International Medication Guide

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Jessican

Jessican

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***If you have any additional tips or know of sites to order from in various countries, PLEASE reply to this thread so that I can add the information to the OP!***

Unfortunately, the medications that we tend to recommend here are difficult (or impossible) to come by outside of the US. It can be costly or even illegal to attempt to import these medications, so below is a compilation of medication information for various international regions. In many areas, non-medicated treatment options maybe be the best course of action:
In areas where meds are difficult to come by and may need to be imported, it would be wise to procure them before they are needed in an emergency situation. Refer to this thread for a list of medications to keep on hand.

Canada
  • DIY copper medication (copper sulfate) treats ich and velvet. This has a low, tight therapeutic range of ~0.15 - 0.25mg/L and is best used alongside the Hanna High Range Copper Colorimeter (HI702) to ensure accuracy, but the ingredients to make it can be easily sourced from Amazon.
    • Edit to add additional info from @Carbonneau: Some medications may be available via Amazon, such as Cuprion, Copper-Aid, and Copper Power, since Amazon is not a fish store and so may not be subject to the same regulations. I was also able to find ParaCleanse (metronidazole + praziquantel, equivalent to API General Cure), although there's at least one review stating that the user received an expired product, so use caution since the sellers may not be reputable sources.
  • Thanks to @andrewkw for this source of medications for Canadians in Ontario: Canadian Fish Vet
  • Also thanks to @EAChris for this source for fenbendazole: Pets Drug Mart
  • Other medications may still be orderable from the US, but plan ahead as mentioned above as they may get delayed by customs as noted by @mikeintoronto: Medication ban in Canada.

UK

Guidelines and detailed dosage information can be found in @Salmo Si's threads Emergency Disease Fighting 101 and Internal Parasites and nphsmith's thread My Prophylactic Quarantine Regime at Ultimate Reef. The brief info below was pulled from these two threads and is used with permission.

Note: Some of this information may apply to Europe in general, but it is mostly applicable specifically to the UK.
  • Avloclor (chloroquine phosphate) can be obtained via prescription, and treats ich, velvet, brooklynella, and uronema. Dosage is 10mg per 1L of saltwater.
  • Seachem Cupramine (ionic copper) treats ich and velvet. Therapeutic dosage is 0.5ppm, but this must be reached slowly and should be checked frequently.
  • Copper Power (chelated copper) treats ich and velvet. Therapeutic dosage is 2.0-2.5ppm, more info available here
  • Waterlife Myxazin (acriflavine, malachite green and formaldehyde) is used to fight bacterial infections. Often used to increase the effectiveness of a freshwater dip; dosage is 0.5mL per 3L of dip water.
  • NT Labs Acriflavin (acriflavine) is used as a 90min bath treatment for brooklynella (similar to Ruby Reef Rally). Dosage is 7.5mL per 1L of saltwater.
  • Sera Tremazol (praziquantel) treats flukes and worms. Used as a 6 hour bath treatment at a dosage of 1mL per 11L of saltwater.
  • An alternative to Tramazol is Fluke Solve(praziquantel), which is dosed directly into a reef or QT vs. being used as a bath treatment. Dosage is 1g per 250L (55g) of saltwater. Treatment chart provided by @Wyster:
    • Fluke.jpg
  • Another alternative to praziquantel is Panacur (fenbendazole). Note: NOT reef safe, even when bound to food. Use only in a QT setting.
    • For internal parasites, dosage is 2mg/litre once a week for 3 weeks.
    • For flukes, it is used as a 12 hour bath treatment at a dosage of 25mg per 1L of saltwater, and the fish would need to go into a clean tank after to prevent reinfection.
  • @Wyster's local source for Methylene Blue (treats ammonia burn, cuts, cyanide poisoning, more info here)
  • Vitamin options: Waterlife Vitazin (contains vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, nicotinic acid, D3, E, K, & panthotenic acid) and Selcon (contains highly unsaturated OMEGA 3 fatty acids, Marine Lipids, Stabilized Vitamin C, and Vitamin B12 Cyanocobalamin). Both are good as food additives, along with powdered spirulina. Vitazin can also be dosed directly in the water.
  • Formalin: Formaldehyde 37% ACS (preferred because concentration is known) or NT Labs Koi Care Formaldehyde
Australia
Thanks to @doc for providing additional information on the medication available in Australia: "I wanted to add the following for Australia currently available without prescription locally and without needing to look outside of solutions directly intended for aquarium use." And thanks to @Autonomy for providing additional sources for some of these meds.
Also from @doc: "As for importing medicines you do need to be careful as some ingredients are allowed to come in and some aren't. For people in Aus dealing with a more serious issue or are happy to pay for diagnostic services and prescription medication Welcome To The Fish Vet is an option. Just be aware you need an in home consult prior to any medications being provided. Probably only something for a small niche of people but worth a mention."

As noted previously, if attempting to import medications, plan ahead as noted in the introduction as they may get delayed by customs.

If Cupramine becomes unavailable as mentioned above, the following DIY copper medication will be your best bet:
  • DIY copper medication (copper sulfate) treats ich and velvet. This has a low, tight therapeutic range of ~0.15 - 0.25mg/L and is best used alongside the Hanna High Range Copper Colorimeter (HI702) to ensure accuracy, but the ingredients to make it can be easily sourced from Amazon.

Asia

Thanks to @Sealala for helping to provide this information. Many medications are difficult to get in Asia, but Seachem and API products seem to be readily available, along with a few others:
  • Seachem Cupramine (ionic copper) treats ich and velvet. Therapeutic dosage is 0.5ppm, but this must be reached slowly and should be checked frequently.
  • Seachem Metroplex/Kanaplex/Sulfaplex/Neoplex, API Erythromycin/Furan-2 (antibiotics), used for treating bacterial infections. Dosages and treatment guidelines vary and can be found in the Antibiotics thread.
  • Seachem Focus (for binding medications to food)
  • API General Cure (metronidazole and praziquantel), dosed directly into QT water for treating flukes and external worms, and food-soaked for treating Internal Parasites
  • Ruby Reef Rally (acriflavine and formalin) is used as a 90min bath treatment for brooklynella and temporary relief of velvet. Dosage is 1 teaspoon per 1g of saltwater.
  • Waterlife Myxazin (acriflavine, malachite green and formaldehyde) is used to fight bacterial infections. Often used to increase the effectiveness of a freshwater dip; dosage is 0.5mL per 3L of dip water.
Sites to purchase from:
 
Last edited:
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mikeintoronto

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I just want to add something, and you can remove this post, but I want it to be clear that importing meds from the US (or anywhere) into Canada is not allowed. The Health Canada regulations are very clear about who, what, and how this is done but if you get them through it’s solely based on the ignorance of customs. The regulations were clarified shortly after my original post. It is much less ambiguous.
 
Jessican

Jessican

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mikeintoronto said:
I just want to add something, and you can remove this post, but I want it to be clear that importing meds from the US (or anywhere) into Canada is not allowed. The Health Canada regulations are very clear about who, what, and how this is done but if you get them through it’s solely based on the ignorance of customs. The regulations were clarified shortly after my original post. It is much less ambiguous.
Click to expand...
I will add that, thank you! And that’s absolutely all meds, right? Is there anything at all that you can reliably still get in Canada?
 
D

doc

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Thank you so much this is a great list.

I wanted to add the following for Australia currently available without prescription locally and without needing to look outside of solutions directly intended for aquarium use


This is something I'm regularly looking into at the moment so will update if and when I find more 😊

As for importing medicines you do need to be careful as some ingredients are allowed to come in and some aren't.

For people in Aus dealing with a more serious issue or are happy to pay for diagnostic services and prescription medication https://www.thefishvet.com.au/ is an option. Just be aware you need an in home consult prior to any medications being provided. Probably only something for a small niche of people but worth a mention
 
M

mikeintoronto

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Salmo Si

Salmo Si

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I forgot about this Jessica. It's a guide to worming fish. A lot of it is duplication with other articles but there might be something useful in it.

www.ultimatereef.net

Internal Parasites

Internal Worms and Parasites Signs that fish may be suffering from internal parasites are that they start get thin despite eating voraciously, or they gradually get thin and then stop eating. White stringy faeces may also protrude from them. The problem is that some or all of these symptoms can...
www.ultimatereef.net www.ultimatereef.net
 
M

mjreefs

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Hi all, I'm from the Philippines and would like to contribute some tips as well:

1. Copper Power - can be bought from Amazon and shipped to the PH
2. API General Cure - usually sold as repacked, but can also be bought from Amazon and shipped to PH
3. API Furan 2 - extremely rare locally, so I suggest buying from Amazon
4. Prazipro - can be bought from Amazon then shipped to PH

What I usually do is, I order stuff from the US and ship it by a forwarder. Amazon and some online saltwater fish stores do allow this, just make sure to contact the shipping forwarder if they would ship the items you ordered (in my case they allowed the 4 items above).

There's a relatively new brand that caters to the freshwater market (but based on the labels, it can be used in saltwater applications), the brand's name is EIHO, if someone can chime in and prove its effectiveness, they have the ff. medications available:

1. Prazi Gold - Praziquantel-based liquid medication
2. Metro Cure - probably Metronidazole (in tablet form)
3. Kana Plus - Kanamycin sulfate
4. Furan Plus - probably Nitrofuracin powder
5. Aqua Copper - chelated copper; claim that the effective concentration of copper is 0.15-0.20 mg/L
6. Anti-Fungus and Fin Rot - a combination of acriflavine, malachite green, and formaldehyde
 
Peltch92

Peltch92

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Hello everyone, I am doing the QT as Humble suggests in option A.
Following it to the letter and even went with Copper Power just because.
I cannot find metroplex or anything like that here in Canada.
Can someone please help me with what I can use during copper treatment for 30 days that can replace metroplex that is available in Canada?
I also can’t seem to locate API general cure. Does anyone know if they outlawed that too?
 
Humblefish

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Peltch92 said:
Hello everyone, I am doing the QT as Humble suggests in option A.
Following it to the letter and even went with Copper Power just because.
I cannot find metroplex or anything like that here in Canada.
Can someone please help me with what I can use during copper treatment for 30 days that can replace metroplex that is available in Canada?
I also can’t seem to locate API general cure. Does anyone know if they outlawed that too?
Click to expand...

I would just observe after 30 days in copper. Other medications will hopefully not be needed. The only other thing you could do is a 30 min H2O2 bath, followed by transfer into a different observation tank. This will most likely at least clear Brooklynella, if present.

Hydrogen Peroxide bath

Hydrogen Peroxide bath (updated 1-31-23) What It Treats: Provides temporary relief for Marine Velvet Disease and Brooklynella. After a 30 minute H2O2 bath, the fish should be transferred into a Quarantine Tank (QT) for followup treatment. How To Treat: (The following is needed) 3% Hydrogen...
humble.fish humble.fish
 
Peltch92

Peltch92

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Thank you Humble. I tried, I tried my absolutely best to follow your option A. Only thing I could source was copper power... sad world we live in when a guy can’t get fish meds due to whatever reason in Canada. I actually bought the last bottle of Paragard in my area as we can’t get that anymore either.
What are your thoughts on paragard? Useful or useless? I’ve lost so many fish due to velvet as I HD no idea what it was so I started a QT and my DT is now fallow and my coppersafe arrives tomorrow to treat my remaining three clowns. They show no signs of anything but I’m sure they have it.
 
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