Food plays a crucial role in keeping your guppies healthy and ensuring their longer lifespan. Therefore, knowing the best food to feed your guppies is essential so that you can grow your guppies faster and healthier. We will discuss the best food for guppy fish in this article. So, let us find out the best food for our guppy fish.
Guppies are omnivores fish species and need both plant and meat matter food. Feed flake food, veggie pellets, frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, and mosquito larvae to your guppies for ensuring their faster growth and happy lifespan. You can also prepare homemade food for your guppies.
This article will discuss how to prepare homemade food for our guppies and what to feed to our guppy fry. Also, we will discuss how to feed guppy fish on vacation. So, let us get into it.
Contents
- 1 What do guppies typically eat?
- 2 How to feed my guppy fish?
- 3 Which is the best commercial food for guppy?
- 4 How can I prepare homemade food for my guppies?
- 5 What should I feed to my guppy fry?
- 6 What should I do if I run out of food?
- 7 How to feed my guppies if I am leaving for a vacation?
- 8 Conclusion:
What do guppies typically eat?
Guppies are omnivores fish species and require both plant and meat matter in their diet.
Including a variety of food in your guppy’s diet will ensure their healthy and happy lifespan.
You can feed veggie pellets, brine shrimp, bloodworms, tubifex worms, and mosquito larvae to your guppy fish.
Guppies can usually live by feeding on flake food, but if you want your guppy to enhance their color and live a longer life, provide them with various food.
Guppy will also love to feed on frozen food like brine shrimp or frozen blood worms.
| Food | Serving Quantity | No of Times |
|---|---|---|
| Veggie pellets | One pinch at a time | 2-3 times a day |
| Mosquito larvae | 10-15 pieces | 2-3 times a week |
| Bloodworms | One pinch at a time | 1-2 times a week |
| Brine shrimp | One pinch at a time | 1-2 times a week |
| Tubifex Worms | One pinch at a time | 1 time a week |
You should feed bloodworms to your guppy as a treat and not make bloodworms a staple part of their daily diet.
How to feed my guppy fish?
Guppy fish will eat every time you provide food to them, whether they are hungry or not.
Such behavior of your guppy fish can confuse you, and you can end up overfeeding them.
Overfeeding can result in your guppy swollen abdomen.
You should feed your guppy in a quantity that they can finish in 1-2 minutes in a day.
Floating Pellets and flake food is the most common food people prefer to feed to their guppies.
Make sure to provide a pinch of flake food at a time to your guppies.
If you are feeding frozen food to your guppies like bloodworm or brine shrimp, then make small doses of that food and provide it to your guppy.
Don’t just throw all the food into your guppies tank at once, as it will result in leftovers, and your tank will get dirty.
Guppies are omnivores fish and will feed on everything you will provide to them.
There are various options available to you for feeding your guppy fish.
You can feed commercial food to your guppies and also can prepare homemade food for them.
When it comes to commercial food, you will find thousands of options.
There are also various options when it comes to homemade food.
Preparing homemade food is time-consuming, but it will do great for your guppies if you feed homemade food to them.
Which is the best commercial food for guppy?
Various commercial food is present in pet stores or online at Amazon, where you can buy them easily.
Commercials foods include:
- Flake food
- Pellets food
- Frozen and live food
Flake food
Flake food is among the favorite food every aquarist love to feed to their guppy fish.
However, nowadays, people are going for pellets more than flake food.
But, it will be great for your guppies if you feed flake food once a day to your guppies.
Flake food quickly gets dissolved into the water, and guppies can feed on them happily.
There are some disadvantages of flake food which makes aquarist back off to using flake food in their guppies diet:
- With its easy dissolving quality, flake food gets your water dirty if any of it remains in the tank.
- You can easily overfeed your guppies if you are feeding flake food.
However, it is still the best option for your guppy fry, as they can easily feed on flake food.
Pellets are available for your guppies, but sometimes it gets challenging to find small pellets that can fit in your guppy fry mouth.
In such a case, flake food does the work.
Some of the best flake food you can feed to your guppies are:
- Tetramin Tropical Flakes Plus
- Aqueon Tropical Flakes
- API Tropical Flakes
- Fluval Color Enhancing Flake Food
- New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes
- Aquacarium Spirulina Flakes Natural Fish Food
- YFS Tropical Flakes Natural Fish Food
Tetramin Tropical Flakes Plus
Tetramin plus is the flake food manufactured by Tetra.
This is the best food, including all the nutrients your guppies require for their excellent health and growth.
Tetramin flake plus is a fuss-free food used by aquarists for several years.
This product will also make sure not to make your water cloudy.
However, every flake food will make the water dirty if you overfeed your guppies.
The best thing about this product is that it is a nutritionally balanced food with added shrimp.
Aqueon Tropical Flakes
Aqueon tropical flakes contain all your guppy fish’s required nutrients to thrive.
Also, not only for guppy fish, but you can use this flake food for feeding your other tankmates too.
API Tropical Flakes
API tropical flake food provides rich protein to your guppy fish.
Your guppy will release 30% less ammonia as this flake food contains a nutritionally enhanced protein to make sure easy uptake of nutrients.
Guppy will use these nutrients and release less ammonia, keeping your aquarium cleaner.
If you have any invertebrates in your guppies aquarium, avoid using this product, as it contains copper sulfate, which is harmful to invertebrates like shrimp, snails, and others.
Fluval Color Enhancing Flake Food
Fluval Hagen is the excellent flake food you can feed your guppies in their everyday diet.
This product contains nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants derived from several key elements, including Atlantic Herring and Norwegian Krill, making your guppy healthy.
Your guppy will love to feed on this product.
New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes
New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes food contains proteins, various algae, and seaweed, which your guppy can easily digest.
Most of this flake food will float, making it easy for your guppies to feed on them.
It also includes garlic to ensure the strong immune system of your guppy fish.
Aquacarium Spirulina Flakes Natural Fish Food
Aquacarium Spirulina Flakes Natural Fish Food is the best flake food for you if you want to add some veggie-based diet for your guppy fish.
This product will also not make your water cloudy.
It contains no artificial colors and fillers.
YFS Tropical Flakes Natural Fish Food
YFS Tropical Flakes Natural Fish Food is also an excellent choice for feeding your guppy fish.
This product is loaded with shrimp, salmon, spirulina, and krill.
This product also will not make your water cloudy.
It contains no artificial colors and fillers.
Pellets Food
Pellet food is the most common food aquarists prefer to feed to their guppy fish.
Pellets food comes with many options, such as sizes and whether it will float and sink.
Aquarist prefers pellet food as it doesn’t get the water dirty by dissolving quickly.
However, pellets food is dehydrated and can affect your guppies sometimes by creating blockages.
Usually, it happens in a very rare case.
Soaking the pellets before feeding your guppy fish will eliminate this issue.
Some of the best pellets food you can feed to your guppy fish are:
- Hikari Tropical Semi-Floating Micro Pellets
- Hikari tropical fancy guppy
- New Life Spectrum Float Surface Feeder
- Cobalt Aquatics Ultra Pellet Guppy Nano Bits Floating
- Fluval Bugs Bites Tropical Food
Hikari Tropical Semi-Floating Micro Pellets
Hikari is a well known and trusted brand.
This product is excellent for your guppies.
Also, you can feed these pellets to your other small fishes like Tetra or platies.
They don’t sink quickly, which will help keep your aquarium clean.
Hikari tropical fancy guppy
Hikari tropical pellet food is packed with nutrition to keep your guppy fish healthy.
You can also feed this to your other small fish like platies or Tetra.
New Life Spectrum Float Surface Feeder
New Life Spectrum Fish Pellet is made with good quality, digestible south Antarctic krill, herring, and other enhancing ingredients.
This will boost your guppies immune system and help them enhance their color.
Cobalt Aquatics Ultra Pellet Guppy Nano Bits Floating
Cobalt aquatics is also a well known company that makes excellent fish food.
Cobalt aquatics ultra pellet contains all the nutrients your guppy fish and other fish require to thrive.
Fluval Bugs Bites Tropical Food
You can feed Fluval bugs bites to small to medium size fish.
Fluval is another excellent company that also produces many other products for an aquarium.
Fluval Bugs Bites Tropical Food contains all nutrition your fish need to live a happy and healthy life.
Live and Frozen food
You can feed your guppies live or frozen food like:
- Brine shrimp
- Tubifex Worm
- Bloodworm
- Mosquito larvae
Your guppies will love to eat brine shrimp.
Brine shrimp are a good source of protein, and you can feed it to both adult guppies and guppy fry.
Feed brine shrimp 1-2 times a week to your guppies
You should not feed bloodworm to your guppies every day.
Bloodworm should be a treat for your guppy fish.
Bloodworms are a great source of fat, and if fed to guppy fish once or twice a week, it will help in the growth of your guppy fish.
Tubifex Worms are the perfect conditioner for your guppies.
However, avoid feeding live tubifex Worms to your guppies, as they can carry infections that make your guppy fish come into critical condition.
Consider feeding freeze-dried tubifex worms to your guppy fish once a week.
You can feed mosquito larvae to your guppy fish, and they will love it in their diet.
Feed mosquito larvae 2-3 times a week to your guppy fish.
You can read my article- Can Guppy Eat Mosquito Larvae?
This article has discussed how to grow mosquito larvae at home.
How can I prepare homemade food for my guppies?
Many of us prefer to feed our guppy fish commercial food.
Preparing homemade food for our guppies is time consuming.
But, it will be great for your guppies if you feed them a variety of food by preparing it at home.
There is various food you can prepare at home:
- Brine shrimp
- Egg yolk
- Beef heart
- Vinegar eels
Brine shrimp is an excellent food for your guppy fish.
Feeding live brine shrimp to your guppy will be great for them.
Brine shrimp contains 25% fat and carbohydrates and 60% protein.
Your guppy will grow faster and bigger with this amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, feeding on brine shrimp.
You can also feed brine shrimp to your adult guppies, as they will love to feed on that.
You can easily buy brine shrimp hatchery online on amazon and culture brine shrimp at home.
It would be best to keep multiple brine shrimp hatcheries as the egg takes 2-3 days to hatch.
Egg yolk is the common food every aquarist prepares at home to feed their guppies.
Egg yolk is very rich in fat and should not feed your adult guppies in many quantities.
Egg yolk includes sodium, potassium, and vitamins B-12, D, C, A.
It is a good source of protein. Egg yolk also contains minerals such as iron, magnesium, and calcium.
You should feed egg yolk to your guppy fry.
Crush the egg yolk, make a paste, and feed it to your guppy fry.
Ensure to feed in small quantities, as it can highly pollute your water.
Beef heart is another common homemade food to feed guppy fish among aquarists.
Once the beef heart is clear of fat and has been chopped into small pieces, it is ready to feed to your guppy fish.
Consider mixing it with egg yolk, shrimp, and other ingredients if you want a better result.
Make sure not to feed it to your adult guppies, as it contains a lot of fat.
You can also culture vinegar eels at home.
However, culturing is not a problem here, but harvesting it can be a headache because it smells a lot.
Vinegar eels contain 20% fat and 50% protein.
Make sure not to feed vinegar eels to your guppies regularly.
Consider going for micro-worms as they are similar to vinegar eels and don’t smell a lot, as they can be kept in a sealed container.
What should I feed to my guppy fry?
Guppy fry will eat the food you are feeding to your adult guppies.
Baby brine shrimp food is the best food to feed to your guppy fry.
If you want to feed flake food to your guppy fry, make sure to crush it and make a powder before providing them.
Feed them egg yolk by making a paste of it. Ensure to feed egg yolk in small quantity as it will get your water highly polluted
To ensure their faster growth and good health, you have to feed your guppy fry multiple times a day.
You can also feed beef heart by mixing it with vegetables like carrots.
Feeding multiple times will make your tank dirty faster than usual.
So, ensure to perform the water change early than usual.
What should I do if I run out of food?
Guppies will love to feed on vegetables and fruits.
You can feed your guppies:
- Apple
- Cucumber
- Carrots
- Lettuce
- Zucchini
- Spinach
- Peas
- Green beans
- Broccoli
All you have to do is blend the vegetables like green beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, zucchini together.
Now, put the blended vegetable in a sealed bag and keep it inside the freezer.
Once the blended vegetable is entirely frozen, it is ready to provide to your guppies.
You can also make flake food from blended vegetables.
You have to put the blended vegetable on cooking paper and place it in the oven, setting the range at 250°F.
Dry out the blended vegetable completely.
Once the blend is dried out, crush it into small pieces and fill it into the sealed bag.
Your homemade flake food is now ready to provide to your guppy fish.
Also read: Does Guppy Eat Plants?
How to feed my guppies if I am leaving for a vacation?
If you leave for a week or two, there will be no issue as guppies can live for two weeks without eating.
In the case of fry, they will be fine without eating for one week.
However, if you don’t want your guppies not to eat anything for weeks, you can set up an automatic feeder.
Setting up an automatic feeder will help you provide food to your guppies every day in time, even if you are not there.
But, if you are using flake food, your automatic feeder can get clogged up, so watch out for that issue before leaving.
However, you can ask your neighbor or friend to feed your guppy fish every day by stopping by your home.
Also read: How Long Can Guppy Go Without Food?
Conclusion:
Guppies will thrive if you feed them flake food, veggie pellets, freeze-dried bloodworms, live brine shrimp, and freeze-dried tubifex Worms. In addition, you should provide various nutritional food to your guppies to ensure their excellent health and happy lifespan.
Bloodworm should not be a staple part of your guppy’s diet. Instead, provide bloodworm as a treat to your guppy fish.
Avoid feeding live tubifex Worms to your guppy fish, as they can carry infections that can make your guppy fish pass away.
Consider feeding freeze-dried tubifex worms to your guppy fish once a week.
You can prepare homemade food like brine shrimp, beef heart, egg yolks, and flake food made of blended vegetables for your guppy fish.
Guppies are omnivores fish species and need both plant and meat matter in their diet, so providing them variety of food is essential for their health and growth.
Reference: ResearchGate, ResearchGate, Scientific Research, AGRIS,