Will Ich Die Without a Host????

sjj80

Hater of Hair Algae
I've always understood that a parasite needs a host to survive and I know that feeding garlic doesn't directly kill ich, but if the ich won't attach to fish cause of the garlic, would the ich eventually die from not having a host???
 
In my understanding your tank must have no fish for ich to permently be gone. I believe the garlic just helps the fish with their immune systems.... we'll see if this is correct :)
 
i second snowboarda42's comment. the garlic just boosts immune system, but the ich will still be present because at some point it has a host and the host fights it so it doesnt get worse, but the reproduction rate is insane on the parasite.

in order to completely kill ich the main tank needs to run fallow for 6 weeks and the fish need to be treated in qt with copper and hyposalinity.
 
Garlic does not get rid of ICK. The only way to get rid of ICK is to treat with a copper medication, or no fish in tank.

To treat a fish with ICK you will need to treat with copper medication, or hypo.

Now that I said that. I have ICK in my tank. My Hippo tang was almost all white dew to ICK, and my Japanese tang had it bad as well. Not wanting to set-up a QT tank I tried some reef safe medication. (don't wast your money on that junk). It did nothing, I tried 2 different brands.

I then read about garlic here on RC, so I gave it a try. With-in one week 98% of the ICK was gone. At first I just thought it was just in the reproduction stage, but here I am 3 months later and still just a small trace of ICK.

So no, it will not kill or get rid of it, but it will keep it under control. Some say it dew to it makes fish eat more, but my fish never lost there appetite. My fish would always go nuts over the food before & after.

I personally think it helps there immune systems but there are no studies to prove it.
 
From what I understand the garlic makes the fish "taste" bad, the same way garlic wards off mosquitos from humans. I was just curious if the ich parasites would eventually die from lack of hosting on a fish.

just so you know I don't currently have ich, I'm just curious about this topic. If I ever were to have ich in my tank I have 2 QTs set up and ready to go.

I'm mostly curious if in mild ich cases if the use of garlic would rid of the parasites since the parasites wouldn't have a suitable host to feed on.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12368242#post12368242 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sjj80
From what I understand the garlic makes the fish "taste" bad...
you eat your fish. that must get expensive. just kidding.
 

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