THE EFFECT OF CHAMOMILE TEA (Matricaria recutita) ON THE FIN
PERFORMANCE OF GUPPY, 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 high predation around guppies and fast swimming is used as an escape.
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.
The Poecilia reticulata
Introduction
, also known as the Guppy, 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. The males average a weight of 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 affect 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 affect 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 P. reticulata, and a 1000 ml test tank 15.24 cm long and 7.62 cm tall were purchased. Two blue, two red, two orange, two yellow, and two black male guppies were obtained. All experimentation was conducted during the duration of March
31, 2011
–
April 1, 2011 at one of the researchers
’
home in Lake Forest, CA. The guppy fish were housed in a ten-gallon tank with water at 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 placed into the frontal section of the test tank and was given ten minutes to adjust. The fish was then video recorded for fifteen minutes. This was done for each of the ten fish which were then 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 and one fish of each color was purchased. 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.

Statistical Analysis
The number of boxes were then determined by counting how many boxes the premaxillary portion of the fish passed by within ten minutes. All the data was then transferred to Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington) where all further statistical calculations were obtained. The rates were determined by boxes per minute. Data was run by a one-tailed paired t-test.
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). T here 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 mean
±
SEM.
Discussion
These results support the hypothesis. The guppy fish movement decreased greatly after being placed into the Chamomile tea. This was due to the relaxation affect 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.
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 chlorine that is placed into regular tap water. This chlorine is toxic to the guppy fish,

becoming harmful to their health. 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. Future studies on this could determine if these properties affect the ingestion or movement of the Poecilia reticulata in any way. Next step potential studies could determine the affect of Chamomile tea along with temperature, pH, and female guppies. 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 calming drug on the guppy fish.
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