Chloroquine Phosphate vs Chloroquine Sulphate - Use in Quarantine

DUPPIE8008 · Jul 15, 2024

Good day !

Would appreciate assistance regarding the use of Chloroquine Sulphate (Monohydrate) in place of Chloroquine Phosphate.
Battling to source CP in my country. From what I gather the Sulphate formulation seems stronger, can this safely be used in place of CP, and if so what would the suggested dosage be ? This will be for a new fish quarantine treatment in place of copper.
@Jay Hemdal @Randy Holmes-Farley

Thanks !!

vetteguy53081 · Jul 15, 2024

DUPPIE8008 said:
Good day !

Would appreciate assistance regarding the use of Chloroquine Sulphate (Monohydrate) in place of Chloroquine Phosphate.
Battling to source CP in my country. From what I gather the Sulphate formulation seems stronger, can this safely be used in place of CP, and if so what would the suggested dosage be ? This will be for a new fish quarantine treatment in place of copper.
@Jay Hemdal @Randy Holmes-Farley

Thanks !!

You want phosphate which is already potent and has to be used precisely at 50ml per gallon

DUPPIE8008 · Jul 15, 2024

@vetteguy53081
Thank you for your response.
Unfortunately as mentioned, CP not available only Sulphate formulation

Jay Hemdal · Jul 16, 2024

DUPPIE8008 said:
Good day !

Would appreciate assistance regarding the use of Chloroquine Sulphate (Monohydrate) in place of Chloroquine Phosphate.
Battling to source CP in my country. From what I gather the Sulphate formulation seems stronger, can this safely be used in place of CP, and if so what would the suggested dosage be ? This will be for a new fish quarantine treatment in place of copper.
@Jay Hemdal @Randy Holmes-Farley

Thanks !!

I know in parts of the world, chloroquine sulfate is used, one tradename for that is Plaquenil. I've not used it myself, but I know that aquarists have sought out either the chloride or sulfate form so as to not have the phosphorus loading issue seen with the product we typically get in the US.

I had done some work with chloroquine a decade or so ago, as I had used it in the 1970's and had pretty good results with it. I wrote the following article about it, but after this was published, I began seeing unexpected mortality issues in wrasses and lionfish. Reducing the dose to around 10 or 12 ppm seemed to solve that, but then I wasn't getting good disease control. I returned to using amine-chelated copper products and have had MUCH better results.

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

DUPPIE8008 · Jul 16, 2024

@Jay Hemdal

Thank you Sir ! , that is a great article.
The product I managed to source is called Plasmoquine.
Checked on the manufacturers website, the 200mg formulation states that it contains 146% Chloroquine Sulphate Monohydrate, doesn't mention what the other 54% is.
Is the CP that's available in the USA basically the same formulation, or how would one calculate the mg/L or Gal using the 200mg/146% tablets ?

Thanks !

MnFish1 · Jul 16, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
I know in parts of the world, chloroquine sulfate is used, one tradename for that is Plaquenil. I've not used it myself, but I know that aquarists have sought out either the chloride or sulfate form so as to not have the phosphorus loading issue seen with the product we typically get in the US.

I had done some work with chloroquine a decade or so ago, as I had used it in the 1970's and had pretty good results with it. I wrote the following article about it, but after this was published, I began seeing unexpected mortality issues in wrasses and lionfish. Reducing the dose to around 10 or 12 ppm seemed to solve that, but then I wasn't getting good disease control. I returned to using amine-chelated copper products and have had MUCH better results.

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

FWIW - Plaquenil is hydroxychloroquine (used for autoimmune disease and has some malaria prevention). I don't think that changes anything you're saying

Jay Hemdal · Jul 16, 2024

DUPPIE8008 said:
@Jay Hemdal

Thank you Sir ! , that is a great article.
The product I managed to source is called Plasmoquine.
Checked on the manufacturers website, the 200mg formulation states that it contains 146% Chloroquine Sulphate Monohydrate, doesn't mention what the other 54% is.
Is the CP that's available in the USA basically the same formulation, or how would one calculate the mg/L or Gal using the 200mg/146% tablets ?

Thanks !

Sorry - I don’t know what excipient/binder they use. Usually, these are safe for aquariums since the pills are formulated to be taken internally by people, but I can’t say for certain.

When you wrote 146%, did you mean 146 mg? If so, yes, you want to calculate the dose based on that amount of active ingredient.

The formula I use is: US gallons multiplied by the target ppm of the drug, divided by 264 to get grams of active ingredient. So - 100 gallons at 15 ppm / 264 = 1.9 grams. Your pills are about 73% active ingredient.