Garlic/ginger=fish liver damage?

[stingythingy45]

What do you think?
Personally,I think garlic is basically snake oil when it comes to Ich treatment.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1375920

 

[MisFit]

ive always seen it as an appetite stimulant for sick fish that arent always eating.

 

[Joel A]

I personally only use it to help get finicky fish to start eating..

I have not seen any real research to back up the ich treatment of it, i think it is more of a snake oil as well Bob, But if it gets your fish to eat when its sick thats never a bad thing.. right?

 

[stingythingy45]

I must say,that when I tried to save a Scopus Tang from Ich with garlic it did stimulate eating.But then again,notice the"tried" part of the previous sentence?I think a lot of hobbyist are fooled into thinking the Ich has been cured by garlic.The spots go away and the fish seems to be doing better.But then when that second,or if the fish makes it,third wave hit there's never any follow up.I mean there's some new folks out there squeezing fresh garlic into their tank water weekly.lol
I gave advice to a guy(on another site) that had an outbreak in his tank.A lot of other posters kept pushing the garlic will cure it.I gave him the basic info like"QT along with Hypo or copper,the only proven methods".Well,long story short,I got shot down and the guy took the easier route.Well,a week later got a PM from him,all his fish died and he wished he would have taken my advice.That's really what gets me,it's not so much about using it to help fish eat.It's the fact that so many people push this stuff like it's manna from heaven.And then that takes away from the REAL proven ways of treating the parasite.
I just thought that I would post this as the information about the effects of garlic and ginger to marine fishes livers might interest fellow reefers here.

 

[Leroy]

Not sure where the ginger comes into a supplement for the tank or fish. Garlic on the other hand is great as a dietary supplement when added to their food to help build an immune system. Garlic pills for humans has also proven to be excellent to lower colestoral as well as immune system against colds and flu. Garlic has some very good benefits but it'll not cure ich or parasitic symptoms but to help prevent it and does stimulate their feeding. I wouldn't consider it a snake oil.

 

[Joel A]

Well in treating parasites themselves to my knowledge it has never been proven to help.. maybe ward off to an extent if garlic is fed on a regular basis, but that doesn't "cure" ich.

My thinking on it is mainly that it gets a fish to eat more, and eat more healthy foods even though they may not normally be as tasty as other foods... a fat fish is a healthy fish, and a healthy fish is far less prone to ich.

Personally i like to Formalin dip my fish when they start to show bad signs, seems to work pretty well.. if that doesn't help then sometimes i will fresh water dip or QT with copper. I've never done hypo.

 

[~Flighty~]

Anything that claims to "boost the immune system" is snake oil. The immune system be it fish or human just does not work that way.

 

[JohnK]

FWIW the garlic effectiveness debate thing is kind of old news IMO.

What Seems interesting is the assertion that garlic would cause liver damage (though the original source seems very vague and suspect going by the RC thread).

Snake oil is harmless unless it causes organ damage, no?