Serra growth rate, parasites, and garlic...

[Diogenes]

So i read somewhere on the web the other day (and of course I can't find it now), that one reason for the slow growth of serras is parasites in the GI tract. Most serras are wild caught, and a lot of the wild fish just come with parasites according to this source. He disclosed in the article that he treats his serras with some sort of anti-parasitic anti-biotic and that it improves their growth rate substantially. Now I'm not a big fan of dosing anything but maybe one of my patients in the hospital with antibiotics (even then I hope the MD ordered a culture and sensitivity), and I'm not going to just randomly dose my tank with antibiotics, but the other day i read an article from jack watley where he was discussing using garlic as an anti-parasitic agent. Supposedly it works on discusses which have the same problem. I'm thinking about infusing garlic into my P's diet.

Does anybody have any ideas on how to get garlic into a piranha diet? Would piranhas even eat something that smelled like garlic? Has anybody ever heard something like this before? Any feedback, thoughts, advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-C

 

[jp80911]

When I was trying to get mine rhom on shrimp I just marinate it in some coarse chopped garlic and it eats it (I remove the garlic before I drop it in tank). I think the strong scent of garlic triggers their sense of smell but I don't think that they would eat the garlic itself. you can always stuff the fish/shrimp you are going to feed with some minced garlic maybe that'll work.
Kent has some concentrated garlic extract you can buy and you can let the food marinate in that but not sure if it'll have the same effect.

However, doesn't rhom grow faster in wild than in home aquarium? and if wild is where they get the parasites from then how do you explain that?

 

[Tango374]

Its a good idea to treat a new rhombeus for parasites. Just in case. I have with all of the recent ones I've owned as do many other keepers. Its even getting to a point where dealers are starting to take care of that on their stock prior to shipping.

Does it help their growth? Most likely not because Monster Rhoms in the wild grow just fine without meds.

 

[Armand]

When I was trying to get mine rhom on shrimp I just marinate it in some coarse chopped garlic and it eats it (I remove the garlic before I drop it in tank). I think the strong scent of garlic triggers their sense of smell but I don't think that they would eat the garlic itself. you can always stuff the fish/shrimp you are going to feed with some minced garlic maybe that'll work.
Kent has some concentrated garlic extract you can buy and you can let the food marinate in that but not sure if it'll have the same effect.

However, doesn't rhom grow faster in wild than in home aquarium? and if wild is where they get the parasites from then how do you explain that?

Jp has covered pretty much what I was going to say.

I also read that garlic increases their apetite and has antibiotic properties.

I gueSs if you marinate the food in garlic you wouldnt have probles when your rhom eats it.

The problem is when fish dont eat the marinated piece uf food at once, the water in the tank washes away the garlic content on the food pretty fast. The piranha must consume the food inmediately as it gets into the tank.

Just be careful dont get crazy on the garlic because you can contamine your water.


Cheers.

 

[Diogenes]

When I was trying to get mine rhom on shrimp I just marinate it in some coarse chopped garlic and it eats it (I remove the garlic before I drop it in tank). I think the strong scent of garlic triggers their sense of smell but I don't think that they would eat the garlic itself. you can always stuff the fish/shrimp you are going to feed with some minced garlic maybe that'll work.
Kent has some concentrated garlic extract you can buy and you can let the food marinate in that but not sure if it'll have the same effect.

However, doesn't rhom grow faster in wild than in home aquarium? and if wild is where they get the parasites from then how do you explain that?

hmm yeah that's a good point...

 

[ThaDude]

Prazi-Pro, or Praziquantel is the anti-parasitic medicine cited-
The article referred to tapeworms or cestodes from serras being wild caught, and mentions using a clove of garlic while defrosting beefheart to aid in parasite resistance.
I have yet to try this but have actually been planning on buying in a week.
I believe big al's online has it pretty cheap.
Piranha-Cove is where you read this information, they're a great Piranha resource!
www.piranha-cove.com

 

[Diogenes]

Prazi-Pro, or Praziquantel is the anti-parasitic medicine cited-
The article referred to tapeworms or cestodes from serras being wild caught, and mentions using a clove of garlic while defrosting beefheart to aid in parasite resistance.
I have yet to try this but have actually been planning on buying in a week.
I believe big al's online has it pretty cheap.
Piranha-Cove is where you read this information, they're a great Piranha resource!
www.piranha-cove.com

thanks dude...

 

[hot_boi07]

heard of pepper making them more aggrassive

 

[dovii84]

Ive used the garlic method and it does work even with my ally snapper I guess it does help with finiky eaters now all my fish eat scallops, silver sides, and shrimp. What I did was marinate the food item with a small amount of garlic while the food was defrosting and then started using less and less garlic untill they took it without the garlic. Now they all have monstrous appetites unlike before.