~ 317 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2021; SP-10(8): 317-324 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.23 TPI 2021; SP-10(8): 317-324 © 2021 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 26-06-2021 Accepted: 29-07-2021 Anwesha Roy Assistant Professor, School of fisheries, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India Subal Kumar Ghosh School of fisheries, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India Hauzoukim School of fisheries, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India Sagarika Swain School of fisheries, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India Koyel Bhattacharya West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Faculty of Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Debopriyo Mukherjii West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Faculty of Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Avisek Bardhan West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Faculty of Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Corresponding Author Anwesha Roy Assistant Professor, School of fisheries, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India Aqua drugs and chemicals used in freshwater aquaculture: A review Anwesha Roy, Subal Kumar Ghosh, Hauzoukim, Sagarika Swain, Koyel Bhattacharya, Debopriyo Mukherjii and Avisek Bardhan Abstract This study provides a quick overview of different drugs and chemicals commonly used in aquaculture sector for treatment and prevention of different diseases. Different types of water/soil treatment products, disinfectants, therapeutants, anaesthetics, feed additives, growth stimulants, vaccines, probiotics and other products are highlighted, as well as their commercial availability and dose recommendations. The present review on the availability and route of administration of chemicals or medications used in fish and shellfish farming has summarised. The emphasis is on providing a clear image of all approved treatments, as well as their suggested dose and dosages, in order to prevent fish farms for facing loss due to disease outbreaks or poor water and soil quality management. Keywords: Aquaculture, India, antimicrobial agents, chemicals, aqua-medicines, drugs 1. Introduction Aquaculture is the fastest growing, vibrant food producing sector in the world which plays a major role in the market facility in term of food, nutrition, income, employment as well as in export earnings (Subasinghe et al., 2002). It is presented like to meet the growing demand for fresh water food or seafood and to meet current challenges relating to the ongoing globalization of trade, intensification and diversification of aquaculture, progress in technological innovations for food production, changes in ecological systems and human behaviour, including a greater awareness to protect biodiversity, public health, and the environment. These challenges will lead to increased attention for improving aquaculture practices, and will become an important alternative to overexploitation and modification of aquatic ecosystems caused by capture fisheries. This sector had distributed its origin in the eastern States of India, mainly the states like West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Odisha (Mishra et al., 2017) [5] . It has largely hinges upon the contribution of formulated feeds, chemicals, aqua-drugs, and antibiotics. Aquaculture drugs and chemicals plays a critical role not only in fish health management but also in important aspects for increasing fish production and its growth, fecundity and decreases the probability of disease occurrence, reduces the loss due to mortality by finally increasing the total production of fish and other commercial aquatic organisms, manipulation and enhancement of reproduction, growth promotion, processing and value addition of the final product (GESAMP, 1997; Subasinghe et al., 1996) [4] . The worldwide usage of aqua-drugs has increased noticeably during the past two decades, coinciding with changes in farming systems and in aspect of intensification of aquaculture practices. Environmental pollution caused by unregulated drug usage in aquatic ecosystems, has become a severe issue in aquaculture and in human health. There are different types of diseases, found in farmed aquatic animals (Karim et al., 1998; BFRI, 1999 and Faruk et al., 2004) [6] . Occurrence of different bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic diseases have been reported in aquaculture in India (Nayak et al., 2007, Sahoo et al., 2013) [7, 8] and other Asian countries (Bondad-Reantaso et al., 2005, Faruk et al., 2004, Walker and Winton, 2010) [9, 6, 10] . This has led to enhancement in application of a wide range of aqua–medicines, drugs and chemicals in aquaculture to control production loss (Ali et al., 2004, Burridge et al., 2010, Chowdhury et al., 2012, Costello et al., 2001, Jilani et al., 2012, Joshua et al., 2002, Pathak et al., 2000) [12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18] . Aquaculture has largely contributed upon the contribution of formulated feeds, chemicals, aqua-drugs, and antibiotics. A broad range of drugs and chemicals are used in aquaculture to manage fish health. Usually, the common chemical includes sodium chloride, formalin, malachite green, methylene blue, potassium, permanganate,