Ginger Root & Garlic for Ick...Great Success!

Just wanted to post to let everyone know I had a yellow tang show bad signs of ick starting about two weeks ago - 3 big white spots/growths on its tail fin & upper fin (dorsal?) - was scratching against rocks and lost some color below its eyes and on its belly. Too be fair, I thought it was only a matter of time for the little guy. Obviously was not happy about it at all, came on here and read up on feeding with ginger and garlic. Did the first night garlic (took one clove into a press and drained the juice into a shot glass with a tiny bit of tank water and flake food), then the next night with fresh ginger root (same process), then repeated for a couple more days. Was on vacation the last 5 days so my roommate was looking after things and the ick is completely gone, most of the color is back and no rock scratching! Wanted to share that with everyone, easiest and fastest way I've ever beaten ick, so thanks to anyone out there who was smarter than me and figured it out!

 

Congrats on beating it and thanks for posting.

By garlic press, do you mean the kitchen tool that "squeezes" the garlic clove through small holes and turns it into a "mash"?

Did you use the same for the ginger root? How much ginger root?

Thanks.

 

Congrats on successfully treating your fish for symptomatic marine ich.

Reduction of stress and enhancement of diet can go a long ways in helping your fish to keep the parasite at bay.

There are tons myths about marine ich, the main reason for that is that while you can not see it currently on your fish that usually means the parasite has just fallen off the fish and is completing it's live cycle in the substrate. Without the strictest quarantine marine ich is present in most tanks that have added live stock within the last year. The key is reduction of stress to keep the parasite from becoming symptomatic.

Thank you for sharing.

 

First off, a little emberassing screwing up the proper spelling (ick v ich!).

I just used the kitchen hand press you are describing. I cut about two thin slices roughly 1.5mm thick of the ginger root, then chopped that up as much as I could (I enjoy cooking very much but I lose patience trying to get too particular with ginger root) and squeezed the juice out into the shot glass. I did this with frozen mysis and with formula 1 flakes, let it soak about 25-30 min and let it go. Did the same with one clove of garlic, but chopped up a few tiny pieces to see if they would eat the whole chunks (which they tasted but spit back out).

Thanks for the tip Corailline - I agree that stress has been the biggest factor, been meddling around in the tank too much and need to cool it.

 

I used the garlic and ginger as well when I had ich. Only problem I had with it is when I stopped using it the ich would come back but when used again the ich went away. In the end to totally get rid of the ich I QTd every fish in hypo for 2 months.

I used dried ginger from the baking isle to make things easier and so it would last longer. Maybe that's why my ich kept coming back. Hmmm got me thinking now lol

 

Just to make sure everyone that sees this thread understands, AFAIK, garlic/ginger will not prevent Ich from being in your tank, or even to "kill" it once it is the tank. All it will do is help the immune system of the fish to fight it off and not succumb to the many symptoms associated with Ich. It can still be present in your tank even if none of the fish show any signs. The only way to ensure it is not in the tank 100% (again, AFAIK), is to leave the DT free of all fish for 8 weeks (and do not add anything to the tank including new inverts or corals!), as well as to treat all fish for Ich during the same time.

 

Copper, fishless tanks, and extremely low salinity is the only you can really be rid of ich.

Garlic and ginger are like chicken soup. It doesn't actually attack or rid the parasite.

 

Completely understand, but for my tank I would much rather feed natural ginger or garlic root, boost the immune system and have the fish get better on its own than put copper or other chemical treatments in. Mine worked, wanted to pass some helpful info onto others if I could.

Different strokes for different folks I guess

 

amazing! thanks for the info. I get so nervous when I think I spot ich, since most of my energy and focus is on my soft corals. congrats!

 

Yeah, I'm a big fan of this as well! I also LOVE selcon for this! My tangs will show a spot every now and then, but knock on wood, I always keep it at bay with garlic, selcon, plenty of nori and a wide variety of food foods