How Often Should You Feed Guppies? (Explained)

Adult guppies need to be fed 2 to 3 times every day. They should be fed a variety of foods made up of flakes, pellets, and live or frozen foods. Juvenile guppies should be fed 3 to 4 times a day and guppy fry should be fed every few hours to encourage fast healthy growth.

Guppies are probably the world’s most popular tropical fish. Since the 1960’s they have been available in an ever-growing array of colors and tail types. Guppies are hardy, colorful, and easy to breed.

I kept my first guppy in 1993 when I was given a 10-gallon tank and a few guppies. Since that day I have been in love with the guppy and I have bred thousands since. I can’t imagine a day when I don’t have at least one tank full of guppies in my fish room.

How Often Should You Feed Guppies?

For me, feeding my fish is the best part of the hobby. I am a self-confessed fish food fanatic. I currently have 14 different types of fish food in my fish room, although they aren’t all suitable for guppies.

I feed my adult guppies 2 to 3 times a day, every day. I have found it is much better to feed several small meals during the day than one large meal, even if the amount of food going into the aquarium is ultimately the same.

By feeding little and often you achieve two things.

Firstly, by only feeding as much as your guppies will eat in a couple of minutes, less food tends to get past the guppies and then sink down between rocks and into plants where it may just rot. Secondly, if a guppy stuffs itself with food, it may become bloated and constipated.

Each time I feed my guppies I add a pinch of flake or a few pellets and wait for them to eat the food. Once they do, I drop a little more in.

By feeding this way, the food spends as little time in the water before being eaten. This is important because the minute we drop food into the water it begins to leach out much of the goodness. Flake food for instance loses most of its nutritional value with about 45 seconds of hitting the water.

How Much Should You Feed Guppies?

As discussed above, little and often is better than ‘all in one go’. It is difficult to give an exact how much food a guppy should be fed. It will very much depend on what size your guppies are and how many you have in the tank.

The best way to gauge how much to feed your guppies is to drop a little in and see how quickly they eat it. Guppies being guppies, they will race to eat it very quickly, but once they do, drop a little more in. Repeat until they begin to lose interest.

What Is The Best Food For Guppies?

What is the best food for guppies? Guppies are omnivores. As such, variety is the key to success. They need to eat a selection of different foods. In a perfect world, we would give our guppies something different at every mealtime.

I currently feed my guppies a mix of flake foods (Tetra Tropical Flakes), Pellets (Fancy Guppy pellets by Hikari), and a selection of frozen bloodworms, daphnia, and brine shrimp. I wrote an article titled Can Guppies Eat Bloodworms which goes into more detail about live and frozen foods guppies can eat.

By varying their foods, I give them a range of different vitamins and minerals which cover all of their dietary needs. This helps my guppies grow strong, stay colorful and it gives them the best chance to fight off pests and diseases.

Guppies will eat just about anything we put in their aquariums, but if we want them to be as strong and healthy as possible, we need to give them a varied diet.

How Often Do You Feed Guppy Fry?

I love breeding guppies. Raising the fry is probably the most satisfying part of keeping guppies. When I have guppy fry in my fish room I might feed them as often as 6 times a day! If you can feed your guppy fry every few hours they will grow at an astonishing rate.

I recently wrote an article titled What is the Best Food For Guppy Fry? which goes into more detail about the best foods to raise guppy fry, but essentially, as with adult guppies, variety is key.

When I have guppy fry, I believe the best foods to feed them are newly hatched brine shrimp, First Bites from Hikari, and frozen cyclops. I also tend to give them some flake food (crushed up between my fingers first) and some live microworms if I have a culture of them in my fish room.

In Conclusion

When it comes to feeding guppies, little and often is better than lots in one go. I try to feed my guppies between 2 and 3 times a day and I try to give them something different at each feeding. For me, feeding my fish is the best part of the hobby, so I like to do it as often as possible.