The way to feed your guppies depends on whether you’re feeding adult guppies or baby guppies (fry). It’s just as important as knowing what your guppies like to eat and what you can feed them when you’re out of their specific food.
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Feeding Adult Guppies
Here’s what to feed your adult guppies with a few of their favorite treats. Most of the guppy food below are live/frozen animals but guppies can also eat vegetables.
Bloodworms
Bloodworms, though high in fat, can be served to guppies live, frozen, and even freeze-dried. These are the larvae of the Chironomus mosquito and you should only feed them to adult guppies in small amounts and only occasionally. If they aren’t live, your guppies might not eat them on the first go.
Grindal Worms
Grindal worms are ok to feed to adult guppies that are half an inch in length or more. You can raise these in a sterilized, moist peat moss mix or in potting soil.
White Worms
White worms are similar to grindal worms but they are higher in fat. Thus, you shouldn’t feed them to your guppies too often. Due to their size, you need to mince them up.
Mosquito Larvae
These are the typical larvae you see at the surface of outdoor water, and about the most natural food available for guppies; in fact, guppies and their relatives the mosquito fish are intentionally put in lakes and streams to control mosquito populations.
It’s also the closest thing to what guppies eat in the wild. The larvae provide many needed vitamins and albumen. Your guppies will the mosquito larvae as long as they can fit them into their mouths.
Brine Shrimp
Though brine shrimp has a high in salt content it is still a great source of protein. You can get it in flake and frozen forms.
Feeding Baby Guppies (Fry)
Your guppy fry needs a different feeding regiment than the adults. They also eat more often which is needed for optimal growth. And, given that an adult female guppy can birth anywhere between 2 to 200 fry, feeding is important for maximum survival.
Baby Brine Shrimp
Baby brine shrimp is the best food for guppy fry. If you have a large quantity of fry, you will want to feed them live baby brine that you made at home for the best results.
If however, you only have a small aquarium, you can opt for the frozen variety. Make sure though, that it is BABY Brine Shrimp, not Adult Brine Shrimp.
Microworms
Microworms can easily be grown at home and fed live to your baby guppies. It is an excellent food choice and a low-cost alternative to baby brine shrimp. However, as with all things, a variety of both is best for your fry.
Vinegar Eels
Vinegar eels are suitable for small fry and you can make your own using unpasteurized cider vinegar or you can buy cultures. All that is needed really is cider vinegar, an apple, and water.
Daphnia
You may know these as “water fleas”, of which there are magna and pulex varieties. Magna is a tad bit larger than purex and is more suitable for guppies.
Things To Note
Guppies are easy to overfeed. Hence, you should only feed adult guppies a small amount of food one, two, or three times a day. Newborn fry can eat 4 to 8 times daily.
For adult guppies, do not feed them more than they can eat in roughly five minutes. A pinch of food in the morning and another pinch at night is often sufficient for guppies.
Of course, the amount depends on how many guppies you have in the tank. You also have to consider if you have any other tropical fish in the tank that can compete with your guppies for food.
A good pointer to note is that the larger/bigger your guppy grows, the less food it will need to survive. Always keep that in mind.
Fish flakes and pellets are ok to feed to your guppy. You should get ones made specifically for guppies. Guppies can eat goldfish food or food made for bettas and other freshwater aquarium fish once they have a varied and balanced diet. You can get any of the above food for your guppy at your local pet shop or online fish shops.
Quick fact about guppies, separate adult guppies from baby guppies as the adults will not hesitate to eat the young. Your guppies can survive for a day without food but don’t make it a habit. Well-fed, happy guppies live for longer, show brighter colors, and are more active.