Guppies are colorful, hardy, and easy-to-care-for fish, which makes them popular aquarium pets. Although feeding guppies is not a complicated task, you should learn about their needs to avoid overfeeding and to make sure they are healthy.
So, how often do you feed guppy fish? Let’s find out the answer in this article. Also, you will know what food you should feed them.
How Often Do You Feed Guppy Fish?
Not all guppies are the same when it comes to feeding. Specifically, adult guppies and fry guppies will have different feeding frequencies.
Feeding Adult Guppies
If your guppies are adults, feed them two or three times per day with a small amount of food each time. Young fish need frequent meals that will support a rapid growth process, whereas adults function well with fewer meals throughout the day. I recommend giving the fish one pinch of food in the morning and another pinch at night, though the size of each pinch should be appropriate to the number of fish you are feeding.
Guppies that are about 3 months of age or when they have completed their intense growth phase can be fed on an adult feeding schedule.
Feeding Fry
Compared to adult guppies, baby guppies or fry need more energy or nutrition. Since their bodies are constantly changing, they need more nutrition to support their growing process. But they have smaller stomachs, so you can feed them too much food each time. Instead, just feed them small amounts of food between five and eight times each day. Make sure that you don’t give them too much food at a single feeding, as most of it will remain uneaten and will end up polluting the tank.
How Much Should You Feed Guppies?
It is difficult to know exactly how much food is enough for one feeding. This will greatly depend on how many guppies you have in your tank and what size they are.
But you can apply this tip to approximate estimates. For both adults and fries, you just throw the food into the tank and let them eat it within about five minutes. After those 5 minutes, remove the food that has not been eaten. You must estimate how many foods they have eaten in those 5 minutes, and next time you feed them the same amount of food.
What Food Can You Feed Guppy Fish?
Guppies are omnivores, so they’ll eat practically anything you put in the tank. Feeding them is very easy.
For fries, you can feed baby brine shrimp, crumbled fish-food flakes, and hard-boiled-egg yolks.
Feeding adult guppies is much easier. You can feed them a variety of foods, from live foods, flakes, and pellets to frozen foods. All these kinds of food can be bought at the pet shop, or you can raise live foods at home. They’ll eat algae in the tank as well.
Adding live foods to the guppies’ diet two or three times a week will benefit them. Some live foods you can choose from include brine shrimp, daphnia, bloodworms, or mosquito larvae. Although live food is the most nutritious food you can feed your fish, live foods do carry the risk of transmitting diseases to the tank. You should be careful and buy that kind of food only from a trusted supplier.
Although they are able to eat anything, I recommend choosing high-quality food for your guppies so that they will be healthy and long-lived. The pellet type of food is probably not the best option since it tends to be too large for the mouths of the guppies.
You can use flakes as a basic and daily food supply. The best flakes food is when it contains both protein and vegetable matter. If you want to enhance your guppies’ color, feeding them flake food intended for tropical fish is good.
The foods your guppies eat can be a wide variety of things, and it is recommended that you include other options in addition to the flakes in order to keep them healthy.
You can also add some vegetables to their diet, such as peas, cucumbers, lettuce,…
I am able to offer my guppies a wide variety of vitamins and minerals by varying their food. Consequently, their nutritional requirements are all met. It helps my guppies grow stronger and remain colorful, and it ensures that they have the best chance of fighting off pests and diseases.
How Do You Know If Your Guppies Are Overfeeding?
Guppies have small stomachs, but if you provide them with large quantities of food, they will still eat. That’s why overfeeding is a common phenomenon among guppies. I will show some signs that indicate your guppies are overfeeding. If you see any of these signs, reduce the amount of food you feed them or the frequency of feeding them.
- If you see tubes of waste dangling behind your guppies, it is a sign of the intestine being blocked as a result of overeating.
- In adult male guppies, if they have too much fat in their diet, they develop an unsightly “potbelly” or a bulging chest. Replace treats such as bloodworms or beef hearts that are fatty with crumbs of fat-free ham.
- When the water in your tank gets cloudy and dirty frequently, it may be the result of excess waste or food.
- Whenever you notice flake food resting on the bottom of the tank and the guppies are not eating it, you should know that you have overfed.
Video About Simple Guppy Diet
FAQs
How many flakes should I feed my guppies?
If you feed your guppies flakes every day, just feed them once or twice a day. I recommend you feed in the morning and at night, or feed at any time as long as the two meals are about 12 hours apart. Just drop a tiny pinch of flake food each time and let them eat within a couple of minutes.
How long can guppies go without food?
In case you are not at home or you are going on vacation and cannot feed your guppies, don’t be too worried because they are hardy and can still survive without being fed for up to 2 weeks. But it is not recommended to just feed them once every two weeks regularly.
How do you know if your guppies are hungry?
There are many signs that show your guppies are hungry. If you see your fish digging around the substrate, it may be that they are searching for food.
The second sign is that the guppies are waiting at the top of the tank. If you had a fixed feeding schedule, your guppies could get used to this schedule and would wait for feeding at the feeding time.
Another sign is that your guppies have slow or sluggish behavior.
Conclusion
I hope this article has provided you with useful information about how often you feed guppy fish.
Adult guppies and fry guppies will require different feeding frequencies. You have to notice it to prevent overfeeding or feeding not enough, and you also need to know what kind of food you should use to feed them.
Annette M. Chaney is an experienced marine biologist with over 20 years of experience as an aquarist and fishkeeper. She started her first aquarium at a young age, filling it with frogs and goldfish obtained from the ten-cent pet store.
Annette grew up caring for and breeding African Cichlids, which led to a hobby in high school that doubled as a profitable means. Attending Reed College gave her time to solidify herself as an accomplished aquarium caretaker with an eye for sales. After that, from 2009 – 2013, she studied at Roger Williams University – one of the most prestigious universities for Aquaculture and Aquarium in USA. She is the founder of AquariumCircle since 2010.