Garlic and Ich.....any use???

[Curtswearing]

I have seen a lot of claims regarding Ich being cured by garlic, Ich being prevented by Garlic, etc. I have also seen some claims that garlic doesn't do anything....only the Allicin in the garlic does.

Well let's work through this. Let's not just vote, lets do some digging and see what info we can come up with.

[BoomerD]

I've had pretty good luck using Garlic Guard from SeaChem. This past January, my purple tang blew up in ich, and there was NO catching him out of my 90 gallon tank full of rock...I started feeding everything soaked in garlic, and in a couple of days, the ich went away, no other fish got the parasite, and I've had no problems with ich since. Just dumb luck? Maybe. But, I suspect that maybe the garlic helps boost the immune system of the fishes enough to fight off the parasite. Just my opinion...

[Woodstock]

I believe in garlic. I use the fresh-pressed type from my kitchen. I add it to their food occassionaly and once I'm certain it helped a new fish overcome ich.

[cheeks69]

IME it helped when I had a light infection but when a severe infection occured some time later it was completely inaffective. Here's some ood info I found:

"Using herbal remedies to combat Cryptocaryon irritans or ich has become more commonplace over the past few years with marine aquarists. Garlic, in particular, has become popular. The foods are soaked daily with garlic prior to feeding the fish for several weeks to combat ich. Unfortunately, evidence to support garlic's effectiveness or lack thereof, for the treatment of Cryptocaryon irritans is anecdotal (Bartelme, 2003a. Cortes-Jorge, 2000). It seems to work in some cases, especially with light infections, and not in others. However there is some evidence to support garlic as a treatment for some other types of parasites.

An extract of garlic, allium satiyum, has been reported to eradicate trichodinids (Madsen et al. 2000). It has also been demonstrated that garlic extract kills Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, at the theront stage within 15 hours. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis is the freshwater parasite that causes an infection that is often referred to as ick.

The extract was prepared by crushing fresh garlic cloves. The juice was then added to the aquarium at a dosage of 62.5 mg/L to kill theronts.If more than 50% of the theronts died the concentration was recorded as effective ((Buchmann, et al., 2002). A dosage of 570 mg/L was required to kill 100% of the tomocyst stage of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. Preliminary tests using allium satiyum indicated that it has no effect on trophonts in the skin of fish (Buchmann et al., 2002). The amount of active compounds varies widely among the different varieties of garlic and the use of garlic, by adding it to the water, may prove to be unrealistic ((Buchmann, et al., 2002).

The mechanism of host location for Cryptocaryon irritans is unknown (Colorni & Burgess, 1997). It has been suggested that garlic, when administered orally to fish, may interfere with the parasites ability to parasitize by camouflaging the chemical attraction of fish (Cortes-Jorge, 2000). Chemical attraction requires further investigation (Colorni & Burgess, 1997)."

http://advancedaquarist.com/index/

[sincityreefer]

i use garlic in my homemade food, no ich.. my blue tang got ich when he was first introduced, he ate my hommeade food and got better by him self. But i heard that is possible too with light cases, so the food might have not been the cure.?? SO basicall i dont know if it works or not, but i feel better having some garlic in my food. HTH

[fidojoe]

I am a firm beleiver in using garlic to cure ich, however the options above do not support my reasoning, which is this-
Ich causes stress, and can also be caused by stress right? And stress causes fish to not eat, sooo, if the fish eat, fish become less stressed, and their immune system can work better. My beleif is that garlic is just a flavor enhancement to make the fish want to eat. Ya never know tho, it could just be some chemical in it too...

[luistwentyone]

I currently have my Clown Trigger and Dog face Puffer suffering with Ick. I lowered the salt level down to 1.010, treated the tank with copper, with very little result. I have begun soaking their food in garlic and in the past few days, I have almost cleared out the issue with Ick, but for one or two spots of it left. I don't know if it was the garlick or the effect of the prior treatments.

But I will continue to use garlic.

[Curtswearing]

I thought the following might be useful as well.

News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans

News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans (part 2 of 5)

News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans (3 of 5)

News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans (4 of 5)

News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans (5 of 5)

[cheeks69]

.

I don't know if it was the garlick or the effect of the prior treatments.

IMO I would use one or the other I wouldn't use both methods at the same time copper or Hypo. Also your not going to see immediate results, it usually takes up to 3 weeks so it's possible that the garlic isn't what is helping the ick infection.

[mredman]

I cooked up some fresh red snapper last week and used lots of garlic. Since this event, none of the people who consumed this delicacy have contracted ich!

Mike

[Curtswearing]

Originally posted by mredman
I cooked up some fresh red snapper last week and used lots of garlic. Since this event, none of the people who consumed this delicacy have contracted ich!

Mike

LOL

Glad to have your funny one-liners again Mike. I hope you are finally back home.

[ScottT1980]

He's Baaack

[NaH2O]

Mike,

You must not have received my message that I contracted ich!

[mredman]

Did you know the study of fish is "ich"thyology???

Mike

[Playa]

MIke still waiting to hear from you:-)
How are those little devils?

Luis