GARLIC POLL: Your opinions needed!!

[ScarabRa]

Ok, have read SEVERAL posts, and have seen food even with GARLIC on the label. I have also read articles discounting Garlic as a real supplement.

Sometimes just because someone says something, even if it is un proven, or completely incorrect, it is taken as fact. Then it spreads like wildfire with todays communication (the internet).

My Poll is just to see what the general consensus is.
Please post your opinions also, in addition to voting.

Thanks

[justinl]

i doubt garlic does anything more than flavour the food to make it more appetizing... and better eating habits do help so i suppose garlic does help, but indirectly.

[Sk8r]

The problem is, ich comes and goes on its own. You feed garlic, the ich goes off the fish, the optimists think it works, the pessimists say ich just does that.
On the other hand, I use it; I had a rabbit get it IN my display [utter delight] and I immediately freaked, got a clove of garlic, smashed it up, fed it, and the fish even ate the garlic bits. The fish's eyes may have watered [who could tell] but the ich left, never returned, nobody else in the tank ever got it. At the end of the year I had a tang. It didn't get it. I've consistently fed a little Formula One pellet with garlic, and admittedly I have blennies and gobies and dragonets and dartfish, who usually DON"T get it, but I thought the tang was the acid test. My tank never lay fallow, nobody died, it was definitely ich [I've been at this too long to be fooled] and a year later a tang could be in there without catching it.
Does the garlic work?
Does it keep elephants away?
You don't see any elephants, do you?

[ScarabRa]

Originally posted by Sk8r
Does it keep elephants away?
You don't see any elephants, do you?

WAIT!!!
ELEPHANTS????....I thought it was Vampires???

Agree with your comments though.
I have not tried it YET, I have always lookd for the reason the fish is stressed when it gets Ich. Usually caused by stress, which lowers the ammue system.

[billsreef]

Originally posted by ScarabRa
WAIT!!!
ELEPHANTS????....I thought it was Vampires???

Haven't seen any of those either, have you?

IMO/IME it can sometimes be effective in very light cases of ick, but I've not found to have any effect in advanced cases of ick. The best preventive and cure is still a well set up quarantine tank.

[greenbean36191]

When I was new to the hobby I tried it over proven methods of treating ich a few times and it never did a thing for me. It may do something, but that's far from proven. Too many people treat it as if it were a sure-fire cure. IMO if you think it does something, great, but you should use it in conjunction with, not as a replacement for proven cures.

When a family member or a pet other than a fish gets a life-threatening disease, most people immediately turn to proven cures, not herbal remedies. Ich should be no different.

[Anthony Calfo]

FWIW... I was a skeptic before I was a believer. There is a HUGE caveat to garlic use though that renders most current preparations useless or nearly so: stability.

The garlic needs to be fresh... the principal irritants (to ectoparasites) from garlic degrade largely within hours.

I was scouring a collection of zoological journals on elasmobranchs searching for info on a species of shark I'm breeding (successfully ) when I came across some interesting papers on effective garlic use in sharks and rays. I followed the trail and references back as far as the 1950's(!) with papers describing the successful use of garlic in zoo/public aquarium fishes.

The really interesting thing, to me at least, is that back in the 1950's... 1960s... perhaps largely the 1970's - many folks cooked at home more often than not (read: used fresh ingredients). So when someone said "try garlic" back then... the aquarist would get cloves from the grocery store and press them without a second thought.

Nowadays... when someone says "try garlic"... we look for a pill or prepared bottle supplement (God knows how many weeks/months old). Hence (IMO) the reason for the now waning reputation of garlic use in aquarium fishes.

kindly, Anth-

[DoNtSpEaKlAtIn]

In my experience as a manger at a LFS with garlic is that it appears to be an appetite stimulant. One of the best ways that I have found to help a fish that has ICH in saltwater as well as freshwater is to fatten them up. I would not call this a cure however using food soaked in a commercial garlic supplement I was able to stop using copper and switched to malachite green with the same results.

[coralnut99]

Hmmmm. I haven't had a case of ich in about 3 years now, and even that case came from the stress of adding new fish, and it cleared bu titself in a few days. I did try garlic (fresh) one time whan an anthias developed what looked like a bacterial infection on a wound. Didn't help. I do grow my own garlic in my garden and always have plenty available, so if the situation comes up again I'll probably try it. But as ScarabRa mentioned, it's probably best to put some thought into what may be attacking the immune system. Healthy fish just don't get ich.

[ScarabRa]

LOL


poll is at

6
6
6

lol

Not many who trust/believe in Garlic post though, just non conformasts, and on the fencers like me.

[Pea-brain]

I belive it is a helpful additive. Will it cure ich? doubt it. Will it help? Maybe. Is it good for the fish? I believe so.

Dan

[acrylic_300]

I predict that the people that find it useful will greatly increase now that Anthony Calfo has spoken.

I was skeptical at first, but had no choice because I couldn't catch my fish. I think not only does it help cure it, but makes the fish immune to it. No proof, just something I have noticed.

[Freed]

With proper QT and hyposalinity I only use it on my garlic bread.

[ScarabRa]

Originally posted by Freed
With proper QT and hyposalinity I only use it on my garlic bread.

lol, I also think i need to make another poll about quarientine.
Its funny though, this was not specifically about ich, or QT, but more about the garlic beliefs/myths in general. But i see its difficult to talk about Garlic, without mentioning why, so to speak.

[Freed]

I think it's a big myth that cloves of garlic keep vampires away. Crushed garlic smeared all over the neck region on the other hand...

[kev apsley]

I'm gonna try a fresh crushed garlic dip with my monti that has Nudi's...see if it works to eradicate them

[unda_da_see]

yes, but only fresh pressed garlic occasionally. i love garlic.yummy.

[wooden_reefer]

I don't believe in the "boost immunity" claim, but there is certainly a chance that garlic helps.

Something in the garlic may indeed be toxic to the ich organism.

Garlic may mask the scent of the fish so that waterborne ich may be less able to find a host.

I will stick with my eradication strategy however, since it is certain and quite doable.

[wooden_reefer]

If I remember correctly, my mom told me that garlic kills leeches dead, quickly and surely.

[stdreb27]

I don't buy into the garlic extreem, but I do use it on my stink bait for cat fish, so at least it wasn't a total waste of money. I'd buy into the fresh garlic. More of a preventative measure than a cure to a current problem.
I'm definately not one to buy into this whole suppliment thing for people, but I did see my dad's blood pressure go down when the only thing he changed in his diet was drinking a swig of juiced garlic for a couple months.
And spreading garlic on your kneck will keep away alot more than vampires.

[JeffReef]

I've been feeding with Omega One with Garlic for over 4 years now and so far no Ich outbreak.

I don't know if this is because of the garlic in the ingredients but so far so good.

[musty baby]

It doesn't seem to hurt anything, and since I started soaking in pressed garlic (when I picked up a stressed achilles from a fellow reefer who was moving and had held it in a naked 20 gallon for a few days) I noticed that all of my fish ate every food I threw at them, including my clowns nipping at garlic-soaked nori. I don't care if it defends against ich or not, which the tang very quickly fended off with or without garlic's help. I'm going to keep feeding it regardless.

[Serioussnaps]

helpful in some ways.....fouls water

[KEstep]

I think it enhances their appetite and makes them want to eat, but I do not think it has a direct effect on ich. if the fish eats, it helps boost its immunity and that in turn helps ward off ich.

[wooden_reefer]

I believe that while poor nutrition may rob the fish of best defense against ich, the best nutrition and defense against ich is useless in an aquarium.

For the most part, ich is basically a disease of confinement, I mean the five planes of glass or acrylic. This confinement alters the natural dilution effect of the ocean that makes ich a mere brief hitchikers, making a killer out of it. It is unreasonable to expect that a particular fish or species of fish can develop any additional immunity against ich nutritionally or otherwise.