[surgeonfish]

I think a lot of what we do in our everyday lives is based on habit or hearsay. Even in medicine a lot of what we do is still not based on hard science. Sure we know the chemical composition and anatomical structure of the compounds making up garlic, but do we have any "evidence based research" that garlic has a true benefit in preventing or treating disease in fish (or humans)? I think we should be asking for that evidence. Where is the randomized controlled blinded studies? Here is a good project for a zoology summer student or a thesis for a graduate degree. Unfortunately, until someone does these studies, we will never have the true answer and have to rely on rumors and our own biased experiences. However, even without this evidence I use garlic because it is inexpensive and I haven’t seen any obvious deleterious effects. I have had ich outbreaks in my tank during addition of new fish while using garlic, but not since I started to quarantine them for 4-8 weeks. Maybe we should trade in our garlic for quarantine tanks?

If anyone does find any scientific evidence of the benefits of garlic please share it with the rest of us.

Thanks,
Shane BSc, MSc, MD, FRCSC, FACS