Green Tea

[luke.eyndhoven]

just reading the topics about the almond(think thats how you spell it) leaves. i searched the net for a leave that is more conveniant for people to use. i fround this writing about the medicinal properties of green and black tea ;

http/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15992239

just have a read and give your thoughts. in us people tea has antitumour, anticancer and many other properties so maybe it will have the same affect on bettas.

cheers luke

 

[data276]

green tea and black tea are made form the same plant I believe its just that green tea are made with unfermented leaves while black tea are made with fermented leaves and oolong is made with semi fermented leaves. but it may work diffrently in bettas I guess it would be possible to try it in very small dosages and see if anything happens that way if it does cause harm it will be easy for the betta to recover and if it doesn't you can add a bit more.

the only drawback I see is that your tank will be stained a golden colour.

 

[liz2]

IAL stains your tanks as well!

 

[LauraFrog]

Tank staining can actually look quite effective, it's just a matter of manipulating the decor to make it look natural. Obviously it does not suit tanks with an artificial or colourful theme, tanks where the theme is dependant on plants, or tanks where there is a lot of rock. It certainly does no harm to plants, fish or inverts.

 

[luke.eyndhoven]

yeh right,
well i guess ill try to find a betta with a small tumour. if being in the tea for how long will cure or stop the tumour developing more i suppose that taea does have antitomour properties.

your right about the staining of the water but i dont think it will harm them. if a fish has adapted to living in dirty, stagnent ponds im sure staining the water will not worry them.
thanks guys
luke

 

[ReMz]

yeh right,
well i guess ill try to find a betta with a small tumour. if being in the tea for how long will cure or stop the tumour developing more i suppose that taea does have antitomour properties.

your right about the staining of the water but i dont think it will harm them. if a fish has adapted to living in dirty, stagnent ponds im sure staining the water will not worry them.
thanks guys
luke

A tumor is accelerated cell growth... according to the article tea does not "stop" this, it prevents it. Two very different things. So, it would be a lost cause to try to' treat' a tumor ridden betta with tea.


Nobody said that it would be of any harm either.... not sure where you got that from.

U need to verify your facts about bettas living in dirty, stagnant water as well. That is not the case....

 

[Syphoniera]

I know this is an older thread, but wanted to raise one point before anybody actually decides this is something similar to adding traditional leaves to water in fish tanks and decides to try it.
Precisely what effect does caffeine - or the chemicals in decaffeinated tea - have on fish soaking in and breathing it continually, or even on a short-term basis?
The different sorts of tannin (I believe rather acidic) produced may or may not be OK, but if the stimulant and/or some other chemical caused some drastic or more subtle deleterious effect in the different physiology/environment of the fish, how would you know without seeing the animal visibly suffering/dying/dead?
We drink tea from time to time throughout the day: we don't continually breath it through gills and soak our largest (and potentially absorbative) organ - our skin, so drastically unlike the slime-covered delicate scales of fish - in it and splash it in our eyes.
Maybe many have tried this and observed no obvious ill effects - but you couldn't pay me try it on any of mine.
One man's herb is another creatures poison: all tannins/leaves/chemicals are not the same...

Edit - wanted to add in example that apparently aspirin is fatal to cats - different animals sometimes respond very differently to different compounds, even those considered safe/beneficial for most.
Conducting experiments on pets may have vastly different results than anticipated.
Even if the risk seems worthwhile to you, would it seem so to the animal involved?

 

[Corleone]

I know this is an older thread, but wanted to raise one point before anybody actually decides this is something similar to adding traditional leaves to water in fish tanks and decides to try it.
Precisely what effect does caffeine - or the chemicals in decaffeinated tea - have on fish soaking in and breathing it continually, or even on a short-term basis?

Didn't realize this was an old thread and was about to post this, but since you asked already I looked it up. Caffeine is an extremely powerful drug for warm blooded animals (it's used in very low doses, even a strong coffee or energy drink has a minute amount. The same dose of cocaine would barely effect many people) and highly toxic to most invertebrates.

In fish, the only research I could find was this bit, which suggests caffeine has a trivial effect on fish's metabolism, and a bit in Scientific American that mentions unreferenced research showing that fish and amphibians show little to no effect from caffeine or related drugs.

There was also this interesting one from India, where caffeine was demonstrated as an effective fungicide for certain fish pathogenic species, but the test didn't involve fish hosts, so there's no indication it could be used as an actual medicine.

 

[Syphoniera]

I know this is an older thread, but wanted to raise one point before anybody actually decides this is something similar to adding traditional leaves to water in fish tanks and decides to try it.
Precisely what effect does caffeine - or the chemicals in decaffeinated tea - have on fish soaking in and breathing it continually, or even on a short-term basis?

Didn't realize this was an old thread and was about to post this, but since you asked already I looked it up. Caffeine is an extremely powerful drug for warm blooded animals (it's used in very low doses, even a strong coffee or energy drink has a minute amount. The same dose of cocaine would barely effect many people) and highly toxic to most invertebrates.

In fish, the only research I could find was this bit, which suggests caffeine has a trivial effect on fish's metabolism, and a bit in Scientific American that mentions unreferenced research showing that fish and amphibians show little to no effect from caffeine or related drugs.

There was also this interesting one from India, where caffeine was demonstrated as an effective fungicide for certain fish pathogenic species, but the test didn't involve fish hosts, so there's no indication it could be used as an actual medicine.

Thanks, Corleone.
Your research may save piscine lives and health.

It was't really an ancient thread, less than a week from last post made, but I missed a lot of posts due to 'puter problems.
And it gave me some concern that people would test things on their fish, on such grounds as the assumption of one tannin-producing leaf being necessarily like another, which is clearly not the case.

Your info indicates that at best the effects specifically only of caffeine - not even considering other chemicals present in tea - include toxicity to most invertebrates and are relatively unknown regarding fish, with an UNREFERENCED possibility of only a 'trivial effect on fish's metabolism' - and with no way of knowing how uncomfortable this may make the fish feel without showing obvious short-term effects, as their survival instinct is to conceal weakness/illness and appear normal.
Hopefully, that'll be enough to prevent any experimentation on anyone's pet fish.
The problem is that too often something which sounds good in theory lacks enough basic info to form a good theory in itself.
And what you don't know CAN potentially hurt you or anyone or anything else involved very badly indeed.
So, we'll hope, now we do know enough to know better, and, with any luck, the principle will stick.