What Is The Best Food For Guppies (Expert Breeders Opinion!)

I have spent the last 30 years keeping, breeding, and showing guppies in competitions. For a number of years now I have been a guest speaker at fish clubs around the country, often preaching the joy of guppy keeping and breeding. One question I get at almost every talk I give is What is the best food to feed my guppies?

There is no one answer to that question. There are too many variables to be able to say buy this food or buy that food! In this article, I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss some of my favorite guppy foods and look at the wonderful array of foods available on the market today.

The Quick Answer

If you are looking for a quick answer to what I believe is the best food for your guppies, I have given you three of my favorites below. For a more in-depth guide, please read on.

Best Flake Food

Best Pellet Food

Best Color Enhancing Food

What do guppies like to eat?

Guppys are omnivores. As such, they want a diet that is based on both meat and vegetable matter. Truth be told, guppies are often considered the garbage cans of the tropical fish-keeping world. There isn’t much they won’t eat.

There are many different types of food on the market today. To name a few, there are;

• Floating pellets
• Sinking pellets
• Flakes
• Live foods
• Frozen foods
• Freeze-dried foods
• Gel foods

I have fed my guppies all of the above over the years, and even today I feed a mixture of at least four different types of food on a regular basis.

In my opinion, flakes are probably a guppies favorite type of food as they tend to float on the surface for a few minutes before sinking, and guppies really do like to eat from the surface.

Mini floating pellets are often very popular with my guppies too. I have had good luck feeding both Bug Bites, which are made by Fluval, and Fancy Guppy Pellets from Hikari.

Guppies are considered opportunistic feeders. They swim around just below the surface of the water, constantly on the hunt for food. As soon as you drop a pinch of flakes into their aquarium, every guppy in the tank will be trying to grab some food.

Variety is key when it comes to feeding guppies. Making sure they get a mixture of foods and food types is the best way to ensure your guppies grow strong, colorful, and breed well.

What do guppies eat in the wild?

In the wild, guppies are opportunistic and will eat just about anything that comes their way. Guppies in the wild will eat algae and small pieces of plants, insects that land on the surface of the water as well as waterborne crustaceans including daphnia (water fleas) and mosquito larvae.

Although the guppies we keep in our home aquariums are many, many generations away from their wild cousins, they still need a varied diet to remain healthy.

Feeding guppies a varied diet that closely mimics their diet in the wild also helps reduce the chance of them becoming constipated or bloated.

There is no doubt that guppies living in the wild would also eat a lot of baby fish, including baby guppies. Female guppies are well known for eating their own babies.

The food guppies eat in the wild would also vary depending on what time of year it is, and where the guppies live. Studies have shown that guppies living in the Aripo River have a different natural diet than guppies living in the Tacarigua River.

What to look out for when choosing guppy food?

There are so many different foods and different types of food on the market today, it is important to know what to look for when selecting a food for your guppies. Drawing on my years of guppy-keeping experience, I consider each of the following when choosing a new food for my guppies.

Does the food contain high-quality ingredients?

For me, fish food that is made of high-quality ingredients is really important. Often, to keep the cost of fish foods down, manufactures will add ‘fillers’ to fish foods. Fillers are anything that is cheap and bulks the food out. Unfortunately, fillers offer no nutritional value to our guppies.

I like to feed my guppies foods that have a high concentration of krill or krill meal (essentially the same thing). Krill is an important ingredient to help enhance fish colors, especially red colors.

Insect larvae are another ingredient that features in some of the higher quality foods. Fish or fish meal is generally considered a good quality ingredient as are spirulina and algae meal.

When looking at a packet of fish food, bear in mind, the high the concentration of a given ingredient, the high up the list of ingredients it will be.

How good is the food for omnivores?

As mention above, guppies are omnivores. They need variety in their diets. If we feed our guppies a food that has been developed for predator fish, it will be very high in protein. If we feed our guppies a food that has been developed primarily for algae eaters, needless to say, it will be very high in algae.

Many fish food packets include images of fish on the front of the packet. Look for one which has a guppy, it is a good sign the food will be suitable for them.

Whilst guppies can be occasionally fed a food high in protein or one high in algae, they should only be fed as part of a balanced diet.

How easy is the food to feed to your guppies?

We all lead busy lives. Feeding food that is quick and easy to feed to your guppies is often important.

I like feeding my guppies either flakes or pellets because it is so easy to grab the tub, drop some into the tank, and be done. Feeding guppies live foods or frozen foods can be a bit more of a hassle.

Another important factor for me is the food shouldn’t smell too much. I keep some of my guppy tanks in the house, and my wife complains when the house smells of fish food.

Does the food affect water quality?

If you have ever fed a fish food that instantly disintegrates the minute it hits the water, you will know how frustrating it can be. Uneaten fish food is probably the number one cause of poor water quality.

I have tried food in the past that literally turned to mush within a few seconds of the food dropping into the tank. Because of this, finding out how a fish food performs in the water is really important when choosing a new food.

If you want to try a new fish food, ask your local fish store if they feed it to their fish. If they do, ask them to show you how it performs when fed to the fish.

How much does the food cost?

It always surprises people when the cost of the food is so far down my list of considerations when choosing fish food.

To me, the cost is irrelevant, not because I can afford any food I want, but rather, an expensive food which is made with really high-quality ingredients is enjoyed by the fish, and makes my aquarium better all-round, really isn’t an expensive food.

Equally, cheap food that offers my fish no nutritional value, spoils my water quality and makes my house smell when I feed it, is poor value for money!

Do the fish actually want to eat it?

Surely, whether or not the fish eat the food should be the single most important factor when it comes to choosing food.

It doesn’t matter how good the ingredients are, if the fish won’t eat it food, it is a waste of time and money!

How to feed guppies?

When it comes to feeding guppies, feeding little and often is the key to success. Feeding a large quantity of food in a single feeding will result in uneaten food that sinks to the bottom of the tank or lands behind decorations, or between rocks where it will start to rot, creating ammonia.

Uneaten fish food is probably the number one cause of ammonia spikes in our aquariums, and the smaller the aquarium, the greater the risk of an ammonia spike.

When I feed the guppies in my fish room, I try to feed them 3 or 4 times every day.

• In the morning I give them a staple food such as TetraMin Tropical Flake. Flakes foods offer guppies a wide range of vitamins and minerals and form the backbone of a good quality diet.

• When I return from work I give my guppies a second feeding, usually of something either live or frozen. Mosquito Larvae are a favorite of all my guppies.

• In the evening I will usually feed either a mini pellet or, if I have some Repashy Community Blend in the fridge I will feed them that.

Take care when feeding guppies. These little fish are ALWAYS hungry and you can easily overfeed them. It is often said that you should only feed your guppies as much food as they will consume in 30 to 60 seconds. I would say that is true, providing you are feeding them multiple times a day

https://youtu.be/NvNX_BdaYFs

How often to feed guppies?

As mentioned above, when it comes to feeding guppies, I strongly recommend feeding little and often. In my experience, it is much better to feed your guppies a small meal several times a day than one large meal a day.

Guppies also need to be fed every day. Although they can go a day or two without eating and they won’t suffer any ill effects, it is much better to feed them 7 days a week.

There are people who will advocate having fast days when they don’t feed any of their fish. Personally, I don’t see the benefit to the fish. In the wild guppies are opportunistic feeders and they will eat little and often every single day of the year.

How much should guppies be fed?

It is always hard to say how much guppies should be fed as there are so many variables. Essentially, guppies should be fed as much as they will easily consume in 1 to 2 minutes and they should be fed that amount two or three times a day.

If too much food is added to the guppies tank there is a chance that the guppies will gorge themselves and become bloated or that uneaten food will sink to the bottom of the tank where it might atrat to rot, causing an ammonia spike.

It is better to feed your guppies little and often rather than all in one go.

What different types of food are available for guppies?

Guppies will eat just about any food you offer them, so the range of foods available for guppy is almost endless.

Below I look at some of the most popular types of foods and consider their pro and cons,

Type of Food	Pros	Cons
Flake Food	There is a wide selection of flakes on the market, ranging from just a few dollars a tub to over $20 a tub. Flakes come in a tropical formula, coldwater formula, and a color-enhancing blend.	Flakes tend to deteriorate in quality quickly after hitting the water. It is said the majority of the nutrients in flake food leaches into the water within about 20 seconds of the flakes getting wet.
Pellet Food	In recent years pellet food has improved vastly and some brands are now made of very high-quality ingredients including Black Soldier Fly Larve	Pellets usually come in either floating or sinking variety. The problem can be that the sinking pellets sink too fast for those fish that want to feed mid-water, and floating pellets don’t work for bottom feeders. You might need more than one type of pellet for your aquarium
Freeze-dried Food	Freeze-dried foods like freeze-dried bloodworms or brine shrimp are an excellent way of delivering nutrients to your guppies but in an easy-to-store way. Freeze-dried foods last for a long time	Freeze-dried foods need to be rehydrated before feeding them to your guppies otherwise your guppies may become bloated.
Live Food	Live foods are probably the highest quality foods you can offer your guppies and they closely mimic some of the foods guppies would eat in the wild.	Live foods can be hard to get hold of, they do not store for very long, and there is always a possibility of introducing pests or diseases into the aquarium from the live foods.
Frozen Food	Frozen foods offer many of the benefits of live foods, without the hassle of having to keep live foods alive. Frozen foods come in a wide variety of types making feeding a varied diet much easier.	Needless to say, frozen foods have to be kept frozen. If they defrost you will need to feed them to your guppies before they spoil.
Gel Food	Gel food, like Repashy Community Blend, is made from high-quality ingredients, is easy to mix when required, and remains stable in the water for many hours after being added to the aquarium.	Gel foods are relatively expensive and you have to make up a batch and then store it either in the fridge (for a few days) or the freezer (for a few weeks)
Homemade Food	Homemade foods can be tailored exactly to meet your guppies needs and you can adjust the ingredients depending on whether you want to enhance color, encourage breeding or put weight on your fish	Homemade food is a lot of hassle to make and, as it often lacks any binding ingredients, often falls apart quickly in the tank, creating a mess in your water.

https://youtu.be/17a34cJqKI8

What are the best flake foods for guppies?

I believe every fish keeper should have some good quality flake food in their fish room. Flake foods are where most of us start when we get our first aquarium.

I have tried and had success using all of the flakes listed below, and at the time of writing, I have most of them in my fish food cupboard.

TetraMin Flakes

New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes

Xtreme Aquatic Community Crave Flake

Xtreme Aquatic Krill Flakes

Fluval Bug Bites Spirulina Flakes

What are the best pellets for guppies?

Much like flakes, pellets come in a wide range of qualities with an equally wide range of ingredients. Pellets also come in either floating or sinking, meaning it is easier to target feed specific fish.

For guppies, I tend to prefer using a pellet that floats, or at least one that has been designed to sink slowly.

Pellets tend to have 1 major advantage over flakes, and that is that they hold up longer in water than flakes. Flakes tend to disintegrate after just a few seconds, whereas pellets can last for many minutes.

The tropical fish food market is definitely moving more towards pellets than flakes.

Fluval Bug Bites Tropical Formula

Hikari Micro Pellets

Hikari Micro Wafers

Vibrabites

What are the best live foods for guppies?

As the name would suggest, live foods are foods that are alive! Live foods are the closest things we can get to mimicking a guppies’ natural diet. However, for most of us, live foods are only fed as a treat to complement a guppies commercial food diet.

If I could, I would only ever feed my guppies live foods!

Typically, live foods are full of nutrients and minerals that our fish won’t normally get from their flake or pellets foods, and as they are live creatures they contain no fillers or artificial ingredients.

Bloodworms

Most people have fed their fish live bloodworms at some point. These little red creatures, which aren’t actually worms at all, but rather the larvae of the non-biting midge, wriggle as they travel through the water.

This constantly wriggling, along with their bright red coloration, makes them irresistible to fish.

Bloodworms are often used to entice fish that are reluctant to feed as well as those fish that are a little skinny and need to bulk up.

Daphnia

Daphnia, which is also known as water fleas, is another food that many of us have fed to our fish at some point. Daphnia darts through the water in a jerky movement, which is where their common name derives from.

Daphnia is found in almost every natural waterway in the world, and as such would almost certainly be part of a guppies’ diet in the wild. Daphnia feeds on microscopic algae, which in turn becomes part of the guppies’ diet when the guppies eat the daphnia.

https://youtu.be/7wJXTI2DAgc

Mosquito Larvae

I love feeding my guppies mosquito larvae. 1, they seem to go crackers for it whenever I add it to their tank, and 2, I can culture my own mosquito larvae at home just by putting a bucket of old tank water out in my backyard and waiting for the mosquitos to lay their eggs in it.

Mosquito larvae have to regularly visit the surface of the water to breathe, which puts them exactly where the guppies want to eat them.

What are the best frozen foods for guppies?

Frozen foods, much like live foods, help us mimic a guppies’ natural diet. The advantage of frozen foods is that they are much easier to store than live food and there is a far wider variety available on the market.

To name but a few, I regularly feed my guppies frozen foods including;

• Bloodworms
• Daphnia
• Mosquito Larvae
• Tubifex Worms
• Mysis Shrmip
• Brine Shrimp
• Cyclops

Typically, we buy frozen fish foods in blister packs which are easy to pop into the aquarium one or two at a time, depending on how many guppies you are feeding.

I like to purchase the selection pack of frozen food. That way I get 4 or 5 different varieties of food in a single pack, which helps provide my guppies with a varied diet.

https://youtu.be/Q1QVgNlT2mE

What are the best freeze-dried foods for guppies?

Freeze-dried fish foods offer us all the goodness of live or frozen foods but in the convenience of a freeze-dried form. Freeze-dried foods last for months and can be added to your guppy’s normal diet either as a treat, or a way to bring in additional nutrients and minerals.

One word of caution, freeze-dried foods need to be rehydrated before being fed to your guppies.

Tetra Freeze-dried Bloodworms

Omega One Freeze Dried Tubifex Worms

What is the best food for guppy growth?

There are many occasions we want our guppies to grow quicker or stronger, or maybe put on weight because they are skinner than we would like or they have been unwell.

When it comes to guppy growth, protein is the key. Feeding your guppies foods that have a higher protein content will help promote healthy guppy growth.

In an ideal world, for optimum guppy growth, we would only feed our guppies live or frozen foods, especially bloodworms or brine shrimp as they are both really high in protein. In reality, feeding a pellet or flake food with a high protein content is a more realistic prospect.

Fluval Bug Bites Tropical Fish Food

Hikari Fancy Guppy Food

Can I feed guppys food designed for other fish?

Essentially, the answer is yes. Most fish foods are suitable for most fish. There is no reason you couldn’t feed your guppies food that has been designed for Angelfish or Tetras or even goldfish.

With that said, some foods are designed primarily for predators, and these foods are usually exceptionally high in protein. Whilst protein is good for guppy growth, too much protein can lead to bloating and constipation in guppies.

What foods should guppies NOT eat?

There are many foods that guppies can eat, but there are many more that should be avoided.

One classic food that should be avoided is bread. Guppies should never be fed bread. It contains no nutrients that guppies can use and it will quickly bloat them.

Guppies should not be fed meat from animals or any processed foods that are meant for human consumption. These foods offer little to no useful nutrients for your guppies and their presence in the water will only foul the water and could possibly kill your guppies.

How long can guppies go without eating?

Healthy adult guppies are extremely hardy and can survive for 2 weeks or more without eating. Recently I wrote an article on this very subject titled How Long Can Guppies Live Without Food?

Younger guppies can usually go for around a week without being fed, whereas fry might only last a couple of days without food.

Essentially, the bigger and healthier a guppy is, the longer it can go with being fed.

When I go on vacation for a week or less, I don’t even worry about getting someone in to feed my fish. If I go away for more than a week, I arrange for my fish to be fed every 3 or 4 days.

Should I use an auto feeder?

Auto feeders are a great way to feed your fish when you are on vacation. They can be set up to deliver food to your guppies 1, 2, or 3 times a day for up to 2 weeks.

In my experience, auto feeders work best with mini pellets, but they can also be used with flakes and freeze-dried foods.

I have had great success with the Noodoky Automatic Fish Feeder which I ordered from Amazon for less than $20. It is easy to program and has so far proved reliable.

What is the best food for guppy fry?

When it comes to feeding guppy fry, regular feeding is imperative to their growth and development.

When I have guppy fry in my fish room, I try to feed them 5 or 6 times a day. As with the adults, feeding little and often is key, and feeding them a food which is small enough for them to be able to eat is crucial.

I have had good success with both the foods listed below

Hikari First Bites

Northfin Fry Starter

In Conclusion

Whether you keep guppies for fun, to breed or to show in competitions, selecting the right food is the key to success.

Whilst guppies will eat just about anything, if they are to grow strong, remain healthy and breed frequently, they will need to be fed a varied diet that consists of high quality ingredients.