Garlic for marine Ich - how do you feed it?

[BigShot]

First of all who has used garlic for marine Ich with success?
And how do you prep it? I've tried mincing garlic and feeding it to fish, but they will not each it. When I crash a few cloves, there's very little juice coming out... not sure how to prep it...

 

[snapcrackler]

Garlic was used in wartime to prevent infection before antibiotic use became more widespread. I can see why, it's pretty potent and anyone who loves to chow on onions and garlic, you rarely see them get colds (or parasites but who can see those too easily) .

But, since biology is so dang complicated - things might be different with fish

Here's an article on garlic vs ick I found because your quesion was very cool and I like natural solutions to problems. Keeping in mind of course that it's difficult to say what independent researchers have on their agenda when they're posting results.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/h_cortes-jorge.html

IMHO I think a little garlic would be good for fish anyway, many folks use it in their blender fish food recipes.

 

[jamal-188]

Garlic itself will not rid the fish of ICK and kill it in your tank. I use a product called Garlic Extract from Seachem and soak food in it before feeding to them. I also added some to my batch of blender mush. it's "supposed" to be a appetite enhancer as well as boost the immune system of the fish but I don't think it's 100% proven.

 

[astride13]

I bought some fresh garlic a crushed it in a small cup with some saltwater. I left some food to soak in it. I tried this when I had a sick hippo tang. He died, but none of the other fish got sick, so I assume it works well for prevention. I now mix fresh garlic in my blender mush.

 

[fishfreek]

Its the garlic juice or oil that is what we are looking for. If you have a garlic press the key is not crush the garlic with any speed but to slowly squeze the garlic cloves in th epress to extract the oil from teh clove. This oil is very pungent and will leave the room with a great garlic smell

I used 2or3 cloves so as the press was full and then slowly squezed catching the oil in a small saucer. I found that I could press the garlic twice before the fibers where to fine to squese anymore.

Soak your food in this pure galic oil and then feed the food to the fish. The comercial garlic additives like was mentioned above are basicly the same juice for the most part but they might have added other things aswell.

The use of garlic in aquairums is not scientific by any means. As was mentioned it wont remove the ich from the tank but more or lesss remove it from the fish. Since the parasite is a hosting parasite it needs the fish as a host to complete its life cycle.