color enhancement and garlic?

[michika]

I started regularly feeding my tanks garlic soaked food in November to treat a sick clown. After it had regained it health I stopped feeding the garlic enhanced food.

I started feeding again in mid December because there was alot of activity going on in the tank; reaquascaping, a couple new fish etc. I've been feeding ever since then and when I compare digital pictures between then and last week I realize there is a startling change.

My two tomato clowns have changed for a tomato orange to what is almost a blood red if not burgendy-red. My lemonpeel angel's blue and yellow coloring is is twice as bright as when I purchased her, my cleaners have grown tremendously (they shed probably once a week if not every other week), and my sandsifter star has started to regro a limb that I was positive would never regrow.

Anyone else had any "amazing" results with garlic? Any particular brand? I have alot of people asking me how my cleaners grew so large in such short period of time (from 1/4 inch to almost 1 1/2 in not even 4 months). Anyone think of anything else that I could be doing that is causing these changes in my tank?

[monza]

I'd say it is due to a healthy tank not the garlic. You would and should expect any animal taken from a LFS to do better once it settles down in its home. So give yourself a pat on the back not the miracles of garlic.

Dave

[michika]

Well thank you.

I guess I just happened to notice a correlation which to me implied causation and shouldn't have(I know better, I really do!).

Thank you!

[Rikko]

The effects of garlic on marine tanks is essentially unknown. There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence out there and no scientific data (thus far, anyways). Garlic is often touted as a great immune system booster... For us. Does it have the same effects on other primates? Mammals? How about fish? Why not termites and copepods then? I've yet to see a scientific paper that really examined what garlic is really doing to a fish.

But, it has garnered enough glowing testimonials to leave us with garlic supplements in mainstream aquarium "product" so perhaps there is something there.

(Preamble really only there to underscore my hopefulness but lack of confidence in garlic at this time)

A stronger immune system will make any animal appear more vibrant (duh). If your clown, when in absolutely peak health on the reef, appears garnet, then we should assume that that is the "optimal" colour for the clown. If you now have an extremely healthy fish at home, he'll take on those colours (or else you're feeding some ungodly hormone food). Immune strength certainly plays in there, so I'd say IF garlic really helps immune functioning, then sure, it helped out your clown.
But do look at what monza said: if you're not doing a flawless job to begin with, all the immune bolstering miracles in the world aren't going to bring your fish around. You're due the lion's share of the credit here.
Well, look at it this way.. You can crunch down all the multivitamins you want, but if you drink the water in Mexico you're still going to get a vacation you'll never forget.

[michika]

Point and case!

mmm who wants Montezuma's (sp?) Revenge!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

No thanks