Garlic kills invertebrates?

[mitchelljared]

So I've been soaking my fish's food in garlic and other additives for a while now, but have started noticing other "coincidences" that maybe someone can shed light on. So I use about a mL or two or garlic in with the food, let it soak for an hour or so, then wash it all out with freshwater, over and over till it barely smells of garlic. Then I use that food. We have had a peppermint shrimp and a cleaner shrimp both appear fine one minute, then about 10 mins after the feeding...they ended up dead. Maybe it's coincidence, and maybe they get a good whiff of the garlic and croak. Also some of the corals (bubble, xenia, etc) retract after the feeding, but always recover. Normal?
Thanks in advance.

[banditpowdercoat]

I feed garlic directly to my tanks. No ill effects. I don't rinse it after soaking either. Defronst food, soak Selcon and Garlic, then fed the works.

[Coleus]

i also don't have any problem with my invertables that taking food soak in garlic
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[bvlester]

I have an angel that will not eat anything with garlic well I read the instructions on the extreem garlic. You can add it right to your water 1 drop per 10 gallons they all get garlic now, It's in the water. I have not lost anything from it yet but the sea hair dose not like it.

Bill

[fishytime]

Ok ....this is probably gonna cause a stir but....I cant remember where I heard or read it, but they think that prolonged feeding of garlic soaked foods may cause liver damage in fish....I only feed with garlic soaked foods a couple time a week...more when I introduce a fish or if there is something wrong with one of my fishies.....as for it harming inverts...Ive never seen a connection between feeding garlic and invert problems

[chris121277]

I have been feeding garlic soaked food every other day for a year now with no ill effects.......in fact that's the only way I can get my CCB and Mandarin to eat frozen food.

[fishytime]

I have been feeding garlic soaked food every other day for a year now with no ill effects.......in fact that's the only way I can get my CCB and Mandarin to eat frozen food.

Not to be a jerk but, you can see if your fish have liver damage?:wink::p

[chris121277]

Well no.....but if you are feeding garlic a couple times a week then thats about the same as me...lol (I was just implying "so far so good")

Not to be a jerk but, you can see if your fish have liver damage?:wink::p

[naesco]

So I've been soaking my fish's food in garlic and other additives for a while now, but have started noticing other "coincidences" that maybe someone can shed light on. So I use about a mL or two or garlic in with the food, let it soak for an hour or so, then wash it all out with freshwater, over and over till it barely smells of garlic. Then I use that food. We have had a peppermint shrimp and a cleaner shrimp both appear fine one minute, then about 10 mins after the feeding...they ended up dead. Maybe it's coincidence, and maybe they get a good whiff of the garlic and croak. Also some of the corals (bubble, xenia, etc) retract after the feeding, but always recover. Normal?
Thanks in advance.

What is the brand or type or garlic you are using?

[Marlin65]

Thats interesting.
Maybe I better cut back a bit then I add probably more than I should.
I never had a problem with any of my inverts or corals.
Rinsing under tap water might be a problem. Or maybe you have a bad batch?


Ok ....this is probably gonna cause a stir but....I cant remember where I heard or read it, but they think that prolonged feeding of garlic soaked foods may cause liver damage in fish....I only feed with garlic soaked foods a couple time a week...more when I introduce a fish or if there is something wrong with one of my fishies.....as for it harming inverts...Ive never seen a connection between feeding garlic and invert problems

[Leah]

Interesting I use garlic extreme often as well and as a result I don't have a problem with ich or losing any inverts. I must say garlic isn't exactly natural to or for fish. I guess there is always a down side to things! I have also wondered how good it was for my fish.
Think I may use a little less often.

[mitchelljared]

Well maybe a little unorthodox, but I just used my juicer and put in a whole bulb, juiced it, and then put it in a little container. I add about 1 mL to a decent sized food batch. So the garlic is in its most raw form. We started the whole garlic adding routine when we noticed ich in the tank. Since then, about 3-4 weeks ago, we haven't seen it since. The fish seem much healthier too. The peppermint shrimp death could have been anything really. But the cleaner shrimp's death was very odd. He had shed his shell about 5 days prior, and was hiding behind the rocks till his new shell grew back. Then after that he started coming more out in the open, and we thought "oh good, now he's going to start doing his job and cleaning things." But I then fed the tank, using the same routine I always do...and then we looked in the tank about 10 mins later and cleaner shrimp was laying dead on the sand. So strange. The bubble coral also shrinks a bit...and now he's showing some of his septa (think that's the right word)...there's a daughter colony, budding at the base and that one is okay, inflated. But it's main base doesn't seen to react well to the garlic.
Sorry to go all into it...I don't think pics would help much either. Maybe a teeny teeny bit of garlic is okay...I just don't think I'll be using so much as a mL for a bit. This is a good discussion. I can definitely attest to garlic being good for ich problems, but just watch your inverts.

[banditpowdercoat]

I use 2 drops per food cube. A ml light be a little bit to much???

[edikpok]

From my readings about garlic - one should not feed garlic soaked food to inverts and corals - only feed it to fish. I usually put 2-3 drops of garlic + 3-4 drops of Selcon per cube to strengthen the fish. Corals - I feed with non soaked mysis.

Cheers!

[naesco]

Well maybe a little unorthodox, but I just used my juicer and put in a whole bulb, juiced it, and then put it in a little container. I add about 1 mL to a decent sized food batch. So the garlic is in its most raw form. We started the whole garlic adding routine when we noticed ich in the tank. Since then, about 3-4 weeks ago, we haven't seen it since. The fish seem much healthier too. The peppermint shrimp death could have been anything really. But the cleaner shrimp's death was very odd. He had shed his shell about 5 days prior, and was hiding behind the rocks till his new shell grew back. Then after that he started coming more out in the open, and we thought "oh good, now he's going to start doing his job and cleaning things." But I then fed the tank, using the same routine I always do...and then we looked in the tank about 10 mins later and cleaner shrimp was laying dead on the sand. So strange. The bubble coral also shrinks a bit...and now he's showing some of his septa (think that's the right word)...there's a daughter colony, budding at the base and that one is okay, inflated. But it's main base doesn't seen to react well to the garlic.
Sorry to go all into it...I don't think pics would help much either. Maybe a teeny teeny bit of garlic is okay...I just don't think I'll be using so much as a mL for a bit. This is a good discussion. I can definitely attest to garlic being good for ich problems, but just watch your inverts.

If you are making your own garlic extract out of a fresh garlic bulb, take care that none of the bulb bits get into the reefs tank.
If a bulb bit falls on a coral it will irritate but not kill the coral.

[fishytime]

Ok lets clarify something here....garlic itself doesnt really do anything for your fish medicinally....it is used as an appetite stimulant....fish like the smell of it....Im currently adding it to my food because I have a lawnmower blenny that show no signs of being interested in eating with the rest of the crew....if and when he decides that salad isnt the only thing on the menu, I will likely stop soaking with garlic(but continue soaking with selcon... because we all need our vitamins:mrgreen:)

Upon digging a little farther, some people have reported that their inverts seem to react poorly to garlic, so I suppose it is entirely within the rehlm of possibility that garlic could be to blame for the shrimps demise....its also a possibility that your bottle has gone "bad" as suggested earlier.