My fish are Italian (Garlic worked for me to rid Ich)

[ChuckV]

Hello everyone,
I thought I would share my experience. Note...I am not a Vet, or a biologist...just an average reefkeeper. I have a 180 gallon setup. Well, anyway, my maroon clown caught a bad case of Ich. I know what caused him to stress (another story). Anyway, I started soaking his food in garlic oil. This was ten days ago. Within 24 hours most of the ich was gone. 48 hours later he was ich free, and has been since. I will continue to soak his food for another three weeks (per some articles I read). I am aware that ich can come back with a vengence...but so far eight days ich free.

 

[FOX]

Chuck,

Just wondering. What was the stressor, and did you remove it?

FOX

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[ChuckV]

The stressor was that my wife let her laundry tub overflow (directly upstairs). About 3 gallons of water seeped through the floor and into my tank. Animals were not happy. I performed a 10% water change and added poly filters to pull any garbage out. All animals survived.

 

[Joez]

Hi,

I'm surprised your animals survived Chuck; was there soap in the laundry water?

I don't want to be a nay-sayer, but let me get it over with: Nay.

Just kidding. I think if it helps and has little or no potential for harm, it's good. On the other hand, those results may have been achieved by not doing anything at all. For example:

I had a stress event some time ago (water pump to HO skimmer came loose and fountained water out the back of the tank). Finally the electricity went out, but only after about 20 gallons (out of 75) drained onto the floor. Lights and heater were out for a few hours, so the temperature went down a few degrees. Tomato Clown, Yellow Tang, and Royal Gramma came down with ich a few days later (Chromis and B. Cardinals were unaffected). They were pretty covered after a couple of days. I didn't treat (I'm not suggesting not treating, just passing on an anecdote). The Gramma was never seen again, but the Tang and the Clown shed the spots and are still fine after a few months.

The only sure-fired cure is through copper medication, though hyposalinity and maybe garlic and some other things may also help.

 

[FOX]

I was pretty much going to say what Joez said. Alot of time, if you take away the stressor, and all other conditions are good, the fish will recover anyway. It's hard to say wether or not the garlic, or any other product would have helped.

FOX

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[ChuckV]

I agree with you guys. Too many variables to determine if Garlic helped. But, from what I've been reading, there seems to be some studies indicating that Garlic does work (Was it Biogeek who performed the lab tests?).

 

[Canadian]

How long has it been since you treated with garlic? Is it possible that the ich is just in a dormant stage and reproducing?

Canadian.

 

[berniechip]

Just wondering if the garlic causes any problems???

 

[Larry M]

LOL I think Chuck is taking a lot of flack here for what may be a promising disease treatment option. Go to the disease archives (hit the nav-bar at the top of the page) and check out the threads, we went through this not too long ago. Biosystems had a lot of good things to say about garlic.


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Larry M

My Personal Site, Northern Reef

 

[ChuckV]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in getting back to you (too much work at work!). Hey, I don't mind the flack (what else would I expect with this posting...I suppose I could have called it new and improved SANO....naah). Well anyway, no there was no soap in the water...just straight water (boy did I luck out). I am still feeding Garlic soaked food (will do so for another two weeks). So far the spots have not returned. I don't know if it is the garlic, but I thought I would try it. No affects on the tank. My corals don't mind it.

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Regards,
Chuck