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I love to feed my guppies. It’s so much fun to watch them eat the food you offer them. But what should you feed them with? Anyway, what is the best food to feed your guppies with? How many times a day you should feed your fish?
In this article, I answer all your questions about guppy food and feeding schedule.
How to feed your guppy fish?
Guppy fish always look hungry and can be overfed very easily. They will eat so much of what you offer them. Overfeeding will cause health problems for your fish.
It’s enough to feed your guppies once or twice a day. Make sure you offer them a good diet and a variety of foods. Offer them a small amount of food as they can eat in 20-40 seconds. Several smaller pinches of flake food are ideal for this purpose.
If you offer your guppies live food such as bloodworms or brine shrimp, do not throw all the food into the aquarium at once. Divide it into several portions.
Guppies are omnivores. They will accept almost anything you offer them. When it comes to commercial food, the choices are endless. There are hundreds of companies that make fish food for adults and fry.
You can also prepare your own guppy food at home. This process is time-consuming, but worth trying if you want to raise beautiful fish.
The best buyable guppy food
Most of us don’t have the time and energy to prepare our own fish food. The easiest way to give your fish the nutrients and vitamins they need is to buy fish food.
The most common food that hobbyists feed their guppies is flake food, as it provides the fish with all the necessary vitamins and minerals.
It is recommended to feed once a day with a high quality flake food with high protein content.
Quality flake foods contain the ingredients listed on the label. When buying fish food, pay attention to the expiration date, as expired products may lack vitamins.
I have talked to guppy breeders who feed their fry only flake food and they are able to breed beautiful guppies very quickly with it.
Vegetable palettes Are another food you should include in your guppy’s diet. vegetable palettes contain vegetables like algae, plankton and spirulina. They are rich in vitamins B, C, D and E as well as containing iron and calcium.
Spirulina tablets help guppies resist skin infections and have healthier fins and tail. Thanks to the natural carotenoid pigments, this food will also accentuate the colors of your fish.
Guppies also love brine shrimp. You can feed them once or twice a week freeze-dried brine shrimp give. brine shrimp is a great source of protein, you can feed the adults with it as well as the juveniles.
Bloodworms are a great source of fat that should only be fed in small amounts to adult guppies. Feeding with freeze-dried bloodworms can significantly improve the growth rate of your fry.
Tubifex worms are an excellent conditioner for your fish. Don’t feed your fish live Tubifex worms, because if they are not kept in the right conditions, they can carry bacteria that will kill your fish. However, your guppies can be fed freeze-dried tubifex worms be fed once a week.
Here is a summary of the best (commercially available) guppy foods I use:
- Flake food
- Vegetable pellets, spirulina tablets
- Freeze-dried brine shrimp
- Freeze-dried bloodworms
- Freeze-dried tubifex worms
I have tried many brands; New Life Spectrum and Aquacarium work best for me. These offer all kinds of natural fish foods, including those listed above. Here is a list of products I use and recommend for feeding guppies:
Some of these products may be recommended for certain species of fish and many fish keepers may not consider this food suitable for guppies. All I can say is that my guppies love this food, grow fast and are super healthy. Just try them and see for yourself. You will be amazed by the results.
Homemade Guppy Food
If you have time, you can prepare your own fish food or grow your own live food.
Salt shrimps (Artemia) are the number one food for guppies, especially when given live to your fish.
brine shrimp have a protein content of 60% and about 25% fat and carbohydrates. High levels of protein, fat and carbohydrates will make your guppy fry grow bigger and faster. adult fish also like to consume brine shrimp.
Brine shrimp can be easily grown at home or indoors. To hatch brine shrimp eggs, I use a brine shrimp hatching kit purchased from Amazon years ago.
While brine shrimp eggs take 1-3 days to hatch, I recommend keeping multiple hatcheries running at the same time if you want to feed your fish live food daily.
Egg yolk Is one of the most common foods that hobby fish keepers prepare at home. Egg yolks provide a lot of fat for your fish, so adult fish should not be fed them in large quantities.
Egg yolk is a great source of protein and also contains sodium, potassium and vitamins like A, C,D, B-12 and minerals like calcium, iron and magnesium. The egg yolk is a complex food for guppy babies.
The yolk of a hard-boiled egg should be crushed into a paste and fed to your fish in small amounts. Do not overfeed your fish with this food, as it can heavily pollute the water.
Beef heart Is another superfood often fed to guppies. Once the beef heart has been trimmed of fat and cut into very small pieces with a blender or sharp knife, it can be fed to your fry. For better results it can be mixed with hard boiled egg yolk, carrots, spirulina powder, shrimp and other ingredients. Not recommended to feed to adult guppies due to high fat content.
Daphnia Can be purchased freeze-dried in stores, however the vast majority of fishkeepers who feed daphnia have their own culturing method. Daphnia is relatively easy to breed at home. They require 6-8 hours of light and feed on algae, yeast and bacteria. Growing daphnia indoors can be difficult because of the unpleasant odor. So keep this in mind if you want to grow daphnia in your home. Daphnia are a great source of protein, carbohydrates and fat. It also provides a large amount of vitamins A and D, which are vital for guppies and all other fishes.
Vinegar eels can also be bred at home. Usually 3 or 4 cultivations are running at the same time in case one crashes. Although they are easy to grow, harvesting them is a complicated process. The strong smell of vinegar is another disadvantage of breeding brine shrimp indoors. Although it is a good source of protein (50%) and fat (20%), you should not feed your fish the edibles very often. Microworms are similar to vinegar eels, but are easier to harvest and don’t have a strong odor because they can be stored in a sealed container.
Here’s what to do if you run out of fish food at home!
Take some frozen vegetables (cucumber, zucchini, spinach, carrots, peas, green beans and broccoli) and mix them together.
Put the mixture in a bag with a seal and put it in the freezer. Once the mixture is completely frozen, cut off a small piece and feed it to your fish.
You can also prepare flake food from the vegetable mixture. Put the vegetable mixture on a baking paper and put it in the oven. Set the oven to 120°C and dry it out completely. Once the mixture is completely dry, break it up into small pieces and pour it into an empty sealable container or bag. So you have your own homemade flake food!
Food for your guppy babies
The guppy fry will accept any food fed to adults. However, to ensure optional development, you should follow a strict feeding schedule. Feed the fry several times a day with the following foods:
- 5:00: Turn on the lights
- 6:00 – Baby brine shrimp
- 7:00 – freeze-dried bloodworms/flake food
- 11:00 – Beef heart mixed with vegetables
- 14:00 – live daphnia, vinegar eels/micro worms
- 17:00 – flake food before going to bed
- 18:00 – Turn off the lights
Leaving the light on for your guppy brood for more than 12 hours a day will greatly enhance growth. More frequent water changes are also recommended for baby guppies.
Magic guppy food recipe
One day I asked a friend of mine who is a veteran guppy breeder and has won many competitions at various fish shows: What is your secret?
He says that he feeds his fry with the best food. He prepares his own fish food and the recipe is secret. I managed to get him to tell me the ingredients, but I had to make a promise that I would not copy his food. He didn’t tell me about the amounts, so you’ll have to find out for yourself.
Here are the ingredients of the ultimate guppy flake food:
- Bone meal
- Carrots
- Dhapnia
- Dried seaweed
- Fish liver oil
- Fish meal
- Plankton
- Soybean meal
- Spirulina
- Vitamins A,B, B1, B2 and D3
- Wheat
- Yeast
- Yellow sweet potatoes
How to feed guppies during your vacation?
If you are worried about your fish dying during your vacation, I have good news for you. Adult guppies can go up to 2 weeks without food. Young fish are more sensitive, but they can last a week without food.
If you don’t want to leave your fish without food for a week or two, you can buy and set up an automatic feeder. I tried several units, but the Eheim automatic feeder worked best for me. It can be set to feed at certain times up to 8 times a day. The battery lasts a very long time, so I don’t have to worry about it. Feeders can get clogged when using flake food. So pay attention to!
Closure
It doesn’t matter if you are a guppy breeder, master or beginner or just a hobby fish keeper, now you know what to feed your guppies with.