I was told that it was a good idea to coat my fish's food in garlic oil before feeding my fish? Is this true and if so how much garlic oil?

Never heard of that before, who made the suggestion? I would steer clear of feeding any type of oils to fish, it is not part of their natural diet and could cause havoc with their digestion. jmo.

I think it was to boost their immune system.. when they are sick. My friend feeds it to his fish but they are not goldfish.

Very interesting, garlic is a natural antibiotic and oil can cause a purging of the digestive tract, so it is theoretically possible that garlic oil may help deal with pathogens in the bowel of fish. You would need to get more details from your friend as to how often, how much and what types of sickness he uses garlic to treat. I wouldn't just give it to all sick fish as a cure all to boost the immune system.

Well, the thing is... he has salt water fish. I was told or remember reading some where online that you could use it for goldfish also but don't remember where I saw that. I would need more information before I used 
t on my fish. Don't know if it's only when they are sick or if it's everytime you feed them or what. I tried doing a Google search but can't find anything.

Some people use garlic in their gel food (I seem to recall) but the concentration would be minimal and I don't recall if it was oil or crushed garlic. If you dipped the pellets in oil they could soak up quite a lot of oil, also the oil could pollute the water.

Check out the goldfish food forum and see what you can find.

Ok.. I'll do that! Thanks for pointing that out!

Melissa, what I do every so often is to smash a clove of garlic on a paper plate, and put the food in the juice from the garlic. I just roll it around in it for a bit to soak up the garlic juice. I add a drop or two of tank water if it dries out too quick. My fish loves it!
By the way... thanks for reminding me - I haven't done it in a while.

Debbie

I tried doing this with crushed garlic. It STUNK and the fish refused to go near it



Great suggestion Debbie, I may try that!

Garlic is great for most animals. I give my dog supplements which contain a lot of garlic, it's suppsed to even help with fleas. I think getting goldies to eat it could help ward off sickness.

There is a product called "Garlic Guard" by Seachem that is made for this. Added to fish food (soaked or incorporated into gel food) it is an attractant to fish - and can encourage fish that are not eating well to eat more.

It is also said to increase the immune system a bit. I use it in all my medicated gel food for some of the medications are remarkable foul tasting and a fish will choose to starve rather than eat it's medicine. GarlicGuard helps convince them to eat.

Garlic has been shown to be useful as a broad spectrum antibiotic, against both gram negative and gram positive bacteria.

For humans it can also be used to help rid of internal parasites (such as tapeworms). Not sure if its is effective against any fish parasites though.

Now I feel like putting garlic slices in my burgers to boost up my own immune system.

Seriously, I think I will try what Fishy Fish suggested. Seems like a good idea!

I know they sell garlic pills in the vitamin stores for humans but I was 
told that if you take to many you'll start to stick... bad breath, ummmm.... bad smells down.... well.... there..., under arms, etc

Don't know how true that is. lol! So I never tried it myself but I know it's really good for humans to take for good 
health. hehehehehe!

hmmm... I like the idea of crushing real garlic and putting the fish food in it.