An article on "Garlic"

[TheOtherGuy]

An interesting read on Garlic.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/sp/index.php

[alton]

Mark you must of posted this after the Astro's Game! O.K. Mark I did not read anywhere in this article about feeding Garlic to fish to cure Marine Ich? They injected, they fed to freshwater fish, but I did not see where they fed to saltwater fish? So here is
Alton's Study: As a food stimulate, I have had fish not eat if there food was laced with Garlic.
As a cure I have had two fish that came down with Ich in what I maintain as aged perfect water tanks. In one case I added Garlic to the fish food and in the other I added it to the water after the fish would not eat food laced with Garlic. In both cases the Ich was gone in a mattter of days and never reappeared on either fish. The way I look at it if there own immune system was good enough with out Garlic then they would of never come down with Ich. In both cases both fish where the only fish in each of the two different tanks. And yes I believe that quarantine is the only way to go before adding fish to your main system. But sometimes you might need a little magic after that.

[C.Mydas]

LOL! I always thought using garlic was ingenious. I mean it doesn't hurt the fish and when you add it to their food it makes your fridge smell like garlic instead of that nasty fish smell, thats enough to make me keep using it..lol

Seriously though, I wasn't impressed with the article. The author immediately alienates any 'hard-core' garlic users right off the bat. I just didn't feel he proved his point. For every mistake he found in the 'experiments' I found mistakes in his logic. Ah well...it was interesting.

[Bill S]

Maybe folks are reading into this too much... By way of background, I'm a molecular biologist by education (dropped out from my PhD at Rice...).

What he is saying is that so far, there have been no quality studies done the subject of saltwater ick and garlic. Any and all evidence is strictly anecdotal. Of the very few studies done regarding garlic and fish, only 1 was a reasonably competent study, and that one found problems with the control group studied. If there is no control group, it's not a study. Period. If the research knows which group is in the control, it's also suspect. Remember, unless the outcome of a research paper is controversial, no one will read it, and it probably won't get published! Who's going to pay attention to the 500th study showing smoking is bad for you - we all want to see the one that shows it makes you live longer!

What he's proposing is that he do a good study on the subject - and I think that's great. It NEEDS to be done, and if he's willing to do it, more power to him.

Personally, the I found the only decent ick treatment was a cleaner shrimp. But, I kept using that garlic anyway!

[TheOtherGuy]

It would be nice to see a real scientific study done. It would be a tough thing to do in my opinion. But it would be interesting. I am sure though, even with a study (as we would need more studies to confirm the first studies and so on...). So the debate on garlic will rage on.

On the other hand I eat lots of garlic and I have never had crypto.

[pilot_bell777]

Well it's like everything else in this hobby.........everyone has a different belief and way of doing things and even worse everyone has an opinion! LOL

I personally like using garlic. If it is a benefit then great, but if not then its not hurting anything and the fish like it so why not?

As for ICH.....it didn't do much for my fish when I almost lost my whole tank, so I hospitaled the fish, let the tank sit dorm for 8 weeks, and treated the fish.......crap came back, bought a UV Ster. and haven't had a problem since!

To each their own.....Garlic helps your immune system so why wouldn't help a fish?

here is it.......MY OPINION! LOL

Fish Like it, doesn't hurt anything....................SO WHY NOT?

[Richard]

As for ICH.....it didn't do much for my fish when I almost lost my whole tank, so I hospitaled the fish, let the tank sit dorm for 8 weeks, and treated the fish.......c-word came back, bought a UV Ster. and haven't had a problem since!


Pilot - What treatment did you use and for how long? Just curious.

[pilot_bell777]

I feed all my fish garlic/vit soaked food every day, garlic/vit socked nori for the tanks, and three times a week I would put a dropper full in the water. did this ritually and then my PB got ich and even continueing the garlic nothing changed besides it getting worse and then I lost all but three fish.

Right before (still using the garlic/vit the same way as always) I added a bottle of something for ich that was suppose to be reef safe...I think it was called kick ich or something like that....biggest waist of money i ever spent! it did nothing.

So....then I removed all fish to a hospital tank and treated with copper.
Lowered the SG and raised the temp a little
Let the main tank sit dorm for 8 weeks

All looked good, put the fish back in and within a week it was back. that is when I started loosing fish and it got way out of control.
Bought a UV Ster, hooked it up and ran it. Saved three fish (one purple tang) and never saw an outbreak of ICH again.....

I believe religiously in UV Ster. Not just for water clarity. Whe I get my tank setup this time I have one and i'm planning on running it 1 to 2 hours a day.

an Ounce of prevention is worth an pound of cure! LOL