color enhancement and garlic?

[Rikko]

The effects of garlic on marine tanks is essentially unknown. There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence out there and no scientific data (thus far, anyways). Garlic is often touted as a great immune system booster... For us. Does it have the same effects on other primates? Mammals? How about fish? Why not termites and copepods then? I've yet to see a scientific paper that really examined what garlic is really doing to a fish.

But, it has garnered enough glowing testimonials to leave us with garlic supplements in mainstream aquarium "product" so perhaps there is something there.

(Preamble really only there to underscore my hopefulness but lack of confidence in garlic at this time)

A stronger immune system will make any animal appear more vibrant (duh). If your clown, when in absolutely peak health on the reef, appears garnet, then we should assume that that is the "optimal" colour for the clown. If you now have an extremely healthy fish at home, he'll take on those colours (or else you're feeding some ungodly hormone food). Immune strength certainly plays in there, so I'd say IF garlic really helps immune functioning, then sure, it helped out your clown.
But do look at what monza said: if you're not doing a flawless job to begin with, all the immune bolstering miracles in the world aren't going to bring your fish around. You're due the lion's share of the credit here.
Well, look at it this way.. You can crunch down all the multivitamins you want, but if you drink the water in Mexico you're still going to get a vacation you'll never forget.