Ground (Powdered) Ginger to treat ich

[smoothie7]

I was watching some youtube videos on reef tanks and saw a video that intrigued me....someone was treating their reef tank full of corals with a pinch of ground ginger once a day to cure ich on a fish. Anybody ever try this? Always good to have that extra knowledge in the back pocket

 

[Dierks]

Sadly that isn't going to work... I wish it was that easy though, would make thing much simpler for many folks across the hobby.

 

[KrisReef]

The folks who do quarantine and fish treatments on here don't seem to agree on the benefits of ginger for treating fishes, and many would deny that it has any benefits for treatment of fish illness. Same with garlic, but as you noted there are plenty of sources on the web that preach the benefits but generally lack the white papers to back up their claims.

Most people don't know about the medicinal use of ginger that has been documented when selling older horses, again not in white paper literature but its out there, in the back pockets when it was used.

This post is not intended to violate the term of use for the board.

 

[Dierks]

There are papers written that show the benefit of Garlic, ginger, and many other essential oils but it has been found to be useful for uses along the lines of Bacterial issues. You can look at Melafix for a great example as it is tea tree oil.

The hardest part about ich (and Velvet) is their stupid life cycle. You have to interrupt it or you won't be able to get rid of it.

 

[exnisstech]

Gotta love another good informative YouTube video

 

[ca1ore]

Friend of mine used to extol the benefit of floating a potato in his tank to treat ich. He stopped talking to me after I asked if the potato needed to be peeled or not.

 

[MnFish1]

My question from a disease perspective - is that of course various natural chemicals can influence humans and fish as well. Willow bark, for example, is the natural source of salicylic acid (Aspirin). So - it's certainly possible the garlic or ginger can help in any number of ways. In my mind the question comes down to which helps better - ginger/garlic - or copper,etc. Though one may help, the other I think will more reliably cure.

 

[saltytanked]

How long has the ginger “myth” been around? I think at least like 30 years now? If it actually worked I would believe these discussions wouldn’t still be taking place lol

 

[KrisReef]

Friend of mine used to extol the benefit of floating a potato in his tank to treat ich. He stopped talking to me after I asked if the potato needed to be peeled or not.

I think I heard about the potato method also, and it does kill ich.

When it sinks that means the ich has infested the potato and you pop the spud in the preheated oven at 450 for an hour and it kills the ich on the potato. You can eat the potato unless you were also using copper, I think.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I think I heard about the potato method also, and it does kill ich.

When it sinks that means the ich has infested the potato and you pop the spud in the preheated oven at 450 for an hour and it kills the ich on the potato. You can eat the potato unless you were also using copper, I think.

And you won't need to salt the tater either!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I was watching some youtube videos on reef tanks and saw a video that intrigued me....someone was treating their reef tank full of corals with a pinch of ground ginger once a day to cure ich on a fish. Anybody ever try this? Always good to have that extra knowledge in the back pocket

This and other "phytochemicals" have been examined for potential control of fish ectoparasites in food fishes due to the need to avoid toxic chemical use in fish for human consumption. What happens is that somebody takes a "deep dive" into the scientific literature, finds an interesting study, but then reads too much into it, and then starts espousing it as a cure (or worse yet, begins marketing it as a "medication"). Ginger may have some minor antihelmenthic benefit (internal worms) and it has been studied as a control of protozoans in aquarium water, but essentially, it doesn't work to control active marine ich infections, at least not in doses that are tolerated by the fish.