Guppies usually do not eat each other. They are peaceful creatures. However, guppies do have a tendency to eat other smaller guppies or fish if they are hungry. They might also end up biting other fish in your tank, especially if you add them later to the tank.
Let’s now talk about everything related to guppies eating each other. We will discuss in detail about things like, if you can keep your guppies and guppy fry in the same tank, if guppies eat other dead guppies, if baby guppies eat other baby guppies, etc.
Do Guppies Eat Other Dead Guppies?
If a guppy dies in your tank due to any reason, then it should be removed immediately.
Guppies usually have a tendency to take a bite at immovable or dead guppies.
You certainly don’t want your guppies to eat a dead guppy as it would deteriorate their health.
Also, dead guppies rot easily, and that will contaminate the tank water. This is not good for the other living guppies.
So, it is highly recommended that you remove the dead guppies. This will avoid other guppies from eating the dead guppies.
Do Guppy Fry Eat Each Other?
Guppies are often considered as the best pet fish you can keep.
They are not only beautiful but also have low maintenance, and most importantly, guppies are easy to breed.
So, it is natural to wonder if guppy fry will eat each other.
Guppy fry do not eat each other.
Guppy fry follow the same food chain that is followed by their parents, so they will eat food that their adult parents eat.
They usually prefer live food like baby brine shrimp, micro worms, daphnia, etc.
Other than that, guppy fry will eat food that is either crushed or small in size or which easily fits into their mouth.
However, if you have a guppy fry that is a little older and another fry that is just born, then the older guppy might eat the younger fry.
But, you need not worry too much about it because it is rare for this to happen.
Now that you know that you can keep guppy fries together in a single tank, the next thing that you might be wondering about is whether your guppy fry are safe if you keep them with their parents or other elder guppies.
Do Guppies Eat Their Babies? How Can You Stop Them?
Guppies are usually a great addition to your aquarium as they are easy to breed.
However, there are certain challenges that you face if you have a bigger tank with lots of adult guppies and guppy fry.
Mother guppy will likely eat all their babies if they are kept in the same tank.
Guppies usually are not known for their parental care.
So, if you have a guppy fry in the same tank along with your other guppies, it might get eaten.
The simple reason for this is that your guppy might mistake the fry to be its food.
This behavior is known as filial cannibalism.
It is common in many species of the animal kingdom and is not only limited to guppy fish.
Now, you must be wondering how to save your guppy fry. You certainly don’t want them to be eaten by adult guppies.
There are certainly ways to stop adult guppies from eating the fry. Some of these ways are mentioned below:
- You can deter the guppies from eating the fry by adding plants in your fish tank. This is basically a hide and seek technique. Your guppy fry can hide in the plants. If the adult guppies are not able to see or trace the fry, they will not eat them either.
- You should ensure that your guppies are adequately fed. If your guppies get hungry and notice a baby guppy in front of them, they will eventually eat the fry. You can avoid this by feeding your guppies high-quality food that contains all the required nutrients. Guppies like live food such as artemia, mosquito larvae, daphnia, etc.
- Another option is that you can keep your guppy fry in a separate breeding tank until they grow up.
- Alternatively, you can also just put a partition in the tank to separate out the guppy fry and other elder guppies.
Do Guppies Bite Each Other?
By now, you must have realized that guppies are peaceful in nature.
They are very lively and swim around very frequently in the tank.
However, biting is a very common tendency in fish. And guppies are no different. Guppies can become a little territorial.
So, your guppy might end up biting fins and tails of other fish.
This will look like your guppies are fighting with each other.
That is why, you should keep an eye on your guppies to see if they are biting at each other.
Otherwise, your guppies might get injured.
