[John Hamilton]

Does anyone use garlic as a preventive? If so, how do you administer it?

[jenstaley]

I use garlic to help boost immune systems. I try to buy garlic extract, or garlic juice. Sometimes that is impossible to find, so I buy garlic in a jar and smoosh it up...... I usually soak my fish food in this garlic mixture with a little bit of water for about a half hour before feeding. My fish eat it just fine, and have been very healthy.
good luck!
jen

[dave00gt]

I use kent marine garlic extreme , pretty much garlic extrace, it comes with a dropper and use it on the frozen food

ever since then i havent had any parasite outbreak... good stuff

[tray262]

Where are you getting this Garlic Extreme from ?

Thanks in advanced.

[John Hamilton]

Kent Marine Garlic Xtreme.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by John Hamilton

Does anyone use garlic as a preventive? If so, how do you administer it?

I used it successfully to fend off a problem with ich that came into my tank via a new Centropyge bispinosa about 18 months ago and I still feed it at least once a week.

I add about 1/4 tsp of finely minced FRESH garlic to about 1/2 cup of tankwater and let it soak in there with the regular food for about 10-15 minutes before feeding the whole mess to the fish. They eat the tiny pieces of garlic. When I had the ich problem, I fed it twice a day like that for six weeks.

The efficacy of the primary ingredient* in garlic is highest when fresh garlic cloves are first minced or crushed. For that reason, I prefer freshly minced fresh garlic rather than any of the preparations or even store-bought chopped garlic. I'm not saying garlic extract, such as Kyolic, has no benefit. I'm just saying I think freshly chopped fresh garlic is better.


*Garlic cloves are odor-free until crushed or processed when garlic supplements are manufactured and cross-section studies have indicated that the substrate alliin and the enzyme allinase are located in different compartments. This unique organization suggests that it is designed as a potential defense mechanism against microbial pathogens in the soil. Invasion of the cloves by fungi and other soil pathogens causes the interaction between alliin and allinase that rapidly produces allicin and which in turn inactivates the invader. The reactive allicin molecules produced have a very short half-life, as they react with many of the surrounding proteins, including the allinase enzyme, making it into a quasi-suicidal enzyme.

This very efficient organization ensures that the clove defense mechanism is only activated in a very small location and for a short period of time, whereas the rest of the alliin and allinase remain preserved in their respective compartments and are available for interaction in case of subsequent microbial attacks.

[John Hamilton]

Of course I would have to agree with you Ninong. I just fed some minced garlic to my fish just to see, and my Bar Banded Goby was eating it like a madman.

[Ninong]

I posted about this in more detail in this thread in February.

[John Hamilton]

Man, screw the fish, I'm gonna take it for MY health.

[smidoid]

I read an article by Steven Pro and he didn't seem to think it was worth a bent dime!

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/sp/index.php

[John Hamilton]

In one of the tests the fish were injected with garlic extract, started to make me hungry. Hmm, I do have some garlic and butter......

[8inthechase]

I use Kents Garlic Extreme. I add it directly to my water acouple of times a week. 1 drop per 10 gallons of water. I first started to use it when I had a minor ich problem starting, within 2 days my fish looked 100% better and have not had a problem since. Highly recommended!!!!!!!

[smidoid]

Originally Posted by John Hamilton

In one of the tests the fish were injected with garlic extract, started to make me hungry. Hmm, I do have some garlic and butter......

Can't remember off the top of my head, but didn't they also give fish enemas in that experiement too... How the hell do you give a fish an enema? No - don't answer that. Eeewww!

[John Hamilton]

Originally Posted by smidoid

Can't remember off the top of my head, but didn't they also give fish enemas in that experiement too... How the hell do you give a fish an enema? No - don't answer that. Eeewww!

Hold fish very tightly, pucker lips, squeeze fish..........

[smidoid]

ROFLOL!!! Bugger - that's going to keep me up half the night chuckling.

And if my wife wakes up and kills me stone dead - I'm coming back to haunt you.

[Steven Pro]

Originally Posted by smidoid

I read an article by Steven Pro and he didn't seem to think it was worth a bent dime!

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/sp/index.php

I think garlic has the most potential as a dewormer.

[smidoid]

Thanks for the clarification, Steven, I was alluding your conclusions as to marine Ich. I must admit, deworming a fish seems an odd thing to do - but that's only because I didn't realised fish could get worms! Those pesky parasites get everywhere...

[The R/C Man]

I am also a skeptic when it comes to the benefits of garlic. Many people have jumped on the bandwagon so to speak but I have not seen any validated research done to substantiate anything. Ninong does provide some good food for thought however. Maybe some good controlled tests are in order with documented results.

[dave00gt]

Originally Posted by The R/C Man

I am also a skeptic when it comes to the benefits of garlic. Many people have jumped on the bandwagon so to speak but I have not seen any validated research done to substantiate anything. Ninong does provide some good food for thought however. Maybe some good controlled tests are in order with documented results.

Maybe KentMarine has made its test, and thats why , they have made this product

But, on the side note, i am not jumping on a bandwagon, because my fish used to get ich, especially my clowns for some reason and my blenny and foxface, ever since i started using the garlic extract, i havent noticed one speck of ick or parasite and my blenny has stopped smashing himseld against the arogonite to attempt to remove some parasites, every feeding i give them has a strong odor of garlic, i will always use it.. that is my obsevation, my own observation, and lots of people who use garlic must have noticed this , and even more people who used this garlic and constantly use garlic for feeding or just dosing, then they have made their own conclusions and mind documentations to keep on using garlic.

People will start reccomending garlic, to even more people and soon garlic will be in every tank...and eventually it will be known world wide.....ha ha ha ha!!

[smidoid]

Originally Posted by dave00gt

Maybe KentMarine has made its test, and thats why , they have made this product

Doubtful. It's case of if it sells, sell it - who cares if it works! Kent Marine exists to make money and while there are people out there who say garlic is a universal panacea, then people will keep buying it. People see pictures of the Virgin Mary and Elvis in pastries (and sell them on eBay for thousands) for heaven's sake!

I suspect it may have a use as a deworming agent, but as regards Ich I have my doubts without seeing a peer reviewed paper or two.

The British government are doing this with their new super schools. They throw loads of money at a problem and say, "look, it's gone away - that must have been the answer."

If scientists did this - we'd never make any progress. You have to have a control group; preferably a large one. One tank gets the treatment and other doesn't. Each have to run EXACTLY THE SAME other than the treatment which is the variable you're testing for. If you alter many variables, you don't know which one made the difference and anecdotal evidence, as I think Ninong pointed out elsewhere, is an oxymoron.