Best Food For Guppies: Guppy fish are active schooling fish that need to be fed a healthy and balanced diet to grow, develop bright colors, and have a healthy immune system. Guppies need a mixture of high protein foods with ingredients to enhance their colors.
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What To Feed Guppies?
Brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, tubifex worms, and mosquito larvae are all great food for guppies. Of course, out of convenience and also to ensure they have all the required nutrients, getting commercial fish food is some of the easiest ways to feed them. Here are some of the best available in the markets currently.
Hikari Tropical Fancy Guppy Fish Food
Hikari tailored their guppy food based on scientific research so that they could develop food that promotes growth, beautiful colors, and a strong immune system much like wild guppies.
These are very tiny grains of food that are great for guppies and small feeder fish. It saves you the trouble of having to crumble tropical fish flakes for them and there is less waste.
It’s a slow sinking, absorbent pellet which allows ample time for the guppies to eat it up before it sinks to the bottom of the tank. Bonus, it doesn’t cloud the aquarium water.
New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes
New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes contains Antarctic krill, squid, spirulina, garlic, omega-3, wakame seaweed and more. All these ingredients combined promote vivid colors and a healthy immune system in guppy fish.
Omega One Super Color Flakes
Omega One’s guppy food contains salmon and high levels of beta-carotenes which help guppies develop deep, vibrant colors. It’s filled with natural fat, fresh kelp, high in protein and low in carbohydrates. It also does not cause the fish tank water to become cloudy.
Cobalt Aquatics Ultra Guppy Nano Floating Bits
Cobalt Aquatics Ultra Guppy Food is small enough to feed baby guppies in a breeding tank and big enough to feed adult guppies. It sinks a bit faster than other brands but it shouldn’t be a problem as it doesn’t cloud the water.
One downside is that it’s not a good fit for automatic feeders as the food is a fine powder that the feeder might drop too much into the water.
Fluval Hagen Color Enhancing Flakes
The Fluval Hagen color enhancing flakes is high in proteins, trace elements and antioxidants derived from Atlantic Herring and Norwegian Krill. The food also contains nutritious kelp, a rich source of omega 3, polyunsaturated fatty acids.
It doesn’t make the water cloudy but it might turn the water red after about a few days of feeding so you may need to do regular water changes.
API Fish Pellets
API fish Pellets are also an excellent food for guppies because it’s high protein which promotes healthy growth. It sinks slowly so the guppies have lots of time to gobble it up. It’s made up of algae, shrimp, worms to help accelerate healthy growth and enhances their color.
Zoo Med Spirulina Flakes
These spirulina flakes contain salmon fish meal and spirulina algae meal both of which encourage the development of bright colors in fish. It’s best to use it alongside a live food based diet as a supplement to your guppy’s diet.
The flakes are a bit larger than other recommended food for guppies but they are easy to crush with your fingers.
3 Ingredients To Look For In A Good Guppy Food
When buying guppy fish food, be sure to read the ingredient list and ensure that it contains most of the following ingredients:
- Whole Fish – It gives fish the most usable protein and contains all of the essential fatty oils that are important for fish health. Look at the ingredients list for things like whole shrimp or krill and even salmon.
- Spirulina – This is actually blue-green algae in the form of flakes or pellets. It’s an excellent source of vitamins and minerals and even contains some protein. It’s best used for enhancing colors in fish.
- Kelp – This is another form of algae that is also a good source of vitamins and minerals for guppy fish. It is an excellent substitute for all the algae that guppies would be eating if they were in the wild.
What To Avoid When Buying Food For Guppy?
- Generic Fish Meal – Why can’t the manufacturer name the fish used to make the food? This is a sign of poor quality ingredients. Avoid.
- Wheat – Used in small quantities to bind fish food together but it should never be any of the main ingredients in fish food.
- Soy – Never buy fish food with soy as the main ingredients. It is difficult to digest and will be excreted in poop. More poop makes for a dirty aquarium. Avoid.
Further reading:
- Interpreting a Fish Food Package Label
- Understanding Fish Nutrition, Feeds, and Feeding
- Can Guppies Eat Goldfish Food?
- Harpaz, Sheenan & Slosman, Tatiyana & Segev, Ran. (2005). Effect of feeding guppy (Poecilia reticulata) diets in the form of powder versus flakes. Aquaculture Research. 36. 996 – 1000. 10.1111/j.1365-2109.2005.01308.x.
