Ich??

[molybdenumman]

Is the garlic going to affect anything else in my tank (i.e. corals and inverts)?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by molybdenumman

Is the garlic going to affect anything else in my tank (i.e. corals and inverts)?

Nope. Nothing was affected at all. Many people feed garlic regularly as a preventative measure.

[bulletsworld]

You must of got the SUPER garlic then! Garlic I do agree helps & is definitely good to help boost the fish immunity.. I agree…try. I use myself. But it’s no secret that "Garlic" DOES NOT CURE ich. Tell that to all the people that lost fish to ich infestations & tried garlic ONLY. I think in this case since molybdenumman has no QT this is the ONLY option to try…the garlic. Also Selcon is good (vitamins).

There is only two methods to CURE ich completely. Copper or Hyposalinity. Neither method can be used in the presence of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) or invertebrates and so treatment must be performed in a quarantine or hospital tank. So again in this case it’s not an option with no QT for molybdenumman.

Garlic is good to help boost immunity to the fish, try garlic for yourself when you have a cold, works awesome to help you fight it. But again it doesn’t cure you or your fish. Fish can claim partial or full immunity. Which has already happened in molybdenumman tank since only skunk clown, tomato clown, flame angel and bicolour basslet shows signs of ich but the yellow tang, false perc and banggai show no signs.

Just to keep in mind, the ich grows bigger & the cysts will fall off the fish between 3-7 days regardless if you soak food in garlic. Which to some will appear that the ich as completely gone. In long term sensitive or ich prone fish like coral beautys, powder blue tangs, porcupine puffers, boxfish, cowfish & filefish or any new fish added to an already infected tank under heavy infestations, I'm afraid the wonder garlic will not save the day and will result in the demise of the fish.

But since that’s your only option then go with garlic and don’t add any new additions like sensitive fish as listed above.

Best of luck molybdenumman.

[EmilyB]

Garlic isn't going to be much help if the tank conditions are crappy, no. So some people simply won't be helped by it at their stage of the game.

I certainly have found it useful when adding a new fish to the reef however. Personally, whether ick is present or not is of no concern to me if it is not on my fish.

I keep big fish and lost that morbid fear of ick many years ago by learning to keep tanks in the best condition possible.

JMHO.

[BMW Rider]

Having had to deal with an ich outbreak myself recently, I will agree that garlic will not cure ich. I tried the easy "safe" methods for a couple of weeks with no success. I lost one fish and nearly another before I went the hyposalinity route. Fortunately for me the infection was in my FO tank, so I was able to do the treatment in it rather than having to move all the fish out. The only invertabrate that I had in there was a large common hermit crab which is currently living in the sump of my reef tank. The hyposalinity appears to be working, there have been no ich for the last five weeks. Friday will be the six week mark for the treatment, after which I will be raising the salinity back to normal. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that it has been erradicated.

The thing that I found hard to understand was the fact that the last fish I had added to the tank was over nine months prior to the first signs of the outbreak. I now have a quarantine tank and will be using it for EVERY fish that goes into any of my tanks, and hyposalinity will be the order of the day in it. I plan to continue using garlic as well as an ongoing preventitive measure.

Lesson learned the hard way.

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by Scavenger

Apparently, after ingesting the garlic, the fish excretes it from it's skin , this is unappealing to the ich and it falls off. Also new ich will not attach to the unappealing skin. If the ich doesn't find a suitable host it dies. After time if all goes well all the ich in the tank dies.

I have used garlic to keep the ich from reattaching to the fish, but I used MEGA doses of it soaked overnight on their favourite food to do so.

Garlic will not make the ich spots go drop off the fish though. Not even copper will do that. The ich drops off the fish naturally at a certain stage in its life cycle. Then there will be a period of a week or two or three where there are not ich spots on the fish. That does NOT mean the ich is gone. It only means that the ich is in a different stage of its life and is getting ready to reinfect the fish.

During the time there are no ich spots on the fish, continue to feed food soaked in MEGA doses of garlic so the fish are good and stinky and not at all palatable for the soon to attach ich. I used Garlic Xtreme and lots of it, baby

Use garlic for 6 weeks to be sure the ich has all died and not there to reinfect the fish.

[Bob I]

[quote="Beverly"]

Originally Posted by Scavenger

Garlic Xtreme and lots of it, baby

Use garlic for 6 weeks to be sure the ich has all died and not there to reinfect the fish.

Is Garlic Xtreme something one gets at a LFS The reason I ask is because I have two True Percs I purchased last month, which are in quarantine. They of course have ich, and are currently under treatment with KickIch, as I want to see if it will work when used correctly for the right amount of time. They are not terribly bothered, and continue to eat well. I would like to try garlic in conjunction with the medicine.
I really need to speed treatment as the tank is upstairs in my townhouse where we have heat problems in the Summer. If it does not work, I will have to move the tank downstairs soon to get away from that problem.

[bulletsworld]

Yup, Garlic Xtreme is sold at your LFS. When I was in Calgary there I know Big Al's sells it but not sure if Wai's or the others LFS did or not. Its about $10 a bottle.

[bulletsworld]

Keep us posted with the treatment with KickIch. I know me and Beverly tried KickIch & both had no success. In the end we both ended up using Hyposalinity. For myself after I was finished treatment with KickIch, my ich came back even stronger a month later.

Also I was in PJ Pets down here in Edmonton. They claim they use KickIch but as I always see after there 2 week QT (there claimer that fish are sold healthy there, no refund) The fish are just covered in ich. I'm waiting for their so called KickIch treatment to finish so I can help & treat the poor little puffer I want, thats if it's not to late.

Keep posted, perhaps you will have better success.

[Bob I]

I actually used a spare hour before going to work to move the tank downstairs. This will allow me to continue treatment ad infinitum, as it is now in a semi-permanent spot.
In my previous battle I used the hyposalinity method with no success, as I lost both fish. It can't hurt to continue with KickIch for the full length of the teatment because the fish are continuing to be in good health except for the ich.