Garlic???
- Thread starter mrandmrst
- Start date
fishieness
Active Member
garlic is a natural immune booster. It gets in their blood stream and goes from there. It can be used to treat and prevent minor cases of ick, as well as other parasites. It also helped their slime coat and all that jazz. It is high in vitamins also so it is all around a good thing.
there are a few ways of dosing it. You can crush up some garlic in a garlic crusher or a food processor and then soad it in some of your tank water. Then remove the chucks with anything... a coffee filter would probably work. Then add your frozen or pelet for into it and the feed it all to your fish. Some foods have garlic in them too.
I have a product called "garlic extream". It is super concentrated and is pretty expensive. It is about 20 bucks for a little dropper bottle. But it lasts a long time seeing how you only need like 2 dropps at a time.
do this once a week for maximum results. The garlic tends to foel your water, so once a week would be best, so you do not overdose it.
there are a few ways of dosing it. You can crush up some garlic in a garlic crusher or a food processor and then soad it in some of your tank water. Then remove the chucks with anything... a coffee filter would probably work. Then add your frozen or pelet for into it and the feed it all to your fish. Some foods have garlic in them too.
I have a product called "garlic extream". It is super concentrated and is pretty expensive. It is about 20 bucks for a little dropper bottle. But it lasts a long time seeing how you only need like 2 dropps at a time.
do this once a week for maximum results. The garlic tends to foel your water, so once a week would be best, so you do not overdose it.
scubadoo
Active Member
A cut and paste from an article by Horge Cortes-Jorge Jr....
In a parasitic protozoan infestation similar to Marine Ich, there are usually two major insults to the host fish's physiology:
1. the gross tissue damage committed by the protozoans themselves;
2. and the secondary infections that crash the party.
The applicability of such a broad-spectrum antiseptic as contained in garlic towards fending off secondary infections should be obvious, so I will set aside secondary infections at this point. Allicin has been observed to suppress the efficacy of cysteine proteinase and alcohol dehydrogenase, two tissue-demolition agents produced by another protozoan parasite, Entamoeba histolytica, (Ankri et.al., 1997), and one can easily extrapolate how garlic medication might limit the invasive and predatory damage caused directly by C. irritans.
Still, what generates as much (if not more) speculation is not the ability of garlic to restrict damage, but rather garlic's apparent ability to deliver damage to the parasites themselves -with numerous claims of outright detachment of C. irritans trophonts (the burrowing protozoans) and tomonts (the "egg cysts") as a result.
The aforementioned ability of allicin to permeate tissue and mucus enables it to invest an afflicted area thoroughly with its partially sulfurous chemical signature. The potential is there to mask the chemical cues that enable a parasite's recognition of the host, potentially confusing the invader and further suppressing the havoc it wreaks. (Indeed this would help uninfested fish dodge "Marine Ich").
Definitely, allicin brings outright chemical assault to the parasite. In one test, allicin’s cytotoxicity fell heavily against the parasitic protozoans Trypanosoma spp. and Giardia lamblia in concentrations that were well within the tolerance of 'host-tissue' fibroblasts (Lun et.al., 1994). The same penetrating power that ensures thorough investiture of the contested tissue with protective and camouflaging agents can also ensure thorough delivery of allicin's antagonism to --indeed, into-- invading parasites.
Lastly (though certainly, other properties may yet be discovered), allicin is said to reinforce the cues for cellular apoptosis, the mechanism of programmed cell-death (Thatte et.al., 2000). An innate mechanism such as apoptosis, guided with care, has the potential to severely limit the spread of say, cancer, by motivating cancerous cells to quickly self-terminate before they can multiply. If such a 'scorched earth' defense can be triggered by an infestation episode and be guided/reinforced by allicin, then yet another way may be revealed how garlic hinders both the ability of parasites to feed on host tissue and any opportunity for secondary infections to spread.
So roughly, garlic therapy can potentially
1. fend off secondary infection;
2. neutralize the chemicals used by the parasite to destroy host tissue;
3. mask host tissue, making it difficult for the parasite to recognize it;
4. deliver outright damage to the parasite.
In a parasitic protozoan infestation similar to Marine Ich, there are usually two major insults to the host fish's physiology:
1. the gross tissue damage committed by the protozoans themselves;
2. and the secondary infections that crash the party.
The applicability of such a broad-spectrum antiseptic as contained in garlic towards fending off secondary infections should be obvious, so I will set aside secondary infections at this point. Allicin has been observed to suppress the efficacy of cysteine proteinase and alcohol dehydrogenase, two tissue-demolition agents produced by another protozoan parasite, Entamoeba histolytica, (Ankri et.al., 1997), and one can easily extrapolate how garlic medication might limit the invasive and predatory damage caused directly by C. irritans.
Still, what generates as much (if not more) speculation is not the ability of garlic to restrict damage, but rather garlic's apparent ability to deliver damage to the parasites themselves -with numerous claims of outright detachment of C. irritans trophonts (the burrowing protozoans) and tomonts (the "egg cysts") as a result.
The aforementioned ability of allicin to permeate tissue and mucus enables it to invest an afflicted area thoroughly with its partially sulfurous chemical signature. The potential is there to mask the chemical cues that enable a parasite's recognition of the host, potentially confusing the invader and further suppressing the havoc it wreaks. (Indeed this would help uninfested fish dodge "Marine Ich").
Definitely, allicin brings outright chemical assault to the parasite. In one test, allicin’s cytotoxicity fell heavily against the parasitic protozoans Trypanosoma spp. and Giardia lamblia in concentrations that were well within the tolerance of 'host-tissue' fibroblasts (Lun et.al., 1994). The same penetrating power that ensures thorough investiture of the contested tissue with protective and camouflaging agents can also ensure thorough delivery of allicin's antagonism to --indeed, into-- invading parasites.
Lastly (though certainly, other properties may yet be discovered), allicin is said to reinforce the cues for cellular apoptosis, the mechanism of programmed cell-death (Thatte et.al., 2000). An innate mechanism such as apoptosis, guided with care, has the potential to severely limit the spread of say, cancer, by motivating cancerous cells to quickly self-terminate before they can multiply. If such a 'scorched earth' defense can be triggered by an infestation episode and be guided/reinforced by allicin, then yet another way may be revealed how garlic hinders both the ability of parasites to feed on host tissue and any opportunity for secondary infections to spread.
So roughly, garlic therapy can potentially
1. fend off secondary infection;
2. neutralize the chemicals used by the parasite to destroy host tissue;
3. mask host tissue, making it difficult for the parasite to recognize it;
4. deliver outright damage to the parasite.
dominican
Member
I crush a clove of garlic into pulp, keep the pulp in a shot glass w/water in my fridge, and add it to my mysis or cyclopeeze when I feed the whole tank once a day. One clove usually lasts a week. They LOVE the little bits of garlic. Been doing this for about a year. Started it as a suggestion to fight off a minor bout of ich (it worked), and began feeding it regularly ever since... Keeps 'em healthy and happy. 
Regards,
Dominican
Regards,
Dominican