Tea with the the Tetras
- Thread starter wetmanNY
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Thinking about the last cup of Earl Grey that I personally consumed, it had a slightly oily surface which I presumed to be part of the mystic Bergamot oil flavoring component. I wouldn't expect the oil to have any adverse effects on your tanks (who knows what other various and sundry oils and fats wind up in our tanks just by using commercially prepared foods!), but it is something that you might want to bear in mind in the next time that the tetras are treated to tea.
Amy, I hadn't thought of that oil of bergamot that makes Earl Grey a bit dainty-tasting. It's a citrus zest, Citrus aurantiacum and it's packing a whole raft of flavonoids, according to this Dept. of Agriculture document: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/phenolics/ap2/ca-c.htm
An unfermented Japanese green tea would have make a better choice for the tetras, I now find... and there's a health-lore groundswell building about its anti-cancer and bacteriocidal benefits... maybe I should have a couple of sips myself...
Kuhli, yes indeed! But wood only very slowly leaches tannins and polyphenols too. You know what a dark tea you can get by boiling the bogwood.. But no one is doing serious chemistry lab analysis of bogwood tea or oakleaf tea... just not the same market for the results I guess...
An unfermented Japanese green tea would have make a better choice for the tetras, I now find... and there's a health-lore groundswell building about its anti-cancer and bacteriocidal benefits... maybe I should have a couple of sips myself...
Kuhli, yes indeed! But wood only very slowly leaches tannins and polyphenols too. You know what a dark tea you can get by boiling the bogwood.. But no one is doing serious chemistry lab analysis of bogwood tea or oakleaf tea... just not the same market for the results I guess...
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Flavonoids are found in almost all higher plants...Not sure they would cause any problem? The most I could find suggested that certain types, in high concentrations, could inhibit the growth of specific antibiotic resistant bacteria. They are classed as a water soluable plant pigment--similar to tannins. Both are phenols...
I am pretty sure that those lovely leaves you have floating in your tank have flavonoids as well, so unless one of the specific types is offensive, I don't see the issue?
I am pretty sure that those lovely leaves you have floating in your tank have flavonoids as well, so unless one of the specific types is offensive, I don't see the issue?
Oh no, OrionGirl, I didn't mean to suggest any negative connotations to flavonoids, which are linked with anti-oxidant and antibacterial virtues. Flavonoids are a group of polyphenols, I'm finding out, and they include Lignins (which I didn't know til today turn up also in nuts and the husks of whole grain cereals), Proanthocyanins and Anthocyanins (giving color to fruits and vegetables), Isoflavones, Quercetin (isolated first from oak but in grapes and wine too), Hesperidins in citrus, such as Earl Grey's bergamot oil, and for us especially the Catechins and Tannins found in the tea I served to the Tetras...
Why do softwater fish flourish in waters with humic substances and polyphenolics, including these flavonoids, besides thegeneral water-softening etc? There are direct effects on egg membranes I remember. Bactericidal efffects might be direct. I'm out of my depth here, for sure...
Why do softwater fish flourish in waters with humic substances and polyphenolics, including these flavonoids, besides thegeneral water-softening etc? There are direct effects on egg membranes I remember. Bactericidal efffects might be direct. I'm out of my depth here, for sure...
Okay--that was what I was seeing as well, and didn't see anything to indicate that there was anything in the tea that might be toxic, or even have anegative impact. Seems like the primary difference between using tea and peat would be that tea would result in more color change more quickly (assuming the tea is steeped and the peat is not) since the warmer temp would break down and release the color pigments mroe rapidly.
To answer why some fish thrive in those conditions would require slogging through some evolutionary pathways, I'm afraid. I do so wish Mr. S. J. Gould were still around--this sounds like his cup of tea.
To answer why some fish thrive in those conditions would require slogging through some evolutionary pathways, I'm afraid. I do so wish Mr. S. J. Gould were still around--this sounds like his cup of tea.
A full cup of golden-orange strong-brewed Earl Grey tea in 10 gallons: I can't detect any color tonight. Even siphoned off into a white bucket...
And BTW, I put the used teabag right in the h.o.t. filter!
And BTW, I put the used teabag right in the h.o.t. filter!
Makes sense--cooler temps will slow down the release of color pigments. How do they process the tea when bagging? Just wondering if they do anything that would reduce the color-causing pigments.
Or, if the color pigments from tea break down more quickly than those from unprocessed leaves and wood?
Or, if the color pigments from tea break down more quickly than those from unprocessed leaves and wood?
OrionGirl, black tea like Earl Grey is left to wither and ferment, but it's not otherwise processed (or I'd have been wary about tea for the tetras in the first place.
Green tea isn't even fermented: http://www.apotoftea.com/process.html
Next time I'm out of peat, it'll be a cuppa green Japanese tea...
Green tea isn't even fermented: http://www.apotoftea.com/process.html
Next time I'm out of peat, it'll be a cuppa green Japanese tea...
