Forgot to pull carbon before medicating with Chloroquine Phosphate

[undermind]

Hello All, as the title says, I just now realized that I forgot to pull carbon before I added CP to my quarantine tank. This was fresh carbon (BRS Rox) in the appropriate amount for my 24g QT. The carbon is in a sock, inside a HOB filter. The CP medication was added 48 hours ago for prophylactic treatment of 3 fish.

My issue is that I obviously can't test to know how much CP was removed, and I'm unsure what my best course of action is at this point. Unfortunately, this is something I've done before, and I believe I did a couple large water changes and re-medicated.

Hopefully I'm not the only one to have ever done this! What's your advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hello All, as the title says, I just now realized that I forgot to pull carbon before I added CP to my quarantine tank. This was fresh carbon (BRS Rox) in the appropriate amount for my 24g QT. The carbon is in a sock, inside a HOB filter. The CP medication was added 48 hours ago for prophylactic treatment of 3 fish.

My issue is that I obviously can't test to know how much CP was removed, and I'm unsure what my best course of action is at this point. Unfortunately, this is something I've done before, and I believe I did a couple large water changes and re-medicated.

Hopefully I'm not the only one to have ever done this! What's your advice? Thanks in advance!

I ran some tests measuring chloroquine with a UV spectrophotometer. Everyone "knows" that carbon removes chloroquine, but I couldn't demonstrate that in a spiked sample. Here is a link to the article:

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

 

[undermind]

Wow, that's a great article. Thank you for referring me to it @Jay Hemdal

My curiosity is certainly piqued, regarding the UV spectrophotometer tests. I get the impression there hasn't been anything especially compelling to substantiate that carbon removes chloroquine since the article was written.

At this point, I think I'll plan to change 50% with premedicated water.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Wow, that's a great article. Thank you for referring me to it @Jay Hemdal

My curiosity is certainly piqued, regarding the UV spectrophotometer tests. I get the impression there hasn't been anything especially compelling to substantiate that carbon removes chloroquine since the article was written.

At this point, I think I'll plan to change 50% with premedicated water.

The biggest news is a paper published by the Shedd Aquarium over the summer that shows that chloroquine is degraded by bacteria in aquariums, much like praziquantel is. The kicker is that the metabolites produced after the bacteria consume it still show up in the UV test. That means the test does not always measure active chloroquine, so that makes the test useless except when chloroquine is first dosed (before the bacteria has consumed it).

jay