Garlic, serious discussion
 

Okay, so I was at work today and reading the bottle of Garlic Oil that we sell and it occured to me that I've never actually tried the product with any verifiable success -- that is, success that wouldn't have come anyway under good conditions.

That being said, does anyone have any "miracle product" stories about garlic? Or is it in the same vein as the echinacea health supplements for humans?

Some discussion of research, lack of:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2004/mini4.htm

I think there is a lack of conclusive evidence, but it's become a good luck charm of sorts. I used it on occasion if I noticed anything ich-like on my tang, and would find that the symptoms would disappear, but it's hard to say if it was ever ich, or if it was really the garlic that did it, etc.

What teevee said.
Dave

Ditto. Seemed to work, but never had a serious outbreak.

Re: Garlic, serious discussion
 

I had two fish with ich several months ago. They were the only fish in the tank. Fed them PE mysis soaked with loads of Garlic Xtreme and Kent Zoe. Once the ich cleared up, I removed them from that tank and left it fallow for six weeks. Continued feeding the same foods soaked in GE and Zoe in the quarantine tank.

No ich returned, but I strongly suspect it was because I removed the fish from the ich environment for 6 weeks. During the 6 weeks, the ich in the main tank went through their life cycle and when they had no fish to attach to, they died.

My thought about using garlic is that it can't hurt, but wouldn't use it as my cure for ich or any other parasite or disease.

From the first article:

Garlic is another of the alternative treatments for Cryptocaryon to be touted lately. I have read of many people reporting using it "successfully" as a preventative. The difficult part in assessing these reports is whether the fish would have developed Cryptocaryon in the first place. And, when someone claims it to be a "cure," how can they definitively rule out natural, acquired immunity or even confusion over Cryptocaryon's life cycle.


This is along the lines of what I was thinking. I'm wondering how one would ethically set up an experiment to prove the merits of garlic.

Ethically? Well you're not a research institution so at least you don't have to go through the ethics committee. :wink: I was also thinking about this and the main difficulty in my mind is ensuring both your control and test groups are infected with ich, and to the same severity. If you really want to discuss ethics I suppose one could take issue with your subjects - since it seems most often ich affects tangs, you'd want to include them in your study, along with other types of fish. The problem is, tangs and numerous other species don't breed in captivity. But I know if I were on the ethics committee and a qualified researcher wanted to do this research, I would approve.

Without a doubt, garlic is an appetite stimulant.

When your fish are well nourished and plump, ich isn't a problem any more.

IME.

What EmilyB said. :smile:

See, I've not noticed this when doing my trials with garlic. To me, it seemed that the fish were actually detered by the ordor of garlic. What are some examples proving garlic as an appetite stimulant? Does anyone want to share?