Garlic to fight disease?

[colesea]

Okay so I was at a LIAS meeting the other night, and I met with the Kent Marine rep they had speaking there. He made mention of using garlic extract in reef tanks to help get rid of ich and other marine disease because garlic was safe for inverts where other chemical based medications are not.  

Has anybody ever heard of this? Kent Marine is supposedly comming out with a garlic extract product this summer, but I was wondering...

The Kent Marine rep said to soak the food in the garlic extract and feed it to the fish that way.  I wish it was feasible for me to do that, but that would be an awful lot of food, and an awful lot of time, that I just don't have in retail to do. So..I was thinking. Does anybody think that filling say, a nylon knee-high, with a little bit of diced or minced garlic, and allowing that to soak in the sump have the same effect?  

Not that I'm worried about inverts, I can't have inverts in my systems because of copper contamination from previous medicial applications.  But I have been wracking my brains for copper alternitives, and if garlic would work just as well in a fish-only system...dude, that would soo rock.
~~Colesea

 

[dattack]

I always feed my marine fish garlic extract.  You can get this at the supermarket for cheap.  I, however, bought my garlic extract (concentrated) at my GNC (General Nutrition Company) for $10.  I just place a few drops on some seaweed/flakes/seafood and let is soak for a minute.

Here's the link but it's probably just cheaper to mince some garlic and mix with your food real well with a blender.  I do this sometimes.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/h_cortes-jorge.html

 

[clothahump]

I have used Garlic for years in my freshwater tanks.
If you want to make up some food quickly  then find some Garlic Powder and mix one teaspoon per 50g of food, let it stand for 48 hours and feed this twice a week as a preventative.
The powder seems to stick to most types of food.

 

[FishChick]

The Garlic extract is availble right now from Kent Marine.  Its going to be any where from 14 to 20 dollar retail.  I think there is 2 sizes. I don't remember at the moment.  

 

[colesea]

Thanks everyone, I will certainly take everything into consideration.

Hey, how come they don't have information like this published in all those home aquarium books or fish health manauls? Does anybody know of any wholistic fish health manuals out there?

I really enjoy learning little tidbits like this from you folk. Much thanks again.
~~Colesea