One of the best things about guppies as pets is that you can feed them almost anything you choose. Guppies always look hungry and will happily chow down anything they find. Being omnivores, guppies easily take to a variety of plant-based and meat-based food. However, just because they will eat anything, it doesn’t mean it is beneficial for them. For instance, let us look at what happens when we feed them a staple household item – bread! Can guppies eat bread?
Yes, guppies can eat bread. However, it is not recommended to feed bread to guppies. It has yeast that causes digestion issues in fish. Bread also doesn’t have the nutrients or minerals guppies need. It contains sugar, corn syrup, preservatives, and flavoring agents that are unhealthy for guppies.
So, avoid feeding your guppies bread as it can adversely affect their well-being.
Okay! If not bread, then what can you feed your guppies?
What Should You Feed Guppies?
Guppies are tropical fish with a healthy appetite. They can consume both plant and meat-based foods.
In the natural habitat, guppies feed on algae, plant fragments, aquatic insect larvae, and invertebrates.
These fish take to new foods easily, and they thrive on a varied diet.
As a guppy owner, you can keep your fish healthy and happy on a varied diet that provides them the same nutrients that they would find in their wild habitats.
You can either feed them commercially available fish food or homemade fish food for this purpose.
Recommended Further Reading:
- What Do Guppies Eat – The Ultimate Food Guide For Guppy Owners
- Do Guppies Eat Each Other? And How To Stop Them?
- Can Guppies Live With Angelfish? (Crucial Facts + Compatibility Issues)
Best Commercially Available Fish Food For Guppies
Commercially available fish food is a balanced source of nutrition for guppies.
Although you will come across an almost endless selection, always opt for good quality fish food.
It should have a high protein content.
Readymade fish flakes with good protein levels will help guppies grow fast and stay healthy.
Guppies also need plant-based food for optimal health. Commercially available vegetable pellets will help them meet their needs.
Choose good quality vegetable pellets with generous doses of vitamins and minerals.
Foods with carotenoids are good for guppies, as they will enhance their colors and make them more beautiful.
We recommend feeding your guppies different types of store-bought fish food.
By varying the feed, you can ensure that they get all the nutrients they need.
Also, you should alternate packaged food with live foods for a varied diet.
Homemade Food For Guppies
There are many advantages of feeding homemade food to your fish.
Not only is it cheaper, but it is also natural and free from artificial flavors and preservatives.
You do not have to wait till you run out of fish food to feed guppies homemade food.
Guppies will eat fresh or frozen vegetables like spinach, cucumber, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli.
Use these vegetables to make flake food and use them for several days.
To make it last for a few days, blend the vegetables into a puree.
Then place the mixture in an oven to remove the moisture. After it completely dries, crush it into flakes and use it to feed your fish.
Apart from vegetables, you should also give guppies meat-based food to meet their protein needs.
You can use small quantities of egg yolk from a hard-boiled egg for this.
Egg yolk is a complex protein and is very nutritious. However, it is high in fat. So, use it in moderation.
You can also feed them brine shrimp, freeze-dried daphnia, micro-worms, and vinegar eels as live food.
If you want to give them live food every day, stick to brine shrimp, which has more protein than fat.
Live food will help your guppies grow bigger. It will also enhance their color. So, make sure to include these foods in their diet.
Related Further Reading:
- When Do Guppies Get Their Color? (Exact Facts And Figures)
- Do Guppies Need Light? – The Definitive Guide To Guppies And Light
- Do Guppies Sleep? (How, When, And For How Long?)
What To Do When You Run Out Of Guppy Food?
On the rare occasion that you run out of store-bought guppy food, there is no reason to fret.
You can feed your pets with a variety of things that will most likely already be in your kitchen.
We already saw that vegetables are a good source of nutrition for guppies.
Blend vegetables like zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, spinach, or broccoli into a fine puree and freeze it.
When it is feeding time, simply cut a piece of the frozen puree and drop it into the tank.
Foods To Avoid Feeding Guppies
Guppies will eat rice, bread, and other products made from grains.
However, these foods do not offer any nutritional benefits.
Bread and other processed foods also contain filler ingredients that are harmful to fish. So, avoid feeding grain-based foods.
Another food to avoid is tubifex worms. Although tubifex worms are a good source of protein, they may have lethal bacteria.
Although guppies are hardy fish, they may still get infected. So, try to choose other types of live and freeze-dried foods.
Risk Of Overfeeding Guppies
Guppies always look hungry. Their enthusiasm towards food may make you wonder if you aren’t feeding them enough.
And that may lead you to feed them bread or other commonly available food items in your kitchen.
However, they do not need too much food. Overfeeding is, in fact, very bad for their health.
Adult guppy fish need food once a day or every other day.
Offer them small quantities of food that they can eat in 30 seconds. When offering live food, divide it into small doses.
Since guppies will eat as much food as they get, you can easily overfeed them.
Watch out for signs of overfeeding like tubes of waste dangling behind the fish or a bulging stomach area.
Excess feeding will also cause more frequent waste elimination that can affect the water quality of your tank.
Many fish owners occasionally skip feeding their guppies. It gives their digestive system time to rest and recuperate.
Food For Young Guppies
Guppy fry will eat almost anything that adult guppies eat.
However, their feed should be in the form of a fine powder or paste that will conveniently fit in their tiny mouths.
You can feed guppy fry the same store-bought food that you use for adult guppies.
However, ensure that you crumble the pellets into a fine powder that will fit their mouth.
Young guppies have higher protein requirements than adults.
They will grow bigger and faster when fed good quality protein food like brine shrimp.
Never feed guppy fry any breadcrumbs.
It doesn’t do anything for their health and is not recommended in any situation.
Interesting Further Reading:
- Can Guppies Eat Betta Food? (Here’s What You Should Know)
- Can Guppies Live With Mollies? (Similarities, Challenges & Adaptability)
- Do Guppies Die After Giving Birth? (Here Are The Facts)
To Wrap It Up….
Guppies are hungry fish that will eat anything that comes their way.
They are not fussy and do not have preferences for any specific type of food.
However, the quality of their diet determines the size they grow to and their coloration.
Guppies do best on a rich and varied diet that has both plant and animal-based nutrients.
Commercial guppy food is high in protein, and it has a generous dose of vegetable matter.
We recommend vegetable pellets or flakes with minimum fillers for guppies.
However, supplement vegetable pellets with live food like brine shrimp and micro worms to make your guppy fish healthier.
Should you ever run out of store-bought guppy food, resist the temptation to feed your fish bread.
It has no nutritive value. Additionally, ingredients like yeast and corn syrup will adversely affect their digestive capacity.
Instead of bread or breadcrumbs, give them pureed vegetables like cucumbers and carrots, and they will enjoy and benefit from this type of food.
