I have read and heard some comments in my LFS about increasing the immune systems of fish, and i wanted to run it by the peeps on TR to get a second, third,....fortieth oppinion. The two that i have heard of are the topics of this post: Garlic and spirinula. The former was recomended by my LFS as "increasing the number of white blood cells in fish." Sounds like a treatment used in Boulder, some "holistic" fish remedy. I am skeptical. Besides, i am not too keen on the idea of my water smelling like garlic.

The other is spirinula. The packaging on some manifactures (Hakari) says it is supposed to help the immune system. Again, i am not sure if this is really true, or if it is a snake oil for fish. Unlike the garlic, this one i will feed to fish because it is nutritious and generally good for them. I typically mix it with frozen brine shrimp and the fish (freshwater fish, don't forget!) seem to love it. I assume it would be good for marine fish as well.

i cant speak to spirinula as i haven't really researched it.
but for garlic, this is not snake oil. it is proven that garlic can and does increase white blood cell count, and acts as a natural antibiotic. this is true is humans also.

now that said, what is anecdotal, is how effective it is on treating disease, or preventing disease. common sense dictates it would make the fish healthier and thus keep them less prone to sickness. but it has not been show scientifically (anywhere i have seen) that it actually works.. kind of a hard thing to test

all that said, i do use garlic extract to soak all my food, and have been happy with it.. but that's hardly scientific proof.

I use Garlic extract too. I have never had a problem with ick or flukes since I started using it. I also heard that it helps finicky eaters too.

i do use garlic extract to soak all my food, and have been happy with it.. but that's hardly scientific proof.Does your breath smell like garlic, Rob??? :rotfl:

absolutely.. :)
personally i LOVE garlic.. im sure others around me may not like me eating garlic, but owe well.. :)

Not to highjack the thread, but preparing garlic. do you just soak garlic in tank water, take it out and then add the food and let the food soak? and then dump?

my process is to use a cup with one side slightly elevated,
place the food in it lower end, ad a few drops of garlic extract, with a "small" amount of water. just enough to wet all the dry food. i let it sit like that for a 5 minutes or so,. while sitting i will occasionally, gently sway the cup just to get a god mix in there

sweet thank you.

was that a good enough description?
do you think the "use of garlic" would be a worth while video?

doing video is a bit of work, but if its valuable i will do it...

IMO i think that a video preparing food in general might be worth it, but in another since im not sure if you had to waste food but then it wouldnt be worth it. but IMO it would be cool to see how to feed tangs and stuff..

and yes good description :)

ok, maybe i will record a tank feeding one of these days

I use garlic too with about the same procedure as Rob. A side benefit is it cuts the smell of the cyclopeeze!

spiralina is beneficial for the immune system. it contains the highest concentration and purest form of vitamin-c, which without no bodily function can exist. the lack of vitamin-c contributes to many problems in fish, including lateral line or hole in head. in fact, many alternative healers for PEOPLE recommend spiralina.

I agree with FW about spiralina. And I agree with Rob about garlic and humans, but I have yet to see any proof that it is beneficial to fish. I would love to see someone do a study on this.

yes, see thats the whole thing...
there hasnt been any proof of positive benifits.
we know it doesnt harm our fish, and we know it can get get picky fish to start eating. but beyond that we dont know much else... lol

I have done a small test. I had a Emeror Angel that had flukes. I gave it a week of freshwater baths while soaking its food in garlic extract. 3 weeks later they were not present on the fish. I new that I did not get rid of the flukes, they just seemed to stay away from the Emperor. Within that time I was given blue angel and quarintined it for 2 weeks then placed it in my display tank. Right the next day I started to see them appear on him. I decided to not give him any freshwater baths and only feed it the food soaked in garlic. It doesn't seem to actually take effect for about a month of this feeding. 4 weeks later there was no signs of the flukes just the scaring of the blue angels eye. Now I soak all food that goes in all my tanks and have never had a problem with any type of parasite for 5 years now. I also forgot to mention that I had a yellow tang that would not eat the garlic soaked food and eventually died from Flukes. I am not sure if my experience is proof that garlic works or if it is just my luck.

Perhaps a bit of both?

I think that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence but no proof, just like a lot of human nutritional remedies. My opinion is that it doesn't hurt and it might help. At 12 bucks for a bottle of garlic that lasts for months why not try it?

Perhaps a bit of both?
i agree... while not conclusive, its definatly a bit of evidence in favor of garlic.. :)

I think that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence but no proof, just like a lot of human nutritional remedies. My opinion is that it doesn't hurt and it might help. At 12 bucks for a bottle of garlic that lasts for months why not try it?
this is my thought exactly.. a bottle will last me at least 3 months, so why not.. i have been using it for about 2 years, and have never had an infection since i started using it. i did have some bacterial infections before i started using it. again, this is not proof, but its enough for me to keep using it.. :)

I use Garlic extract too. I have never had a problem with ick or flukes since I started using it. I also heard that it helps finicky eaters too.

Garlic helps your fish eat? Do all your fish come from the mediterranean sea? I didn't know Sicily had any reefs. :P

Garlic helps your fish eat? Do all your fish come from the mediterranean sea? I didn't know Sicily had any reefs. :P
yes, its great to get reluctant eaters to start feeding.. :)

Garlic helps your fish eat? Do all your fish come from the mediterranean sea? I didn't know Sicily had any reefs. :P

My Italian-American husband loves it that our fish eat garlic!

there is also a banana extract from SEACHEM for finicky eaters.

My Italian-American husband loves it that our fish eat garlic!

LOL! Now all you need to do is add some lemon, a splash of white wine, and some basil to the fish food...err...marinade :)

Seriously though, i looked up garlic in The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine and found some interesting stuff about it. This is a bit off topic, but i really like this book. It does not report ancedotal or questionable evidence, but rather published, peer-reviewed, statistically-grounded, double-blind, control group studies regarding the validity of various "herbal" treatments. Regarding garlic, and i am summarizing here, it quotes several studies that demonstrated garlic's anti-fungal and antimicrobial properties. It didn't say anything about the white blood cells, but this may be a "side effect" if you will. At least a couple of the studies showed sick people who took garlic pills got better than those who took a placebo.

One downfall to all these studies, of course, is they were studying humans, kinda boring :) . True, fish anatomy is not human anatomy, but given this thread and the reports from the Encyclopedia, i think garlic has some valid backing to it. I'm willing to give it a try; also since no one has reported disasterous consequences when using it.

I dig FW's point about spiralina. I have been using it just to mix up my fishes' diet and never really gave it much thought. I will definatly keep using it.

there is also a banana extract from SEACHEM for finicky eaters.

Forgot about this one. Bananas are very high in potassium, does anyone think that this might have some benefits for fish, corals, or inverts? I have no idea, just wondering.

Wow, you could make an entire carrier out of studying this stuff.

We eat about 5-6 heads of garlic a week, no kidding. Garlic is a healer. I can't see any harm in any living thing getting its fair share. I think everyone is warming up to Garlic. Has anyone ever watched Emeril's show on the Food Network? Every time he adds garlic, the crowd goes absolutely nuts.