Best Food For Guppy Fish – How To Feed Your Guppies?

Guppies are popular aquarium pets because they are active and typically colorful. Feeding them is simple, but it’s a good idea to understand your guppies’ needs so you don’t overfeed them. Even adults will be healthier if you complement their fish flakes with more nutritious food. Guppy young require a specific diet, which is easily found at a fish store, and even adults will be healthier if you supplement their fish flakes with more nutritious food.

Poor nutrition, on the other hand, is one thing that might cause problems for your guppies. Giving your guppies a diversified diet of veggies in addition to their usual fish food is the best way to keep them happy and healthy.

This Guppy Feeding Guide explains when to feed your guppies, what to give them, and how to feed them. Your guppies will appreciate the work you put in to ensure they were getting the appropriate quantity at the right time.

How often to Feed Guppies?

The age of your guppies will decide how often you feed them. Younger guppies require more food to develop quickly. Adult guppies require less food because they are no longer growing. Adult guppies should be fed once or twice a day. If you feed them more, you may overfeed them and make them sick. Guppy Fry can be fed three to five times each day. Because they are little and cannot take a lot of food, you should provide them with smaller portions at each meal.

How Long Can Guppies Go Without food?

Adult guppies may go for up to 10 days without eating. This should not be done on a regular basis since they would starve. They will not be harmed if they skip a day or two every now and then. So, if you’re planning on going away for the weekend, make sure they’re properly fed before you go. Guppy Fry, on the other hand, can only go without nourishment for a few days. They are developing and require more nourishment at a faster rate than grownups. A young guppy can only live for three days without being fed.

How Much Should You Feed Your Guppies?

There is no precise formula for determining how much to feed your guppy. Guppies have a bad name for being scroungers. Unless they’ve just eaten, they’ll attempt to consume everything you feed them. Read the directions on your guppy food to figure out how much to feed your guppy. Put that quantity in the tank and keep an eye on your guppies. If they finish it in under two minutes without becoming bloated, the portion size was probably enough. You may need to give them a bit of additional food if they devour it all in under a minute. If they don’t finish the dish, you should serve them less the following time. If they finish all of the food and seem bloated, you’ve fed them too much.

Once you’ve figured out how much to feed your guppies, stick to it as much as possible. If you have newborn guppies in the tank, it’s usually best to feed them a bit less rather than a little too much.

Best Food For Guppies

What to Feed Guppies?

Because poor-quality food lacks all of the nutrients required for your fish’s optimal growth and development, it may limit its life span and raise the chances of it having health problems.

1. Invest in Flake Food Designed for Tropical Fish

Flake food may be purchased at a pet store or a fish shop as a basic, daily meal supply. While guppies will consume any flake food, the best brands are those that have both protein and vegetable materials. Natural color enhancers are commonly included in tropical fish flake food, making your guppies seem brighter and more colorful. Fish food in the shape of pellets is difficult or impossible for guppies to ingest because of their tiny lips.

If you buy more flake food than you’ll use in a month, you may freeze the rest to keep the nutrients. A few days before you need a refill, thaw another month’s supply.

Give the guppies a pinch of flake food once or twice a day, preferably in the morning and at night, with a 12-hour gap between the two feedings. Drop a few flakes into the water and watch the guppies devour them. They should be able to eat the food in around 30–60 seconds, and no more than a few minutes. You can feed them once or twice a day, as long as you give them adequate amounts. Feeding guppies too much food is easy, but feeding them too little is challenging. Even if they are not hungry, guppies will continue to eat or look for food. If your fish appear to be hungry, do not offer them more food. Guppies that actively seek food will, in reality, prevent food debris from accumulating and contaminating your water.

2. Substitute More Healthy Delights for the Occasional Flake Food Meal

While guppies may thrive on flake food alone, live or frozen plants and animals provide additional nutrients that can be used to augment a flake food diet. Every 2–7 days, replace one flake food meal with no more treats than the guppies can consume in 60 seconds. Any of the following are suitable treats, and the majority of them can be obtained in fish markets:

If your flake meal is strong in vegetable content but poor in protein, baby brine shrimp are an excellent addition (40 percent or less). They come in three different forms: live, frozen, and flake.

Blood worms and mosquito larvae are tasty delights that you may capture yourself by sifting through standing water with a net. To prevent mosquitoes from hatching, collect limited numbers of larvae at a time. Earthworms can also be fed to the guppies, but they must be shredded and cleaned beforehand.

If your guppies’ flake diet is heavy in protein but lacking in vegetables, feed them shucked peas, shredded lettuce, or finely chopped cucumber.

What not to Feed Guppies?

1. Tubifex Worms and Live Daphnia Should Be Avoided

Other varieties of fish food are available, and fish store personnel or other guppy owners may suggest them. Even if they are advised, tubifex worms and daphnia should be avoided. Tubifex worms can occasionally contain fatal germs, which guppies can happily devour. Live daphnia will only hurt the tank if it consumes too much oxygen, but they are often more expensive and harder to produce than other live meals.

2. Keep an Eye out for Indicators of Overeating

Overfeeding is typical in guppies since they have such small stomachs yet nevertheless eat big amounts of food if it is available. Reduce the number of meals you feed them or the frequency with which you give them treats if you observe any of the following indicators. For their health, some guppy owners only feed their fish six days a week, leaving them hungry on the seventh.

Overeating can cause a plugged gut, as seen by waste tubes trailing behind the fish. If they eat too much fat, adult male guppies acquire a “potbelly” or a protruding chest. Reduce the amount of food you eat and substitute fat-free ham crumbs for fatty delights like blood worms or beef hearts.

Excess food or garbage might be the reason your tank water becomes hazy and muddy on a regular basis. In general, you should replace 20–30 percent of the water in your tank every 1–2 weeks, or more regularly if your tank is overcrowded.

Related Post: What Did Do Baby Guppies Eat?

How to Feed Guppies When on Vacation?

If you’re going on a vacation that will last more than a week, think about how you’ll feed your guppies. Adult guppies can withstand a week without food before showing signs of malnutrition, so if you’re only going to be gone for a few days, skip feeding them.

One of the following strategies is advised for a lengthy trip. Dispense food at regular intervals using an automated feed dispenser. Make sure you have enough food to last the duration of your trip, then program the dispenser to discharge food once or twice a day.

Before departing, test a feeder block or gel feeder. These dry or gel-covered meal blocks are left in the tank and slowly consumed. The dry blocks, on the other hand, may produce harmful chemical alterations, whilst the gel blocks are commonly overlooked. Before departing, test both varieties for a few days to ensure there are no issues.

Once every two or three days, have a friend or neighbor serve them their regular flake food. Because unskilled feeders frequently provide too much food, it’s better to put each pinch of food in a pillbox or other container labeled with the day of the week. Make it clear to the caretaker that overfeeding your guppies might result in their death.

What to Feed Guppies When Out of Food?

You can simply manufacture your own guppy food. If you have rice on hand, you’ll be fine for a day or two until you can obtain additional guppy food. Make sure the rice is plain, not seasoned. In the worst-case scenario, you can skip feeding your adult guppies for a few days.

Adult Guppies: How Often to Feed Adult Guppies?

On how much to feed adult guppies, there are many diverse viewpoints. Some people recommend feeding them simply once a day, while others recommend feeding them twice or three times a day. The reality is that the more food you give your guppies, the more likely they are to suffer health issues.

Adult guppies should only be fed once a day or every other day, according to my recommendations. This does not imply that if your guppies have gone two days without food, you should give them twice as much on the third day.

You will be overfeeding your fish if you do this. If you’ve been feeding your adult guppies twice a day for a while and they haven’t developed any health concerns, keep doing so. When feeding your adult guppies, it’s critical to use high-quality food. A high-quality diet will provide your fish with all of the nutrients they require for maximum development and health.

Do Male Guppies Eat More Than Female Guppies?

Female guppies are often bigger than male guppies. This implies they consume more, but this shouldn’t be an issue if you’re feeding your fish the proper quantities.

If you suspect your fish is eating too much or too little, there are certain warning signals to look for. It’s conceivable that your fish is eating more than he requires if he’s becoming fat. If your fish appears to be underweight, it may be time to supplement his diet.

What To Feed Baby Guppies?

As soon as the newborn guppies are born, you should begin feeding them. It’s simple to feed infant guppies since they eat everything that floats by. If you don’t remove the uneaten fish flakes from the tank after feeding them, they will consume them. You may start by feeding your guppies newly hatched brine shrimp, but after they become a bit bigger, you should move to high-quality flake food.

Feed your young guppies 3-4 times per day until they are approximately a month old, then lower the number of times per day to 2-3 times per day and repeat until they are 3 months old. After 3 months, you can cut back on the amount of food you give your adult guppies to once every other or third day (depending on how much they are eating). When your guppies are about a month old, you may begin feeding them newly born brine shrimp or similar high-quality guppie food (the same quality as you would feed to your adult guppies).

Spirulina algae flakes can also be fed to them. Spirulina algae flakes are an excellent diet for your newborn guppies since they provide high nourishment without filling their bellies and causing them to gain weight. Overfeeding your infant guppies is never a good idea. Overfeeding can lead to swim bladder difficulties in your newborn fish, which can be lethal. It’s crucial to feed them the proper quantity of food because if they consume too much, they’ll swim on top of the water and be more prone to have swim bladder problems. They will not develop correctly and will not grow into healthy adult fish if they do not consume enough. Here are some other things that you can feed your guppy as well:

1. Fish Food Made at Home

Recipes for homemade fish food may be found on the internet. You might be able to get one at your local pet store as well. Make certain you’re looking for Guppy Food recipes, as various fish require different types of food. Guppies as adults require a decent balance of protein and veggies in their diet. Guppy Fries require a high-protein diet that includes a variety of veggies.

2. Small Shrimp

Fresh, frozen, and dried shrimp are all options for your guppies to consume. Fresh live shrimp must be consumed within a specified time frame. Brine shrimp are a popular choice, and they can be purchased whole or as eggs.

3. Worms of a Small Size

Fresh, frozen, or dried little worms or baby worms are available. They’re wonderful for your guppy’s diet. Live worms are simple to maintain and give to your fish. It’s crucial to defrost any frozen food before giving it to your fish, whether it’s worms, shrimp, or insects.

4. Larvae of Mosquitoes

Guppies eat mosquito larvae as a live food source in the wild. People don’t want to risk hunting mosquitos, thus they’re hard to come by. Some pet retailers, however, sell dry and frozen versions.

5. Insects

Insect-based fish food is widely accessible at pet stores. You may also feed your fish a variety of live insects. Remember that live insects must be fed in order for them to survive long enough to feed your Guppies. Guppies enjoy insect larvae, therefore gathering insects from your own garden may be the best option. Your guppies can be fed ants. If you’re going to give them ants, be sure they’re not harmful. If you want to buy your insects, most pet stores sell live worms, crickets, and flies. If live bugs aren’t an option, frozen or dried bugs can be purchased.

Is It Possible to Overfeed Guppy Fry?

Guppy Fry, as well as Guppy adults, can be overfed. If your guppies appear fat, they’ve been fed too much. A white material dangling from your guppies is another indicator of overfeeding. Overeating guppies might get bloated. If they continue to overeat, they may develop serious digestive difficulties, which can lead to infections, disease, and even death. You can detect whether your guppies are overeating or being overfed in several ways. Overfed guppies that can’t stop eating will end up having a lot of food floating about in their tanks. This food will begin to degrade, posing a threat to the water’s purity. When food decomposes, ammonia is produced, which can be harmful to your fish.

Overeating guppies seem bloated or have white material hanging from their body. They may not be leaving food in the tank, but they are consuming an excessive amount of it.

What Should You Do If Your Guppy Is Overfed?

If your guppy has eaten too much, the best thing to do is not feed them for the rest of the day. This will help them regain control of their digestion. Give them another day without food if they are still bloated after a day. Cleaning out the water and the tank is another crucial step. You may feed them again once you’ve cleaned up the tank and given them a break from eating. Make sure you’re not overfeeding them. If two minutes of food is too much for them, simply give them one minute of food.

What Do Guppies Eat? Homemade Guppy Food

1. Guppies Fish Getting Vegetables

To keep healthy and happy, guppies, like all other fish, require a source of fiber in their diet. Fresh vegetables, as well as dry flakes or pellets manufactured expressly for fiber enrichment, can provide this fiber to guppies (often called vegetable flakes or vegetable pellets).

If you want to use pellets, be sure they have additional vitamins such as vitamin C and vitamin E, as these vitamins will be lost if the pellets are not stored correctly after opening. You may use goldfish chow as a source of vegetable food for your guppies because goldfish consume veggies as well.

When feeding vegetables to your guppies, remove any uneaten vegetables from the tank after roughly an hour or so, since decaying vegetables will cause your water quality to rapidly deteriorate if left in the tank too long.

Vegetables, as previously indicated, are a fantastic source of vitamins and fiber for your guppies. Cucumber, for example, is abundant in B vitamins and vitamin C. Cucumber may be fed to your guppies by cutting it into little pieces with a knife or by using an aquarium veggie clip. The nicest part about feeding vegetables to guppies is that you can serve them to your entire family.

2. What are the Advantages of Feeding Live Food to Guppies?

If you wish to feed live food, there are several advantages to doing so. Guppies who need more nutrients in their diet should take live food, which is generally richer in protein than other forms of fish food.

You also don’t have to worry about your fish refusing to eat live food because it’s still alive when he does. If you have finicky eaters in your tank, this is an excellent option. Most fish will gladly consume live food, so you may continue to feed them even if they are picky. However, there are significant drawbacks to using live food. Guppies enjoy eating their food quickly, which can be risky when dealing with live food. If you’re using live feeders, ensure sure they’re not receiving too much food or eating too quickly. You don’t want them to become constipated or overeat to the point of bloating.

Furthermore, live food can be difficult for guppies to digest, and if they don’t have anything else in their diet, it can create major difficulties. However, if your guppies are used to eating live food, this shouldn’t be an issue for the majority of them.

3. What are the Advantages of Feeding Pellets to Guppies?

Pellets also have a number of advantages. They’re simple and affordable, making it easier on your wallet, and they’re simple to store, making them simpler for you.

The biggest advantage of pellets over other forms of feeder fish feeds is that they include all of the nutrition that a guppy needs in one little packet. They’re easy to digest and packed with all the nutrients your fish needs to stay happy and healthy.

Pellets, on the other hand, have a few drawbacks. They can be difficult to come by at certain pet stores, so you may have to acquire them online. They’re also lower in protein than other forms of food, so you might need to supplement them if your fish needs extra nutrients in its diet.

4. What are the Advantages of Feeding Blood worms to Guppies?

Blood worms, like pellets and live food, offer several advantages. They’re high in protein and cheap to boot! They’re also simple to store and travel, making things easier for you, which is always a bonus!

Blood worms, on the other hand, are a little more difficult for guppies to digest than pellets or frozen shrimp, so keep that in mind when deciding what sort of diet is ideal for your fish.

Blood worms may not be the ideal choice for your guppies if they have digestive or constipation problems.

What kinds of Human Foods Should You Avoid Giving Your Guppies?

You should avoid feeding some human meals to your guppies.

1. Foods That Have Been Processed

Guppies should not be fed processed meals such as pretzels or cereals. These meals are high in sugar and salt, which are bad for guppies (and humans!)

2. Which is Better: Beef or Chicken?

This is based on my own experience; I have never seen or heard of someone feeding their guppies steak or chicken. As a result, you should usually avoid giving these foods to your guppies. Alternatively, if you wish to feed beef or chicken, start with a little amount. After you’ve seen how it goes, you may decide whether or not to feed more. You may also feed your guppies high-quality brine shrimp and tubifex worms to meet their protein (non-veg) requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line on Best Food For Guppy Fish

Many folks are unsure how much food to offer their guppies on a daily basis. Feeding your guppies two times a day with around 1/8th of their body weight each time is a good rule of thumb.

If you have a big community tank with multiple guppies, you’ll need to cut back on the amount of food you offer them to ensure that everyone gets a fair portion! Overfeeding your guppies can cause major health concerns including constipation and bloat.

You also don’t want them to get hungry, as this can significantly reduce their lifetime! When it comes to feeding your guppies, aim for a middle ground. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions about guppy feeding, and I’ll be pleased to answer them.