Best Food for Guppies: The Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to food, guppies tend not to be very selective. They will probably eat anything that connects with their palates. But you should be picky as they are not.

Offering the wrong food might harm your guppies very much – it can even lead to fatal diseases.

So, what should feed to your guppies?

Well, there are a great many options. We will look into the options one by one together in today’s guide of the best food for guppies.

Some choose to go for only the commercial ones, while some prefer the fresh live food. I would suggest you going for a combination!

Without any further ado, let’s jump on to the detailed guide.

Best Food for Guppies – Top 5 Commercial Options

​1. Hikari USA Tropical Fancy Guppy – The Overall Best

Hikari, the Japanese brand is becoming more and more popular among the fish keepers all around the world. The Hikari USA Tropical Fancy Guppy is a specially formulated for guppies.

This product sits on top of the list because of the soft granules that are suitable for both the adult and guppy fries. The granules contain DHA, EPA, and amino acids along with other nutrients.

However, they are most proud of the Micro-Coating™ technology that locks in the nutrients.

​2. TetraMin Tropical Flakes – Best Food for Guppy Growth

Tetra is one of the most popular names in the industry due to their superior products. Recently, they have changed the formulation of the TetraMin Tropical Flakes by adding prebiotics.

This is a balanced diet that contains antioxidants for better immunity and prebiotics that help with the digestion. Moreover, the Cleaner and Clearer™ technology will not pollute or change the color of the water.

​3. Omega One Super Color Flakes – Best Food for Guppy Color

Is your guppy losing the appealing color that it once had? Well, Omega One can help you with this case.

They have synthesized the beta carotene found in the salmon skin and added it to the food. It also has a rich quantity of Highly Unsaturated fatty Acids (HUFA) that helps the immune system.

Omega has gained immense popularity among the fish keepers for offering rich marine-based ingredients from Alaska. You will be getting meal-free nutrients collected from nature.

• 4. Hikari Tropical Micro Pellet Fish Food – Best Guppy Pellets

This is another wonderful product from Hikari that helps to brighten the color of your guppies. Hikari Tropical Micro Pellets have a balance between krill and spirulina to do so. These tiny pellet granules are specially designed for the smaller mouth openings.

You will also get the micro coating sealer that locks the goodness of the nutrients.

​5. API Tropical Mini Pellets – Less Ammonia, Cleaner Water

API has launched a variety of flakes in the market, but you should get the Tropical Mini version for your guppies.

The pellets contain high quantity protein coming from squids and shrimps. The overall mixture is very healthy, and you can use it as the staple food for your guppies.

You will just have to feed the pellets twice a day to provide them enough nutrients.

FAQ – All You Need to Know About Best Food for Guppies

​How to Feed Your Guppy Fish?

Do you guppy always look hungry and never stop munching off the food?

These little monster munchers love to eat and barely understand when to stop eating. Even though guppies have a tiny stomach, they try to eat as if it was the last meal on earth.

Here’s the problem – overeating can pose lethal harm to their health!

So, what should you do?

The idea is to feed them in low quantity but more frequently.

For example, the feeding sessions should never be longer than 20 to 40 seconds. Take few pinches of flakes and toss it in the tank.

It would be better if you can ditch the commercial food and offer natural live food for your guppies. I am talking about offering brine shrimps and bloodworms.

However, you need to make sure that the brine shrimps or the bloodworms are coming from a healthy source and don’t contain parasites. Otherwise, you will be doing more harm than helping.

Some fishkeepers also prepare homemade food for their guppies. It’s another great approach, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Moreover, not everyone can make healthy and tasty food for guppy at home.

How Often Should Guppies Be Fed?

As you know already that the feeding sessions should be at short as possible so that the guppies don’t overeat.

However, you need to maintain a proper frequency so that they don’t get malnourished.

No, you can’t feed them only three times a day – it’ll not be sufficient.

If you are following the 20 to 40 seconds feeding sessions, you should be aiming at feeding them four to eight times every day.

The actual number of sessions depends on the size and age of your guppy. Obviously, the young guppies will not need as much food as the adult ones.

Okay, what if you forgot to feed them?

How long will they survive without food?

They can survive for about ten to fourteen days without food. So, if you are planning a short vacation of about a week, you can go without being in constant worry.

Still, you wouldn’t want to be that cruel, do you?

You should get an automatic fish feeder for your guppies so that they can have an ample amount of food even if you are not in the home.

What Can You Feed Guppies When Out of Food? What Can Fish Eat Besides Fish Food?

I have seen numerous fish keepers asking this question in the forums. It seems that due to the “always hungry” nature of the guppies, the owners often run out food.

So, what can you give your beloved fish in these dire times?

It’s safe to go for the greens in these situations.

Take peek in the refrigerator, and pick out the fresh vegetables. The fresher, the better!

These are some of the best options –

• ​Cucumber
• ​Kale
• ​Zucchini
• ​Carrots
• ​Pealed peas
• ​Green beans
• ​Spinach
• ​Broccoli florets

Always remember to cut the vegetable into tiny chunks. Guppies have a small mouth opening.

A great trick would be to blend them together.

If the vegetable is too hard (carrots or broccoli), make sure to boil them.

So, those were the vegetables? What about the meats and proteins?

You should only feed the animal proteins if your guppy is an adult. The young ones can’t digest complex proteins.

From my experience, guppies love having boiled egg yolk and beef heart. Some fish keeper feels that the beef heart works like a superfood for the guppies.

You can also try giving fish liver to them every once in a while.

Can Guppies Eat Goldfish Food?

Perhaps the goldfish is one of the most common and popular fish among the casual fish keepers. Even you can find a wide variety of goldfish food in the local pet stores.

So, can you use those foods for your guppies?

Yes!

Your guppies can eat about every kind of goldfish flakes that were primarily designed for the goldfish diet.

However, you will need to crush the flakes into even a smaller chunk. The typical goldfish flakes tend to be quite large for the guppies. If you put the flakes straight in the tank, your guppies not even try eating the flakes.

Why?

The chunks are too big for their mouths. They might nudge the flake chunks but will not swallow them.

The same thing can be said about pellets.

So, the bottom line is that guppies will eat the goldish foods, but you will have to customize them for the guppies.

More: Best Aquarium Wave Maker

How Do You Make Guppy Fish Food? Guppy Food Homemade

In recent years, more and more fish keepers are using homemade food for the fish. I think it’s a great practice.

This way, you can always give them fresh and healthy food and can control the quality of the food.

However, let me give you a fair warning – making the guppy foods at home can be time-consuming.

Also, you will have to make sure that you are giving them a balanced diet.

So, your aim should be creating a number of different food options. For example, you will need to create a protein-based, fat-based, and vitamin-based item. Then, you should create a routine so that they can have all kinds of nutrients in a day.

Now, let’s check out the recipes –

1. Brine Shrimps: The Tastiest One

Among all the food varieties, guppies love brine shrimps more than anything. Not only they taste good; they are full of helpful nutrients.

Some even say that it is the best food for guppies and platies.

Brine shrimp contains about 60% protein element and about 25% mixture of fat and carbohydrate. In short, your guppies will grow steadily with the goodness of brine shrimp.

Some fish keepers buy frozen brine shrimp from stores, but I would suggest you follow another path.

Grow them in your home!

In this way, you can ensure that the brine shrimps have good health and don’t contain harmful parasites.

You should get a number of separate tanks, preferably the smaller ones and get the brine shrimp hatchery kit.

The brine shrimp eggs will hatch within three days.

The whole idea of having multiple tanks is to have an abundance of continuous sources of brine shrimps at disposal at all the time.

2. Egg Yolk

Egg yolks are a great source of proteins, minerals, and vitamins. Some of the minerals include sodium, potassium, iron, magnesium, and calcium.

Apart from that, it contains vitamins A, C, D, and B-12.

However, you shouldn’t give the egg yolks to the guppy fries. They can’t digest the complex proteins and will end up having a bloated belly.

The ideal way of feeding the egg yolks is hard boiling and crushing them into small chunks. The final version should look like a gooey-paste.

One last thing – don’t overfeed the egg yolks to your guppies. It will pollute the water sooner than you think!

3. Beef Hearts

Among all the foods, the beef hearts are only second to the live brine shrimps in terms of popularity among the guppies.

Consider it a superfood.

It has a rich quantity of protein and fat. You can feed the hearts separately or as an ingredient of a guppy paste.

How can you prepare a guppy paste?

Mix the beef heart with boiled and crushed egg yolks, green vegetables, and spirulina.

4. Daphnia

Daphnia is a popular option that you can cultivate in your home. In fact, most of the fish keepers who feed daphnia to their fish culture the daphnia at home.

All you need to do is maintain proper light for 6-8 hours every day and offer them a good source of algae, yeast, and bacteria.

Daphnia is rich with protein, fat, carbohydrate, and vitamins A and D.

More: The Best HOB Filter for Your Aquarium

How Can You Create a Guppy Feeding Schedule?

So, guppies should be fed four to eight times every day. But you shouldn’t give them only one staple food in every session.

Mix things up!

To ensure vigorous growth and thriving life, you should try offering them a variety of food so that they never feel bored of eating.

An example of a guppy feeding schedule with a balanced diet should be somewhat like this –

Just like the example, you can make your own feeding schedule.

Can Guppy eat bread? or Cucumber?

Yes, and yes!

Guppies are omnivores and will eat any about anything that you feed them. However, just because they can eat bread or bread crumbs, it doesn’t mean you should feed them.

Bread or bread crumbs contain only carbohydrates and fibers. So, it will not help much with the growth.

Furthermore, most of the commercial bread in the store has high quantity preservatives and artificial flavoring.

Also, they will poop more often that will pollute the water drastically.

On the other hand, cucumbers are great for guppies! It’s a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Just chop off the cucumber is tiny chunks and offer them to the guppies.

Just remember to pick the fresh ones!

Conclusion

So, that was the detailed guide. Now, let me share with you the rank of the commercial options today.

Which one is the best commercial food for guppies?

Without any doubt, Hikari USA Tropical Fancy Guppy is today’s winner. This one has the highest nutritional values.

TetraMin Tropical Flakes grabs the second spot for making a balanced food that is rich with antioxidants and prebiotics.

Omega One loses the second position by a narrow margin. The fresh marine-based food that boosts color is definitely a great option.

More: If You have other types of Tank Fish, find out what is best for them:

• – Best Food For Betta Fish
• – Best Food for Koi
• – Best Food for Cichlid