Guppies are very popular pets. This is mainly because of their color, which comes in many different shades and patterns. Fish are also easier to care for than a dog or a cat and fewer people are allergic to them. That being said, keeping any animal alive can pose challenges. Keeping your fish alive for the longest possible time can be tricky. Guppies , like any pet need proper food and care if you want them to produce as much color and growth as they can, as well as being in proper shape to breed. This article will walk you through the diet requirements of your guppy, while also explaining the pros and cons of multiple types of commercial foods.
Understanding Guppy Nutrition Needs
But what, you ask, are the best foods to feed guppies?
In the wild guppies eat a variety of thngs such as green algea and invertebrates, like mosquitoe larvae. Did you know that according to a study done by professors at the University of Victoria and The Universty of the West Indies, "The presence of guppies led to a 30% reduction in overall insect richness compared to controls" (Implications of the Guppy (Porcilia reticulata) Life-History phenotype for Mosquito Control, results). They even eat other fish. But what do they eat in captivity?
Well, fish food of course, but there are tons of things that you could feed your guppy. Guppies need some mix of protien, fiber, and vitamens. Vitamen A, vitamin C, vitamin E, Niacin, and calcium are all essential to guppy health (Fabian, What is the Guppy Fish Dietary Needs).
Another thing to consider is the differences between the dietary needs of fish being raised for different purposes. If you buy a guppy fry then the fry will have different dietary requirments then a guppy bought for breeding, and the both of them will have different requirements then an adult guppy. It should be noted that portion size is also very improtant. No one wants to over or under feed their guppy. You should not feed a guppy more than it can eat in a couple minutes.
Recomended Foods for all Life Stages
It is recommended to feed your guppy fry baby brine shrimp. You can mix it with fry food or xtreme nano pellets if you want to diversify your guppy's diet. You can substitute baby brine shrimp with infusoria, vinegar eels, powdered fry food, or green water. It is recomemded that you feed your guppy fry 3-5 mini meals per day (Top 5 Tiny Foods to Feed Baby Fish for Healthy Growth). Baby guppies are very small and so they cannot eat a lot of food a once, so be careful how much food you give them.
You can feed adult guppies live food, freeze dried food, pellets, or flakes. These live foods include water flees, baby brine shrimp, micro worms, and daphnia. Freeze dried food is constituted of blood worms, tubiflex, and daphnia. Some recomended products include Aquarium Co-Op's Freeze Dried Bloodworms and Hikari's brine shrimp. Flakes include products like Hikari Fancy Guppy and an example of pellets are Hikari Micro Pellets. Feed them twice a day and if you are interested in breeding your guppies mix live food with commercial food, so that your guppies get a diverse and high-protien diet.
Live food is harder to come buy. You can either source it or culture it. If you choose to source live food you will probably have to find a specialty aquarium store. If you want to culture live food you need a container, a way to aquire whatever live food you want to culture, and a way to feed that live food. Organisms like bacteria will nourish most live food. The amount of sun and water will vary. If you want more information about this I recomend going to guppyexpert.com.
The other kinds of food that you can feed your guppies are frozen food and vegetables. Frozen food has a few advantages over live food. When the bllodworms or brine shrimp are frozen you do not have to worry about them being dieased and they have a longer shelf-life. To defrost the frozen food you can just place it in a container of cold water until the ice melts, just like how you thaw a frozen steak for dinner. The process of feeding it to your fish is no different than live food.
Vegetables are a great way for your guppy to get vitamens that they might be lacking. Vegetables that guppies will eat are, "zucchini, spinach leaves, cauliflower, cucumber, carrots, peas, green beans, broccoli, corn, potatos, cabbage and Kale" (Fabian,Frozen/Dried Food for Guppies). You are going to want to make a paste and then freeze or dry it before you you feed it to your fish.
Dos and Don'ts When Buying Commercial Fish Food?
One thing to consider is pellets versus flakes. Both are common types of fish food, and many people wonder which is better for their fish. The answer is that it depends on the fish. For guppies spefically it comes down to size. Gupppies are small and so are their mouths. This means that pellets are harder for them to swallow, so when buying fish food you should always look for flakes or micro pellets. You have to be careful when buying flakes, because they can be low quality. Pellets usually pack more nutrition and are less messy.
Don't give your guppies oily, processed, or fatty foods. Don't feed them human food unless it is something that was already recomended above, and remember DON'T OVERFEED YOUR GUPPY.
Do rotate the kinds of food your guppy eats. Variety is never bad. Keep the water clean in your tank. Unclean water can lead to serious health problems. Observe the eating patterns of your fish. If they differ it could mean your guppy is ill. If you want to know even more details I invite you to look at the ingredients of each product. You can find a detailed ingredients list for Hiari Micro Pellets and Hikari Fancy Guppy by going to Aquatium Co-Op online. We don't sell guppy food, so I reccomend you explore other cites like Aquarium Co-Op. Good luck taking care of those fish! And remmember to do your research.
References:
Warbanski ML, Marques P, Frauendorf TC, Phillip DAT, El-Sabaawi RW. Implications of guppy (Poecilia reticulata) life-history phenotype for mosquito control. Ecol Evol. 2017 Apr 1;7(10):3324-3334. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2666. PMID: 28515869; PMCID: PMC5433973. Smith S, Mohamed A, Amaral JR, Kusi N, Smith A, Gordon SP, López-Sepulcre A. Rapid evolution of diet choice in an introduced population of Trinidadian guppies. Biol Lett. 2023 Jan;19(1):20220443. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0443. Epub 2023 Jan 25. PMID: 36693425; PMCID: PMC9873468. Arce, Elsah and Franco, Marco and Luna-Figueroa, Jorge. 2018, 1. 171-179. The Effect of Live Food on the Coloration and Growth in Guppy Fish, Poecilia reticulata. 9, Agricultural Sciences. 10.4236/as.2018.92013 Bearly, I. (2022, October 24). Top 5 tiny foods to feed your aquarium fish fry for healthy growth. Op. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/baby-fish-food Fabian. (2023, June 5). Guppy fish diet: Nutrition needs, types, and feeding. AquariumNexus. https://www.aquariumnexus.com/guppy-fish-diet/ Fabian. (2025). Best Homemade Guppy Food - DIY Fish Food. https://Guppyexpert.com. https://guppyexpert.com/homemade-guppy-food/
