Guppies are one of the most common freshwater fishes that you can find at a home. They are capable of living at any temperature and in most environments. But what do guppies eat, do you ever think about guppies eating vegetables? It’s true, they can eat vegetables too.
Guppies can eat fish food and live foods, you can feed fish foods such as Brine Shrimp, Frozen bloodworms, mosquito larva, Moina, etc; They can eat vegetables such as lettuce, peas, cucumbers, etc. but don’t overfeed guppies because it will distress.
The guppies are one of the best fish that can live in any environment, but you need to plant some live plants. In my home, I have to build a pond for guppies and plant lotus plants and some other live plants.
Many people don’t know to feed the guppies correctly. Due to overfeeding and low-quality feeds, many guppies have started to die. You can use filter for Guppy and read my detailed Guppy pond setting guide.
To know more about feeding guppies, just follow till the end!
What Food Do Guppies Eat
Guppies can eat both fish food and live food. But you need to feed them according to the size of the guppies. Guppies can vary in different size, with the males normally being smaller sizes ( 1.5 to 3.5 Cm).
Female guppies range in size from 3 to 6 cm in length. Mature guppies can eat foods like fish food: Brine Shrimp, Frozen bloodworms, mosquito larvae, etc.
Brine Shrimps: Brine Shrimps are the common name for small, salinity tolerant, aquatic crustaceans. It is also known as Artemia.
We are recommending feeding artemia for guppies, you can culture artemia at home with Artemia Culture Kit.
Frozen Bloodworms: It was the favorite food for freshwater fishes. You can feed guppies, bettas, eels, etc.
Mosquito Larva: Mosquito Larva is fish food, You can feed guppies but not overfeed; This can lead to fish death. So feed only some larvae to guppies.
What Food Do Guppies Eat In Wild
In wild, guppies will eat a mix of meat, small insects, Larvae, fry vegetables, and plants. They will eat guppy fry, mosquito larvae, algae, and decomposed leaf particles.
Guppy Fry: Guppies will eat their own fry at the moment of the hatch. Guppie fries are nutritious means for their parents. If they eat a lot of fries, plenty of them will survive.
Algae: Algae is the common food that guppies can eat where they live. It can be found anywhere they live and it provides needed fiber in their diet.
Leaves: Leaves that fall into water will decay and it was an excellent meal for guppies.
Best Food For Guppies
Most of us are very busy in day-to-day life, We don’t have time to prepare our own fish food. So you need to buy nutritious and vitamin food for fish.
Many people are using common food, that hobbies feed their guppies with flake food. It was the best food for guppies with all the necessary nutrients and vitamins.
We recommend feeding once a day quality flake food. Don’t overfeed.
The below table will show the list of food for guppies.
You can buy the food from the link.
Food Name | Food Type |
New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes | Flakes |
New Life Spectrum FLOAT | Pellets |
New Life Spectrum AlgaeMax | Wafers |
Aquacarium Brine Shrimp | Freeze-dried |
Aquacarium Tropical Flakes | Flakes |
Aquacarium Tubifex Worms | Freeze-dried |
Aquacarium Veggie Flakes | Flakes |
Best Home-made Food For Guppies
After busy life, if you have time to prepare food for guppies.
You can prepare or culture your own fish food for guppies, It would be the best food that has high nutrition and vitamins.
Brine Shrimp
It was the best food for guppies, you can feed brine shrimp as live food. It has 60% protein content and 25% fat and carbohydrates.
Brine shrimp was good for guppy fries, as its protein, and fat will help to grow guppy fry faster and bigger.
You can culture brine shrimps in your home and feed guppies as live food.
We recommend buying the Brine Shrimps Hatchery kit
Egg yolks
Egg yolk is another common food for guppy fries. it cannot be fed to adult guppies due to fat.
The egg yolks provide a lot of fat to fish, So don’t feed to adults. The egg yolk is a great source of protein and also includes sodium potassium, Vitamins such as A, C, D, and B-12, and minerals such as calcium, Iron, and Magnesium.
The yolk is a boiled egg that was crushed and turned into a paste type for feeding fish, you can feed egg yolks to guppies fries (Only in low quantity).
Daphnia
Daphnia can be purchased from a store and keep it as a freeze. majority of fish keepers feed daphnia for fishes.
It was great for fish with protein, carbohydrates, and fat. It can feed all fishes. Don’t overfeed.
Daphnia was easy to the culture at home, it requires 8 to 10 hours of light and they feed on algae, yeast, and bacteria.
You need outdoor space for culturing daphnia, it must be difficult to culture daphnia indoors due to the smell
How to feed Your Guppy fish?
Feeding guppies are very easy, guppy fish always hungry for food, so they can be overfed very easily, they will as much as you give them will lead to health issues.
In order to feed guppies, you need to schedule time for feeding. You can feed once or twice per day. Give them a good diet and good foods.
If you feed morning and evening, then it will be a good time for feeding because they get time to digest the food.
Offer only small pinches of food that can be eaten within 1 minute. Don’t overfeed the guppies.
Can a guppy eat betta food?
Don’t feed betta food to guppies, it will take time for digestion. I will not recommend giving betta fish food to guppies.
It will lead to health issues and stomach bulging. Provide good foods to guppies. You can feed some vegetables to guppies instead of betta fish foods.
What vegetables can guppies eat?
These are the vegetable that you can give to guppies, the list was endless so we picked some of them for guppies.
Cucumber/ Tomatoes: When feeding this vegetable, you need to make sure to remove the seed and jelly parts. Crush it into small and feed them to guppies.
Lettuce/ Spinach: You can feed the leaves after boiling them in water for 10 minutes and give them to guppies as small pieces.
Corn / Peas: When you feed corn of peas, you need to boil it until softer. Then move the outer shell and give to the guppies.
How many days can guppies live without food?
Healthy adult guppies can live without food for 1 week. But don’t feed once in a week, it affects the health of guppies.
Provide live plants and algae to stay healthy.
(We won’t recommend feed fishes once in week, Try to feed twice per day)