I have read the study that Ted posted and talked with him at length about the subject. Sadly, a scheduling conflict prevented me from seeing his tank last month when I was in CT. (BTW- Ted didn't do those studies himself, he cut and pasted the results of many trials, but people often get confused.) I originally met Ted when he commissioned us to produce 20 pack runs of a "garlic free" blend of our foods for his Angels. When we became too busy with standard production to take on side projects I explained to him how little actual garlic is in our foods.
There has been a fair amount of debate on the subject and I agree that consuming too much actual garlic "meat" could have a deleterious effect long term. Hence we do not add actual garlic to our foods, merely flavored water to minimize this risk. I know there is a video floating around of another food maker adding several cloves of minced garlic to a commercially available food blend, so do your due diligence if this is a concern. For better or worse, consumer "demand" has resulted in about 80% of the foods in my home from various makers having garlic listed in the ingredients list. Still many people take these foods and further boost them with liquid extracts. Good, bad or indifferent store owners and hobbyists are going to continue to add garlic to their foods in an attempt to entice finicky fish to eat.
We address this issue on our FAQ page:
Q: How Much Garlic Is In Your Foods?
A: Great question. The inclusion of garlic in saltwater fish food has proponents for and against its use. A large segment of the reef keeping community believes Allicin, the active ingredient in garlic, has anti-parasitic and immunity boosting qualities. While many reports of its effectiveness are anecdotal, a whole lot of hobbyists and store owners are convinced adding garlic "works."
Our informal testing revealed that adding garlic does in fact cause fish to come inspect the food rapidly, possibly simply to investigate the pungent aroma. Sometimes getting fish to find and ingest ANY food is half the battle, especially with a new purchase. (Many store owners reported 65% less fish losses in 2013 since using our foods to feed new arrivals.) Surveying the available foods on the market today reveals that over 85% have garlic listed on the label.
Studies were recently discussed on popular web forums which suggested long term use of garlic could have a negative effect of fish health. Please recognize these studies used a ratio of "garlic per gram of body weight" far in excess of what we ever add to our foods. Our food processing method NEVER permits any actual garlic "meat" to get into the food or ingested by your fish. When we make a 100 pound batch of Frenzy Food, we merely add a few ounces of strained RO water which has some minced garlic in the container. The water is "flavored" if you will, but no cloves of garlic are minced and added to the blend. We have many customers feeding our foods every single day for almost two years with no ill effects reported. We feel the feeding response generated by adding a little garlic flavored water offsets any possible negatives.
Even with the garlic, our foods earned the trust of "Ted" and many others with tens of thousands of dollars worth of fish after Ted replied to a question on another forum asking "What do you feed?"
Answer- What does Ted Feed? Scroll down past the angel pics.
Ted has been using our foods for the past year and introduced us to Karen Brittain in Hawaii who is using our foods in aquaculture studies.
I'm not trying to hijack a Q&A thread, but many folks are feeding garlic enhanced foods, (weather they know it or not), and IMHO it all comes down to the amount actually ingested. I think there are too many folks who have been using it as a food soak or additive for too long to say in "all" instances it is bad.
(On another note I do have data from a public aquarium who feeds broccoli flowers to Tangs to cure and prevent HLLE with pretty good results. I agree most terrestrial veggies shouldn't be in a marine diet, but broccoli seems to be high enough in Vitamins A&D that it has some merit.)
