use fresh filter media to reduce any remaining medication
• Food must NOT be consumed by corals or anemones or anything that is a zooxanthellae symbiont
• Use a baster or pre-soak pellets to prevent them from floating about to prevent them from getting to corals
• Remove all uneaten pellets, do not allow to break down in the tank
• Do not broadcast feed pellets!
• Do not allow clownfish to return to host anemones with pellets to feed the anemone
• Turn off ALL flow in the tank to help prevent pellets from reaching corals

 

It even mentions that all new arrivals should be quarantined in a separate, bare tank, and then you can feed this food all willy-nilly

 

Thank you for taking the time to type all those out for us. I emailed Robert (our video/content guy) a link to your post so he can add all those bullets to the description. Much appreciated!

 

 

Canada needs a Marine Depot like you guys

 

 

 

[NirvanaandTool]

As far as medicating directly, food just doesn't stay inside the fish for long enough for the medication to keep building up, and I'd presume that there is not a large amount of CP in the food, so it should be a non-issue. Luckily it doesn't take but a small amount of the med to be effective, especially of dosed internally.

 

Hmm good point. Then a small dose over that 21 day period would be effective for treatment as long as you continually feed said food.

 

Find a ich ridden fish and test it Ben

[tibbsy07]

As far as medicating directly, food just doesn't stay inside the fish for long enough for the medication to keep building up, and I'd presume that there is not a large amount of CP in the food, so it should be a non-issue. Luckily it doesn't take but a small amount of the med to be effective, especially of dosed internally.

Hmm good point. Then a small dose over that 21 day period would be effective for treatment as long as you continually feed said food.

 

Find a ich ridden fish and test it Ben

It's more about overall metabolism of the product, though. Chloroquine in rats remains in the system for a while, even in small amounts. The half-life of chloroquine metabolized products is relatively high and chloroquine, as least in mammals, is readily absorbed in the GI tract, allowing a little bit to go a long way. What is the concentration in the food?

[jedimasterben]

If the chloroquine is in the food, you shouldn't need to worry about the light, I would think. Most of the effective chloroquine will be ingested and either metabolized or expelled as waste, but then it wouldn't have much of an effect anymore.

Fish don't actually process but a small bit of the food they take in, the majority of it is passed straight back out (and with most planktivores with no real stomach they are even less efficient about it) from the data I've seen. I'll have to look back through and see if I can find it.

 

Thank you for taking the time to type all those out for us. I emailed our Robert (our video/content guy) a link to your post so he can add all those bullets to the description. Much appreciated!

Es no problemo. Most people have never heard of chloroquine as a medication (as it is not the easiest to get ahold of and there are no 'prepackaged' commercial meds containing it), so there are a lot of gaps to fill in

 

Hmm good point. Then a small dose over that 21 day period would be effective for treatment as long as you continually feed said food.

Pretty much, it keeps as much inside the fish as it can and in a QT tank it would stay in the water helping there, too.

 

It's more about overall metabolism of the product, though. Chloroquine in rats remains in the system for a while, even in small amounts. The half-life of chloroquine metabolized products is relatively high and chloroquine, as least in mammals, is readily absorbed in the GI tract, allowing a little bit to go a long way. What is the concentration in the food?

That is the unknown.

[tibbsy07]

Fish don't actually process but a small bit of the food they take in, the majority of it is passed straight back out (and with most planktivores with no real stomach they are even less efficient about it) from the data I've seen. I'll have to look back through and see if I can find it.

 

That is the unknown.

lol, of course. Ain't it always the way?