Kelsi Vahid and Andy Vu

THE EFFECT OF CHAMOMILE TEA (Matricaria recutita) ON THE FIN PERFORMANCE OF GUPPY FISH, Poecilia reticulata

Kelsi Vahid and Andy Vu

Department of Biological Sciences

Saddleback College

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

Guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata) tend to be fast due to natural selection This is due to in order to escape high predation around guppies and fast swimming is used as an escape in their environment. Chamomile tea (Matricaria recutita) is commonly used for its calming ability. An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of Matricaria recutita tea on the movement performance in male Poecilia reticulata. The male fish were individually recorded in front of a grid for ten minutes each. Two runs were conducted, one with freshwater and one with Chamomile tea. The same ten fish were used for both runs. The mean fish movements for the Poecilia reticulata in freshwater was 197 ± 24.26 boxes crossed per minute (±SEM, N= 10). The mean fish movements for the Poecilia reticulata in Chamomile tea was 63 ± 8.42 boxes crossed per minute (±SEM, N= 10). There was a significant difference in the mean fish movements in Chamomile tea (paired T-test, one-tailed, p=1.7x10-4). This supported the tested hypothesis that the mean fish movements in Chamomile tea was significantly lower than the mean fish movements in fresh water.

Introduction

The Poecilia reticulata, also known as the Guppy fish, are a very common fish around the world ranging from 4.0cm to 6.0cm, containing four fins as a male and six as a female (if you are only studying males, I don’t think it is necessary to include information about females…) . The males On average, male guppy fish a weight of weigh 85.8 mg (Garcia et al., 2008). The multiple fins assist the guppies in their speed. Guppies tend to be fast due to natural selection. In the wild, the need for very rapid acceleration is required in order to escape from predators (Ghalambor et al., 2004). The focus of this investigation is to determine whether Matricaria recutita tea, also known as Chamomile tea, will have a calming effect on the guppy fish. Matricaria recutita is known to have antimicrobial properties along with soothing affects (McKay and Blumberg, 2006).

A previous study on the guppy fish was done by Chessick et al. (1964). The researchers added the drugs tryptamine and tryptophan to guppy fish at a dose of 0.25mg/ml and at a dose of 0.75 mg/ml. Six fish were used as test fish and six were used as controls. It was determined that the high dose of drugs caused the activity of the fish to decrease, and the fish had less of an interest in food. This study helped determine how much Chamomile tea should be given to the guppy fish.

The calming affect of Chamomile has been studied in humans, however the effect of Chamomile tea in the Poecilia reticulata seems to not have been studied as extensively. It is then hypothesized that Matricaria recutita tea will slow down the animal movement in male Poecilia reticulata.

Material and Methods

Subjects

Ten Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) were used in this study. The Celestial Seasonings Chamomile, the ten guppies (P. reticulata) and a 1000 mL test tank (15.24 cm long and 7.62 cm tall were purchased (mL is a unit of volume, therefore you must provide 3 measurements, length, width and height). Two blue, two red, two orange, two yellow, and two black male guppies were obtained. All experiments were conducted from 31 March to 1 April 2011 at one of the a researcher’s home in Lake Forest, CA. The guppy fishes were housed in a ten-gallon tank filled with water (what kind of water? Tap water, DI water or dechlorinated water?), which was maintained at a temperature of 22C and a pH of 6- 6.5. Conditioning crystals were added to the tank containing tap water before the fish were added to create freshwater. The fish were then placed into the tank.

Procedures

Before experimentation began, the weight of each P. reticulata was determined by placing each fish into a beaker filled with freshwater onto a SmartPro balance. The average weight of the guppy fish was determined in order to determine the correct amount of Chamomile tea needed for the experiment (0.25 grams of Chamomile grains were selected per 1000 ml of water, 0.25mg/ml =0.25g/1000ml). The calculations were based off of the Chessick et al. (1964) experiment. The Chamomile tea bags were then ripped opened and 0.50 grams of the grains were weighed out and placed into 2000 ml of boiling water. After the tea preparation, the grains were drained out and the 2000 ml of tea was put into a container. This was done five times in order to obtain 10,000 ml of chamomile tea. Sixteen conditioning crystals were then added to the containers of tea in order to prepare the tea for the fish. The tea was then stored away.

A clear glass divider was placed into the center of the test tank leaving 4.5 cm of space in front and back. A grid with seventy-two 1 cm long and 1 cm wide boxes was taped to cover the entire back of test tank, which would be used to determine the fish movement. Two fish were then placed into either side of the test tank with 1000 ml of freshwater from the tank and were given three to five minutes to adjust. The fish were recorded for fifteen minutes each then individually placed into their original tank after each trial. Sessions were video recorded from an iPad.

The second run was prepared by pouring 1000 ml of chamomile tea into the test tank. One guppy fish was then placed into the frontal section of the test tank and was given ten minutes to adjust to the environment. The fish were then video recorded for fifteen minutes. This was done for each of the ten fish and then the fish were individually placed back into the original tank after each trial.

During the duration of the experiment, five guppy fish died. One black, one red, one yellow, one blue, and one orange. Each fish was returned to the store and one fish of each color was purchased again. Both runs were done on each of the newly purchased fish and any tests done to each dead fish prior to the death of the five guppy fish were not used not considered valid experimental data.(be prepared to discuss, in your discussion section, the reasons why some fish did not survive using research from other aricles)

Statistical Analysis

The number of boxes (number of boxes of what?....im somewhat confused…) were then determined by counting how many boxes the premaxillary (do you mean anterior portion??) portion of the fish passed by within ten minutes. All the data was were then transferred to Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington) where all further statistical calculations were obtained. The rates were determined calculated by determining the number of boxes (covered?) per minute. Data was run by a A one-tailed paired t-test was used to compare the rates of the ten guppy fish in freshwater and in a chamomile environment.

Results

The mean combined fish movement for trials done in fresh water was 197 ± 24.26 boxes crossed per minute (±SEM, N= 10). The mean combined fish movement for trials done in Chamomile tea was 63 ± 8.42 boxes crossed per minute (±SEM, N= 10). There was a significant difference in the mean fish movements in Chamomile tea (paired T-test, one-tailed, p=1.7x10-4). These data are present in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Mean fish movement in boxes per minute for the Poecilia reticulata in Matricaria recutita tea was significantly lower that the mean fish movement in boxes per minute for the Poecilia reticulata in freshwater. (p= 1.7 x 10-4, one-tailed paired t-test). Error bars are indicate mean ±SEM.

Discussion

These results support the hypothesis. (You must briefly review your results in the beginning of your discussion). The guppy fish movement decreased greatly after being placed into the Chamomile tea. This was due to because of the relaxation effect that Chamomile tea caused on the fish. According to McKay and Blumberg (2006), chamomile is a natural way to reduce spasms and therefore calms down the activity of the animal. The 0.25 grams of chamomile per 1000 ml of water was chosen in order to have a significant difference between fish movement in the freshwater and in the Chamomile tea without harming the fish. The Chamomile tea was made in order for the guppy fish to slowly inhale chamomile. If the chamomile grains had been put into the water directly, the problem of consumption by mouth would have been taken into affect (reword, like…If the chamomile grains were to have been present in the tank, then this may have harmed the health of the fish due to possible consumption. In order to make the most safe environment for the guppy fish the tea was brewed and strained….).

The water was conditioned in order to have the perfect environment for the guppy fish. The Poecilia reticulata naturally live in a freshwater environment without the that lacks the chlorine that is sometimes present in regular tap water. (How do you know that guppy fish live in this type of environment? To prove this, you must research an article that has stated this and then site it here). This chlorine is toxic to the guppy fish, becoming harmful to their health (once again, cite and provide evidence of the effects of chlorine on the fish) . Therefore, conditioning crystals were used in order to remove the chlorine found in tap water to make freshwater.

Guppy fish are known to be very fast burst start swimmers in response to escaping predators. For a guppy fish to reach maximum velocity takes an average time of 18.297 ±□3□223 ms (Oufiero and Garland, 2009). However, with Chamomile tea, fish movement greatly decreases as shown in the experiment (p= 1.7 x 10-4).

In an article by Wang et al. (2005), the ingestion of Chamomile tea was explored. It was shown that the extracted essential oils from the chamomile have antimicrobial properties and possess antimicrobial activity (how does the antimicrobial properties/activities of chamomile relate to your study of rate/speed?; instead of mentioning an article that does not support your study directly, I would suggest researching an article that has similar results to yours and provide scientific reasons/evidence that explain your results). Future studies on this (on what? Be specific.) could determine if these properties affect the ingestion or movement of the Poecilia reticulata in any way. Next step potential studies (<reword) could determine the affect of Chamomile tea along with temperature, pH, and female guppies (well why didn’t you choose female guppies as well?/ someone may ask you this during the presentation so be prepared to answer why you only chose male). These future studies could also alter the amount of chamomile used to test the fish movement as well as compare Chamomile tea to a man made pharmaceutical calming drug on the guppy fish.

References: Literature Cited

Chessick R., Kronholm J., Beck M., Maier G. 1964. Effect of pretreatment with tryptamine, tryptophan and DOPA on LSD reaction in tropical fish. Psychopharmacologia. 5: 390-392.

Garcia C., Troncoso W., Sanchez S., Perdomo L. 2008. Contribution to vital statistics of a guppy Poecilia reticulata Peters (Pisces: Cyprinodontiformes: Poecillidae) pond population in Santa Marta, Colombia. Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Sciences. 3(3): 335-339.

Ghalambor C., Reznick D., Walker J. 2004. Constraints on adaptive evolution: the functional trade-off between repro-duction and fast-start swimming performance in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata). American Naturalist. 164(1): 38– 50.

McKay D., Blumberg J. 2006. A review of the bioactivity and potential health benefits of chamomile tea Matricaria recutita. L. Phytother. Res. 20: 519–530.

Oufiero C., Garland T. 2009. Repeatability and correlation of swimming performances and size over varying time-scales in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Functional Ecology. 23: 969-978.

Wang Y., Tang H., Nicholson J., Hylands P., Sampson J., Holmes E. 2005. A metabonomic strategy for the detection of the metabolic effects of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) ingestion. J. Agric. Food Chem. 53: 191−196.

Review Form

Department of Biological Sciences

Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA 92692

Author (s):____ Kelsi Vahid and Andy Vu______

Title:___ THE EFFECT OF CHAMOMILE TEA (Matricaria recutita) ON THE FIN PERFORMANCE OF GUPPY, Poecilia reticulata

Summary

Summarize the paper succinctly and dispassionately. Do not criticize here, just show that you understood the paper.

This paper studied the effects of chamomile tea on male guppy fish. They performed an experiment with 10 guppy fish and measured the rate at which they traveled by counting squares (on a grid) and measuring time. Their first trial consisted of placing individual guppy fish in a freshwater tank and then measuring the rate of fin movement in a 15 minute period. They then used the same fish and placed them in a same size tank, instead filled with water mixed with chamomile tea and measure the rate within a 15 minute time period. Their results suggest that the fish movement in freshwater were significantly higher than that of in a chamomile tea environment.

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Generally explain the paper’s strengths and weaknesses and whether they are serious, or important to our current state of knowledge.

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