Garlic :)

surgeonfish · #1 11-18-2007, 04:48 PM

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

Aquattro · #2 11-18-2007, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surgeonfish

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.

Shane, are those in the produce section?

I actually did a study in biology re: the effects of garlic on bacterial cultures. I proved it didn't do a darn thing in any of my dishes. Certainly not along th elines of what you suggest needs to be done, but in a simple test it did nothing.

However, when I fed it to my fish during an ich outbreak, the ich went away. Maybe by chance. The next time it did the same thing, "chance" is starting to get discounted as a variable.
It's my treatment of choice now, despite what my own experiments showed.

michika · #3 11-18-2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surgeonfish

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

There was some research done on Allicine's effectiveness. I'll see if I can't find it again. I can't remember though if it was in relation to ich specifically though.

On another note what does FRCSC, and FACS stand for?