Garlic for Ich?

[ReefNewbie]

Can someone explain this for me? I think my new yellow tang has ich. I got him from the LFS the other day and he was fine. Today I have noticed a couple white spots on him and also what would appear to be brown spots covering his main body. Could that be ich? If so, please explain how to treat him using garlic. Thanks
Dave

[squirt]

hi! I don't know that much about garlic treatment but f your fish does have parasites you would probably be better off using fresh water dips with a some meth blue. Do this every two days for about ten minutes always does it for me.

[Experimenter]

Dave,

You will get different advice on this. Some think garlic is helpful (me included) others are not so sure and advise against it (Dr. Ron). There was a thread recently on Dr. Ron's board about this. I suggest searching for it.

As for using the garlic, I bought some minced garlic to use. When feeding frozen brine I put a piece of brine in a cup and then added a couple of spoons of the oil that is on the top of the minced garlic. I did not add the garlic itself. I then let that sit for 35-45 minutes until the garic oil saturated the now unfrozen brine. Next, I used a squirter (small version of a turkey blaster) to such up the brine and squirt it in the tank. I repeated this procedure about every other day for a week or so (about 5-6 feedings total). I can't say with scientific certainty that the garlic worked, but I had a miraculous recovery of a few fish and none of my over 27 pieces of coral seemed to be damaged in the least. That was now several months ago and there was never a sign of damage.

In the past (I've had tanks on and mostly off for 27 years) I have lost many fish to ick. The royal gramma that was in the worst shape this time looked to me like it was a day or two away from dying. It is now one of the healthiest grammas I have ever seen.

My tank has tons of live rock and in general provides a great environment for fish. I was told to simply provide that environment and the ick would go away. I really do not believe that.

I do believe we need more scientific research on this issue. I am just one data point, but I think there are many others who have had great success with this technique as well.

Good luck with your fish. Also, I would purchase a cleaner goby for your tank and possibly cleaner shrimp (however, my shrimp now do little cleaning). This may help some, but my cleaner goby almost had more ick than the royal gramma at the time.

Take care,
John

[nuff2000]

Dave,

I use garlic at every feeding. I feed a mix of frozen mysis and silversides, place in a plastic bottle, crush one garlic tablet (I use nature's resources *I think*) and place a fourth of the tablet in the bottle, cap and float in the refugium until thawed and the garlic has had the chance to penetrate the meat, about 20 min usually. Feed half this twice daily, and flake in the am.....have not had a case of ich in over a year, including on the new sailfin tang.

Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

David

[ReefNewbie]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I don't know if it was the garlic yesterday and today but he is already looking better. I hear that the garlic won't cure it but will keep it away but it seems to of scared it. Hopefully he will keep getting better. Thanks again for all the help.

Dave

[buck]

ok.first go to your health store and ask for garlic oil in gel capsule form.
puncture the gel capsule and pour the oil over the food to soak for a while.then feed the food to the fish.
do this everyday for 3 weeks and then drop back to once a week.
remember this is not a cure....just prevention.the idea is to 'saturate' the fishes system with garlic and then keep topping it up....

[kermit8730]

I understand a glass of red wine a day will keep their arteries from cloging as well