Sorry, that's simply not true. There is absolutely no scientific evidence of garlic's effectiveness against any disease vector.
Ich help please
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Sorry, that's simply not true. There is absolutely no scientific evidence of garlic's effectiveness against any disease vector.
Mastertechrepair
New Member
Treatment Option 13: Garlic
Garlic is another of the alternative treatments for Cryptocaryon to be touted lately. I have read of many people reporting using it "successfully" as a preventative. The difficult part in assessing these reports is whether the fish would have developed Cryptocaryon in the first place. And, when someone claims it to be a "cure," how can they definitively rule out natural, acquired immunity or even confusion over Cryptocaryon's life cycle.
At the very least, garlic does have some proven anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, and antiviral properties (Bartelme, 2003 and and Cortes-Jorge, 2001). I included it here because this treatment has shown enough promise to warrant further scientific evaluation. Unfortunately for us, all the real money in this industry is directed to commercial food fish, not our ornamentals. With other effective and inexpensive treatments available, I don't know if grant money will ever be directed into finding out if this alternative treatment conclusively works. Perhaps we could convince the fine marketing people at Mrs. Gordon's that they should try a pre-flavored version of their famous fish sticks by feeding the fish garlic. I can just hear the ad now, "A hint of garlic in every bite."
My biggest problem with the use of garlic is the mythology that has developed regarding it. This all began quite simply and innocently. Kelly Jedlicki was studying the use of garlic as an intestinal dewormer. For those who don't know who Kelly is, she is affectionately referred to as the "Puffer Queen" as they are her favorite fishes and oftentimes are brought into the trade polluted with various worms. As I said, she was examining the effectiveness of garlic against nematodes and cestodes on impacted puffers when she noticed a general decrease in Cryptocaryon irritans incidence. Later on, she proposed feeding garlic to fish as a preventative for Cryptocaryon irritans. From there the legend of garlic has spread. Feeding garlic to fish is now an accepted cure for Marine Ich by some individuals. Furthermore, I have read of people merely hanging cloves of garlic in their tank in an effort to ward off the parasites, like some sort of bad vampire movie. And lastly, I have recently heard of a surprising number of hobbyists who soak their corals' food in garlic in an effort to combat possible pathogens when target feeding them. It goes to show that garlic has become an all-purpose wonder drug in some peoples' eyes based on little more than anecdotal observations.
If you need the link please let me know
Garlic is another of the alternative treatments for Cryptocaryon to be touted lately. I have read of many people reporting using it "successfully" as a preventative. The difficult part in assessing these reports is whether the fish would have developed Cryptocaryon in the first place. And, when someone claims it to be a "cure," how can they definitively rule out natural, acquired immunity or even confusion over Cryptocaryon's life cycle.
At the very least, garlic does have some proven anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, and antiviral properties (Bartelme, 2003 and and Cortes-Jorge, 2001). I included it here because this treatment has shown enough promise to warrant further scientific evaluation. Unfortunately for us, all the real money in this industry is directed to commercial food fish, not our ornamentals. With other effective and inexpensive treatments available, I don't know if grant money will ever be directed into finding out if this alternative treatment conclusively works. Perhaps we could convince the fine marketing people at Mrs. Gordon's that they should try a pre-flavored version of their famous fish sticks by feeding the fish garlic. I can just hear the ad now, "A hint of garlic in every bite."
My biggest problem with the use of garlic is the mythology that has developed regarding it. This all began quite simply and innocently. Kelly Jedlicki was studying the use of garlic as an intestinal dewormer. For those who don't know who Kelly is, she is affectionately referred to as the "Puffer Queen" as they are her favorite fishes and oftentimes are brought into the trade polluted with various worms. As I said, she was examining the effectiveness of garlic against nematodes and cestodes on impacted puffers when she noticed a general decrease in Cryptocaryon irritans incidence. Later on, she proposed feeding garlic to fish as a preventative for Cryptocaryon irritans. From there the legend of garlic has spread. Feeding garlic to fish is now an accepted cure for Marine Ich by some individuals. Furthermore, I have read of people merely hanging cloves of garlic in their tank in an effort to ward off the parasites, like some sort of bad vampire movie. And lastly, I have recently heard of a surprising number of hobbyists who soak their corals' food in garlic in an effort to combat possible pathogens when target feeding them. It goes to show that garlic has become an all-purpose wonder drug in some peoples' eyes based on little more than anecdotal observations.
If you need the link please let me know
monkiboy
Valuable Member
you have just further proven what deinonych and i have been saying. yes, i'm familiar with steve's work. anecdotal information does not equal scientific fact. and it is certainly not a viable option when you have 12 other treatment options, the first of which is listed as copper.
Last time I checked, garlic was just to entice the fish, to keep them eating.
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