Originally Posted by
Sorcha
I'm not going to swear this as a professional or anything. But we got a sick fish and being newish, handled it badly and it about wiped out our whole tank. In desparation to save our Midas Blenny (who we loved dearly) we read anything we could find. Being scaleless, the copper treatment wouldn't work on him, it would have killed him faster.
There was alot posted about Garlic Juice. Professionals would say that it boosts the fishes immune system, but that there's no proof it would "cure" Ick. But there were too many postings swearing that it had worked and we had nothing to lose. Unfortunately, our Blenny was way too far gone at this point and we lost him. But the last remaining one, a Yellow Tang who definitely showed it all over him - itching on the sand, etc., is now FINE! It's been 2 weeks now and so far there are no signs of it. He's stopped itching, his color is back to very vibrant and he's eating like crazy.
One feeding a day, the brine shrimp soaked in the juice & seawater for a few minutes and then it's all dumped in there. We were crushing garlic for a few days, but found that the juice from jarred pre-cut garlic (Polaner) works just fine and is way easier. His other feedings of flake are not treated with it. I think he's developed a taste for it now, he goes just nuts when we put the shrimp in now...more than before. He'll eat a whole cube of Mysis now where he ignored it before.
One of the drawbacks is supposed to be it messes up the protein skimmer and we've had no trouble with that at all.
I hope this helps! It certainly won't hurt your tank to try and it's easier than trying to catch them for quarantine. BTW - all of our corals, etc. are totally uneffected by it. Actually, the button polyps & plate coral caught and ate a large piece of garlic when we were still crushing it. No problems there.
GOOD LUCK!!
I'm sorry to inform you, but this thread is three years old. This person's fish no longer have ich.