Guppies are one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish. Their vibrant colors active nature and peaceful temperament make them a joy to have in the home aquarium.
But what do these colorful little fish eat?
Guppies are omnivores and will eat both plant and animal matter. In the wild, guppies feed on algae, insect larvae, small invertebrates, plant debris and even their own fry!
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the dietary requirements of guppies and how to feed them properly.
Natural Diet of Guppies
Guppies are native to northeast South America, where they inhabit freshwater streams, ponds, rivers and even brackish water. Their natural diet consists of
- Algae
- Decaying plant matter
- Insect larvae (such as mosquito larvae)
- Copepods, daphnia and other small invertebrates
- Debris and leftovers from larger fish
- Their own fry (babies)
Guppies are omnivorous foragers and opportunistic feeders. They will eat whatever food sources are readily available in their environment.
Their diet is higher in animal protein from insects and invertebrates earlier in life while young. As they mature, guppies shift to more plant matter and algae.
In the aquarium, you’ll want to replicate their diverse diet through a variety of foods.
What to Feed Guppies in an Aquarium
Guppies accept a wide variety of foods in the home aquarium:
High Quality Prepared Foods
The staple diet of guppies should be a high quality flake or pellet. Choose a reputable brand that contains spirulina, shrimp, fish meal and other high-quality ingredients.
Feed a mixture of flakes and pellets for variety. Guppies may also be offered:
- Freeze dried bloodworms, daphnia, brine shrimp or tubifex worms
- Live or frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, cyclops and more
Soak freeze dried foods before feeding to rehydrate. Feed live foods in moderation due to risk of introducing disease.
Fruits and Vegetables
Occasionally offer blanched veggies like zucchini, spinach, shelled peas or cucumber. These provide beneficial fiber and nutrients.
Fruits like orange, mango and melon can also be offered in moderation. Always wash produce and blanch before feeding. Remove any uneaten portions promptly.
Homemade Foods
You can make your own gelatin-based foods using ingredients like fish flakes, shrimp, spirulina and vitamins. Homemade foods should only supplement prepared diets, not completely replace.
How Much and How Often to Feed
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Feed guppies twice per day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Allow a gap of 8-12 hours between feedings.
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Only feed an amount they can completely finish within 1-3 minutes, 2 times per day. Remove any uneaten food promptly.
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Adjust amounts based on fish size and appetite. Young guppies and fry may need more frequent, smaller meals.
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One day a week, fast guppies by not feeding. This allows their digestive system to rest.
Overfeeding can foul water quality and lead to health issues in guppies. Use the 1-3 minute rule to avoid overfeeding.
Feeding Fry and Baby Guppies
Guppy fry and juveniles have faster metabolisms and higher protein needs. They should be fed more frequently:
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Newborn fry can be fed infusoria, microworms or powdered fry food 3-5 times daily.
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Juvenile guppies should be fed 3-4 times daily, with high quality powdered fry foods, crushed flakes or live baby brine shrimp.
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Start introducing micro pellets and adult foods at 2-3 months old as their growth slows.
Separate fry into their own rearing tank if possible. This allows easier monitoring of feedings and water quality. Dense plant cover gives fry places to graze on microorganisms.
Common Guppy Feeding Questions
Can guppies eat tropical fish flakes?
Yes, guppies can eat basic tropical fish flakes. For a well-balanced diet, choose a reputable brand formulated specifically for livebearers. Flakes should be supplemented with other foods like pellets and freeze dried treats.
Can guppies eat bloodworms?
Freeze dried or frozen bloodworms make an excellent supplement for guppies a few times a week. They provide protein and mimic natural prey like mosquito larvae. Soak freeze dried bloodworms before feeding.
Can guppies eat vegetables?
Guppies can occasionally be offered blanched vegetables like zucchini, cucumber, peas, spinach and shelled peas. Veggies give beneficial fiber and nutrients. Always wash and blanch vegetables before feeding to guppies.
Can guppies eat shrimp pellets?
Shrimp pellets can be fed to guppies, but a diet of primarily shrimp pellets may lack complete nutrition. Use shrimp pellets just for supplemental feeding or for conditioning guppies before breeding.
Can guppies eat their babies?
Yes, adult guppies may eat newborn fry, especially if they are hungry. This is why it’s best to separate pregnant females before they give birth. Well fed adults are less likely to eat babies. Providing plant cover gives fry places to hide and reduces chances of being eaten.
Key Takeaways on Feeding Guppies
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Guppies are omnivores that need both meaty and plant-based foods. Feed a variety of flake, pellets, live and freeze dried foods.
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Use a reputable brand of guppy or livebearer pellet or flake as the staple diet. Supplement with treats like bloodworms.
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Feed only what guppies can consume within 1-3 minutes, 2 times daily. Fast 1 day per week.
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Fry and juveniles need more frequent, protein-rich feedings of live or powdered fry foods.
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Overfeeding fouls water and can cause health issues. Adjust amounts based on appetite and fish size.
A proper guppy diet is key for health and coloration. By feeding a varied, high quality diet, you’ll keep your guppies active, growing and displaying their beautiful colors!
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- {“smallUrl”:”https://www. wikihow. com/s/thumb/6/68/Feed-Guppies-Step-1-Version-3. jpg/v4-460px-Feed-Guppies-Step-1-Version-3. jpg”,”bigUrl”:”/s/thumb/6/68/Feed-Guppies-Step-1-Version-3. jpg/aid1487667-v4-728px-Feed-Guppies-Step-1-Version-3. 1 Buy flake food made for tropical fish. Sizes: 460 pixels wide, 345 pixels tall, 728 pixels wide, 546 pixels high. Licensing: “License: Creative Commons<</a> <</p> <</p><</div> You can buy flake food at a fish shop or pet store to feed your fish every day. If you want to feed your guppies flake food, make sure it’s a good brand that has both protein and vegetable matter in it. Tropical fish flake food often has natural color enhancers in it that will make your guppies look brighter and more colorful. Do not buy fish food in pellet form; guppies will find it hard or impossible to eat this because their mouths are so small. If you buy more flake food than you can eat in a month, freeze the extra to keep the nutrients. Thaw an extra month’s worth of supplies a few days before you need to get more.
- {“smallUrl”:”https://www. wikihow. com/s/thumb/e/eb/Feed-Guppies-Step-2-Version-3. jpg/v4-460px-Feed-Guppies-Step-2-Version-3. jpg”,”bigUrl”:”/s/thumb/e/eb/Feed-Guppies-Step-2-Version-3. jpg/aid1487667-v4-728px-Feed-Guppies-Step-2-Version-3. 2. Give the guppies a small amount of flake food once or twice a day, preferably in the morning and at night, but make sure there is twelve hours of time between each feeding. Put a small amount of flakes into the water and watch the guppies eat them. They shouldn’t have to wait more than a few minutes to finish their food, no more than 30. One or two times a day is fine, as long as you give them the right amount of food each time. Don’t give guppies too little food. It’s easy to give them too much. Before you feed the guppies, make sure the lights are on for at least an hour. Guppy fish will eat or look for food even when they don’t need it. Even though your fish look hungry, don’t give them another meal. In fact, guppies that are actively looking for food will keep food scraps from piling up and making your water dirty. Advertisement .
- {“smallUrl”:”https://www. wikihow. com/s/thumb/8/8b/Feed-Guppies-Step-3-Version-3. jpg/v4-460px-Feed-Guppies-Step-3-Version-3. jpg”,”bigUrl”:”/s/thumb/8/8b/Feed-Guppies-Step-3-Version-3. jpg/aid1487667-v4-728px-Feed-Guppies-Step-3-Version-3. 3. Instead of eating flake food every once in a while, give your pet healthier treats. Guppies can live on flake food by itself, but live or frozen plants and animals are great to add to a flake food diet because they have extra nutrients. Replace one flake meal with treats every two to seven days, but only give them as many as they can eat in one minute. Any of the following are good treats, and most of them can be found at fish stores: 20% baby brine shrimp are mostly protein and are great to add to flake food that is high in vegetables and low in protein (40% or less). They are available in live, frozen, or flake form. If you run a net through still water, you can catch blood worms or mosquito larvae, which are tasty treats. Get a few larvae at a time so they don’t all hatch into mosquitoes at once. You can also feed the guppies earthworms, but you have to shred and rinse them first. If your guppies’ flake food is high in protein but low in vegetables, feed them peas that have been peeled, lettuce that has been shredded, or cucumber that has been finely chopped.
- {“smallUrl”:”https://www. wikihow. com/s/thumb/4/42/Feed-Guppies-Step-4-Version-3. jpg/v4-460px-Feed-Guppies-Step-4-Version-3. jpg”,”bigUrl”:”/s/thumb/4/42/Feed-Guppies-Step-4-Version-3. jpg/aid1487667-v4-728px-Feed-Guppies-Step-4-Version-3. 4. Stay away from tubifex worms and live daphnia There are many other kinds of fish food, and people who work at fish stores or own guppy farms may suggest other kinds of treats. But you should stay away from tubifex worms and daphnia, even if someone tells you to. Guppies love to eat tubifex worms, but sometimes they contain bacteria that can kill you. Live daphnia can hurt the tank if there are too many of them because they take oxygen away, but they are more expensive and harder to raise than other live foods.
- {“smallUrl”:”https://www. wikihow. com/s/thumb/d/d2/Feed-Guppies-Step-5-Version-3. jpg/v4-460px-Feed-Guppies-Step-5-Version-3. jpg”,”bigUrl”:”/s/thumb/d/d2/Feed-Guppies-Step-5-Version-3. jpg/aid1487667-v4-728px-Feed-Guppies-Step-5-Version-3. 5 Keep an eye out for signs that the animal is being fed too much. Since guppies have small stomachs but will still eat a lot if they can, they often get too much food. Here are some signs that you should cut back on the number of meals or treats you give them: Some people who own guppy fish only feed them six days a week, letting them go without food on the seventh day to eat. If the fish has waste tubes hanging behind it, it means it ate too much and blocked its intestines. If adult male guppies eat too much fat, their chests get bigger, giving them a “potbelly.” Cut back on the food and swap out treats that are high in fat, like blood worms or beef heart, for ham crumbs that are low in fat. If the water in your tank is cloudy and dirty a lot, it could be because of too much food or waste. As a general rule, you should change the water in your tank about once every one to two weeks, or more often if it gets crowded.
- {“smallUrl”:”https://www. wikihow. com/s/thumb/2/2d/Feed-Guppies-Step-6-Version-3. jpg/v4-460px-Feed-Guppies-Step-6-Version-3. jpg”,”bigUrl”:”/s/thumb/2/2d/Feed-Guppies-Step-6-Version-3. jpg/aid1487667-v4-728px-Feed-Guppies-Step-6-Version-3. 6 Think about how to feed your pets while you’re away for more than a week. Adult guppies that are healthy can go a week without food before they get sick, so if you are only going to be gone for a few days, you might want to skip feeding them. For a longer trip, one of these options is suggested: use an automatic feed dispenser to give out food at set times; Make sure there is enough food for the whole time you are gone, and set the dispenser so that food comes out once or twice a day. Test a feeder block or gel feeder before leaving. These blocks of dry or gel-covered food are left in the tank and are slowly eaten. But dry blocks can change chemicals in ways that aren’t safe, and gel blocks aren’t always taken seriously. Before you leave, try both kinds for a few days to make sure there are no problems. Flake food should be given to them by a friend or neighbor every two or three days. When feeding for the first time, people often give too much food. To avoid this, it’s best to put each pinch of food in a pillbox or another container with the day of the week clearly marked on it. Make it clear to the caretaker that giving your guppies too much food could kill them.
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Quick Guide to Feeding Guppies
Feed guppies high-quality flake food made for tropical fish. Give them a pinch of flakes once or twice a day. If it takes them a long time to eat, cut back on the amount. Also offer occasional, nutritious snacks like brine shrimp.
Simple Guppy Diet | How my Guppies Grow so Fast!
What do guppies eat?
Flakes are a popular and convenient food for guppies and provide them with the necessary nutrients to stay healthy. However, it’s important to note that guppies also benefit from a varied diet that includes other types of food, such as live or frozen foods like bloodworms or brine shrimp. What’s The Best Food For Guppies?
Do guppies eat from the bottom of a fish tank?
Guppies are naturally top feeders, which means they eat food from the surface or just below the surface of the water. That being said, guppies are also opportunistic eaters so they will eat wherever they can find food in the tank. So don’t get surprised if your guppies are eating from the bottom of the fish tank!
How much food do guppy fry eat?
The amount of food you give them should also depend on how many fish you have in your tank. If you have a large number of guppy fry in one tank (e.g., if you breed them), you may need to increase the portion size or feeding frequency so that every fish gets enough food.
Do Guppy eat protein?
Protein is an essential component of the guppy diet, as it promotes growth and overall health. Guppies require a high amount of protein in their diet, as they are constantly growing and need to replenish their tissues. In the wild, they obtain protein from small invertebrates, such as mosquito larvae and brine shrimp.