Garlic!?

We weren't just a LFS. We were also wholesalers for livestock and dry goods. Our QT facility alone was bigger than any LFS I've ever been in. Heck, we even had more gallons worth of hospital tanks than most LFS's have total. We purposely overfed all of our animals just in case they freak out when purchased and don't eat for a week or two. I absolutely hated garlic because I was dealing with a LOT of food and the smell would get on my hands. No amount of washing removed it. I told Ryan and Steve that I've not used garlic for years (only using it if a fish was real sick and wouldn't eat) so lets do an experiment. Let's not use it for two months and see if there is any measurable difference in fish losses or how quickly we can move fish from the hospital tanks into QT and then later move them up to the store.

They fully believed in garlic and thought I was out of my mind. However, because I was the one who maintained the health of the livestock, they agreed. Now, if after a few months, I thought that there was no difference at all, then that would be expected because because of the "non"-placebo effect. I didn't expect any higher losses. (Fish losses have a huge impact on the bottom line. Even more than what the selling price is in the store). However, after a couple of months, there were no changes whatsoever in fish losses. Then we went back to my method of only using it if a particular fish is so sick it doesn't want to eat.

Obviously, this is completely anecdotal and not a scientific experiment. However, fish losses affected their pocketbooks too (and in a much higher dollar amount) and they saw no need to continually use garlic.

 

I will say that I appreciate the thread (without some of the other stuff) as I believe some of what we do with our tanks is simply because "someone said this or that". I appreciated the articles and have read them. My main goal has always been to find out what other more experienced people have to say, research and then make my own decision.

What works for one, might not work for the other. That being said, there are still certain things, like the chemistry of the water and the length of the cylce, that need to be done specifically a certain way.

I also use garlic for my fish food as I cannot say it DOESNT help. I do know that it doesnt hurt.

 

Just an fyi...garlic messes with the liver of fish. In small quantities garlic can be useful for enticing newly added fish to eat. However, I don't recommend using garlic on a regular bases.

 

Agreed at high levels above about 1-2% garlic has an effect on the liver of the fish. Seems from the research I have read 0.5-1% garlics seems more appropriate and beneficial to avoid toxicity to the fish. Also if the fish isn't ill there is no need to add garlic.

 

question... it's kind of confused me reading through these posts and articles...

"about 1-2% garlic"... 1-2% of what? of total food intake?

I make an entire pitcher of food in a blender and that gets about 15 drops of garlic extract... no idea what it's percentage of overall food that is, but it's probably on the order of .005%....

not sure if I am understanding this point accurately though...

but if I am right.... that's a very different amount of extract than any of these articles seems to talk about.... and, as an example, copper kills a tank yet it is present in our saltwater in small traces... so paralleling that with garlic... (assuming I'm understanding correct) and looking at the percentages people are throwing around... I would guess both sides are correct...

maybe I'm way off though...

 

I am refering to what was done during the test, where they produced a fish feed which was dry and weighed and added 0.5-1% garlic.
For an extract that was bought for a reef tank, I would just follow the directions the supplier provided with the product. As it is an extract and is likely to be much more concentrated than ground garlic used in the test.