The Puffer Forum

So in my research about puffers I came across a theory on how to get puffs the vitamins. One way was to soak fish food in garlic water and then feed to guppies and then to puffers so they could get the nutrients. How false is this? Garlic is fine when dealing with vampires but for my GSP?

It is true, garlic for some reason gives enhance flavor & promotes appetite in puffers.

I've just ordered some garlic juice mainly for my puffers, but I've also read that it can be used to treat ear mites in dogs, and my little Dexter seems to always be scratching at his ears, so I'm going to try it.
But, getting back to puffers .... if I soak their food in vitamins, and then dip it in the garlic, am I rendering the vitamins useless? I was thinking about getting a syringe and injecting the food with vitamins, and also injecting meds into food when I need to administer them.

pufferpuggirl wrote:I've just ordered some garlic juice mainly for my puffers, but I've also read that it can be used to treat ear mites in dogs, and my little Dexter seems to always be scratching at his ears, so I'm going to try it.
But, getting back to puffers .... if I soak their food in vitamins, and then dip it in the garlic, am I rendering the vitamins useless? I was thinking about getting a syringe and injecting the food with vitamins, and also injecting meds into food when I need to administer them.

Actually, everything has a specific saturation point so if you are soaking in vitamins then in garlic you should still (in theory) have the vitamin in the food with a slight garlic additive....

FishyFishFish7 wrote:So in my research about puffers I came across a theory on how to get puffs the vitamins. One way was to soak fish food in garlic water and then feed to guppies and then to puffers so they could get the nutrients. How false is this? Garlic is fine when dealing with vampires but for my GSP?

This is not a good idea. Vitamins are processed in the body from one form to a form that is usable by in the body. So by feeding the guppies the vitamins first they have already started to change them making them less effective. Also feeding live fish is a poor idea to begin with. The can carry all sorts of disease and cause other health problems in puffers (fatty liver for example).

Garlic is not a vitamin.

Well thanks for the info since garlic doesn't really help with anything thing much then I guess Ill just stick with soaking my puffer's food in water with vitamins for the time being and he already has a healthy appetite.

No, I realise it's not a vitamin, but I have noticed that my puffers aren't too keen on the liquid vitamins that I soak their food in, so I thought if I could also put the food in some garlic juice, then they would not notice the vitamin taste and they would still get the benefits of the vitamins, but like the taste of the garlic juice.

I've never come across that problem. What vits are you using?

Pufferpunk wrote:I've never come across that problem. What vits are you using?

The only ones I've been able to find so far over here, Vitazin by Waterlife. They smell like regular vitamins to me, but the puffers aren't very keen on them, so I thought I might disguise the flavour if possible.

What are some of the vitamins that anyone is using? Just to see what is out there...



Suzanne, I've certainly heard of many, many, many people using Garlic juice to help the taste of foods, and to help with intake of vitamins.I have also heard of people just using real garlic powder that we use for our cooking! So it definately works for some people!

Thanks Lisa

Garlic powder might be really salty...

Lisa, I use freshwater VitaChem.

Same here--VitaChem.

Does every fish in an aquarium need this? Or some fish more than others?

I soak all my live/frozen foods in vitamins. Fon't bother for F-D though. I only feed that if I'm in a hurry.