Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) are among the most popular freshwater aquarium fish, known for their vibrant colors, active behavior, and ease of care. Native to South America and the Caribbean, these small, peaceful livebearers thrive in community tanks and are an excellent choice for both beginner and experienced aquarists. A well-balanced and nutritious diet is crucial to the health, growth, and longevity of these fish. Ensuring your aquatic friends receive the proper nourishment supports their well-being, enhances their beautiful colors, and encourages active behavior.
Understanding the Natural Diet of Guppies
Guppies are omnivorous, meaning they naturally consume both plant and animal-based food sources. In the wild, their diet consists primarily of algae, insect larvae, and small crustaceans. Replicating this variety is key to feeding guppies in a home aquarium. To ensure optimal health and well-being, provide your guppy fish with a diverse and nutritionally rich diet that includes a mix of high-quality commercial foods, live or frozen foods, and even some vegetable matter.
The Foundation: High-Quality Commercial Foods
The foundation of a balanced guppy fish diet begins with high-quality commercial foods specifically formulated for guppies or other small tropical fish. These foods provide essential nutrients and come in various forms, such as flakes, micro pellets, or granules.
Choosing the Right Commercial Food
When shopping for guppy fish food, pay careful attention to the nutritional information on the label. Look for foods that list the full ingredients and avoid products that only reveal part of the content, such as “40% protein” without detailing the sources. A quality base diet, like Intan Guppy Pellets, provides essential nutrients for growth, digestion, and immunity. These floating, high-protein (40%) pellets are designed for small surface-feeding fish and are made from a balanced blend of high-quality animal and plant-based ingredients like fish meal, krill, insect meal, and algae.
Feeding Frequency and Amount
Since Guppies have very small stomachs, they should only be fed small amounts at a time. Feed Guppies at least three times per day, in small portions. Watch them while they eat-healthy Guppies will be active and show interest in food. Offer enough pellets, flakes, or other food products that can be consumed within two to three minutes per feeding.
Read also: Incorporating Fish into a Carnivore Meal Plan
Important tip: Before feeding flakes, soak them briefly in tank water.
Supplementing with Live and Frozen Foods
Supplementing your guppy fish diet with live and frozen foods is essential for providing variety and essential nutrients absent from commercial food sources.
Popular Live Food Choices
Live foods can provide essential nutrients and simulate their natural feeding habits. Popular choices include:
- Brine Shrimp: A great source of protein and easy to digest, especially for fry.
- Daphnia: Small crustaceans that provide fiber and help with digestion.
- Mosquito Larvae: A natural food source that is rich in nutrients.
Frozen Food Alternatives
In addition to live foods, frozen options - such as bloodworms, beef heart, and mysis shrimp - are also nutrient-rich and a convenient alternative. Frozen foods typically maintain their nutritional value and are less likely to introduce pathogens.
Incorporating Vegetables and Plant Matter
Although guppy fish primarily consume animal-based foods, vegetables and aquatic plant matter can help diversify their diet and provide essential micronutrients. Feeding vegetables to your Guppy and Livebearer fishes is important since they are omnivores so they need the vegetables and the meat.
Read also: Choosing Fish on Keto
Best Vegetables for Guppies
- Spirulina: A type of blue-green algae that is an excellent plant-based food source for guppies, promoting overall health and enhancing their vibrant colors.
- Peas: Blanched peas, with the skins removed, provide fiber and vitamins.
- Spinach: A nutritious green that offers essential minerals and vitamins.
- Cucumber: Sliced thinly, cucumber can be a refreshing treat.
- Lettuce / Romaine lettuce: Wash it, just rip them by hand and put it in the aquarium tank. Feed fresh, cooking not required.
- Carrot: Dice pieces to small bits.
- Pumpkin: Serve raw.
- Bell Peppers (Green / Red / Yellow / Orange): Cut into small pieces and remove all the seeds.
Fresh vegetables keep your Guppies and Livebearers Fish a little bit healthier if you are able to provide some variety in their diet.
Vegetables to Avoid
Try to avoid feeding your Guppies broccoli, cabbage or anything that smells like onions, and the jelly parts in tomatoes or cucumber (the solid part of these vegetables are fine).
How to Serve Vegetables
Removing the skins and boiling the vegetables for a few seconds ensures they're soft enough for the guppies to consume. Try to remove any vegetables left in the tank after three or four hours as after this time they have lost most of their taste so the fish are less interested in them. The vegetables will also go slimy and start fouling the water. You can use a vegetable clip to keep your vegetables in place on to the side of your aquarium tank. It’s essentially a clip with a suction cup that holds your vegetables in place. Otherwise they might start float around and it’s harder for your fishes to get a nip at it and they’ll give up.
Establishing a Consistent Feeding Schedule
To keep guppy fish healthy and avoid overfeeding or pollution, it's essential to establish a consistent feeding schedule.
Feeding Frequency for Adult Guppies
Adult guppy fish generally do well when fed small portions two to three times a day. Offer enough pellets, flakes, or other food products that can be consumed within two to three minutes per feeding.
Read also: Healthy Fish Recipes
Treats
When feeding live or frozen foods, offer them as a nutrient-rich treat one to two times per week, replacing one of the regular feedings.
Fasting
One day of fasting per week is a great way to let their digestive systems rest.
Nutritional Needs of Guppy Fry
Growing and developing baby guppies, known as fry, have different nutritional needs than their adult counterparts.
Feeding Frequency for Fry
Baby guppies require more frequent feedings - four to six times a day - to ensure they receive the necessary energy and nutrients for growth.
Best Foods for Fry
- Finely crushed flakes
- Infusoria
- Baby brine shrimp
As the guppy fry grow and mature into juveniles, gradually adjust their feeding schedule and food types to match those of adult guppies.
Important Considerations for Guppy Health
Feeding guppies might seem simple at first glance, but there’s more to it than just sprinkling flakes into the tank. These colourful, energetic fish need a balanced, varied diet to stay healthy, breed well, and display their vibrant colours.
Avoiding Overfeeding
When it comes to feeding guppies, consistency is crucial but so is moderation. Guppies are enthusiastic eaters, but that doesn’t mean they should eat everything. Overfeeding can lead to obesity, poor water quality, and health problems.
Monitoring Behavior
Feeding is also a great time to observe their health. Watch for signs of illness, such as loss of appetite, clamped fins, or erratic swimming, which are early warning signs.
Feeding in Community Tanks
If your guppies share their tank with other fish, feeding guppies becomes slightly more strategic. Ensure that all fish get their fair share of food and that no one is being outcompeted.
Water Quality
Uneaten food can decompose and pollute the water, so it’s essential to remove any excess food after a few minutes. Regular water changes (no more than 10-25% of the aquarium’s total water volume) every two to four weeks help maintain water quality.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced hobbyists can make missteps when feeding guppies.
Low-Quality Food
Always choose high-quality food. Poor-quality products can shorten your Guppies’ lifespan and weaken their immune system.
Overfeeding
Adults do best on a low-calorie, balanced diet with occasional treats like live or frozen food. Fry and juveniles, on the other hand, need more energy. Their food should be higher in protein and fat to support fast growth.
Neglecting Variety
Guppies are omnivores and need a mix of plant and animal-based foods to thrive.
Creating an Ideal Habitat for Guppies
In addition to a proper diet, providing an ideal habitat is crucial for the health and well-being of guppies.
Tank Size
A single adult guppy should be housed in a 5-gallon aquarium or larger. For each additional guppy in the tank, provide at least two extra gallons of tank space. Guppies love to swim and interact, so they should be kept in groups of at least 10-15 fish. A tank smaller than 20 liters (5.28 US gallons) is too small.
Water Parameters
Guppies do best in warm water, ideally between 23-24°C (73-75°F). As for water hardness, aim for 12-18 °N (214-321 ppm or 4.29-6.43 mEq).
Tank Setup
- Substrate: The bottom of a guppy's tank should be lined with 1-2 inches of freshwater sand or gravel. Aquariums need about 1½ pounds of substrate for each gallon of water in the tank.
- Plants: A tank with live plants is strongly recommended. Species like Vallisneria spiralis, Echinodorus amazonicus, and Cabomba furcata are excellent choices.
- Hiding Places: Guppies need plenty of hiding places to feel safe and secure in their aquarium. Decorate their tank with driftwood, live plants, or small caves.
Filtration
A filter system is an essential component in any aquatic habitat. Power filters (also known as “hang-on-back" filters) and external canister filters are recommended because they offer effective mechanical, biological, and chemical filtration and do not take up any space inside an aquarium. An aquarium’s filter should be powerful enough to process all the water in the tank at least four times an hour. For example, a 20-gallon tank should ideally have an aquarium filter with a flow rate that’s at least 80 gallons per hour (GPH).
Water Changes
Pet parents can maintain the condition of their guppy's tank by performing routine water changes (no more than 10-25% of the aquarium’s total water volume) every two to four weeks. Most aquariums will need a full cleaning once a month, depending on the number of fish/invertebrates in the tank.
Introducing New Guppies to the Tank
Important when adding new Guppies: Always acclimate them slowly. Start by floating the transport bag in your tank for 15-20 minutes to match the temperature. Then gradually add small amounts of tank water into the bag over another 20-30 minutes. After release: Watch your Guppies closely for the first hour. Healthy fish should swim around actively, explore, and show curiosity. If any fish hides, lies at the bottom, or looks disoriented, they may be stressed.
Choosing Tank Mates
Guppies are peaceful and social fish. They should never be kept alone. However, avoid fish with long fins or aggressive behavior. Keep at least three females for every male (1:3 ratio). Guppies love to swim and interact, so they should be kept in groups of at least 10-15 fish. Guppies do well with peaceful tank mates like mollies, platies, swordtails, neon tetras, and small algae eaters.
Species to Avoid
While both species are popular pets, guppies should not be kept in the same aquarium as goldfish. Goldfish prefer cooler temperatures than guppies.
Guppy Breeding
Guppies are incredibly easy to breed. As livebearers, they give birth to free-swimming fry instead of laying eggs.
Preparing for Breeding
For healthy offspring, both parents should be adults in good condition. Avoid using fish that are too old. Female Guppies live for 2-3 years on average, and fertility drops after the age of 2. Females reach sexual maturity at around 3 months, while males are usually ready a bit earlier.
Pregnancy
After mating, the female is pregnant for about 28 to 30 days. A dark, triangular gravid spot near her tail becomes larger as birth approaches.
Protecting the Fry
Key tip: Move the pregnant female to a breeding tank or breeder box shortly before she gives birth. This reduces stress and protects the fry.
Brood Size
Each brood usually contains 20 to 40 fry, but some large females can have 60 or more.
Post-Birth Care
Baby Guppies are born fully formed and ready to swim and eat. Start feeding them with finely crushed flakes, infusoria, or baby brine shrimp.
Avoiding Inbreeding
To keep your fish healthy over generations, avoid inbreeding. Do not breed siblings or closely related fish repeatedly. Inbreeding can cause deformities, weak immunity, and poor fertility. If you're aiming to create or preserve specific colors or fin shapes, selective line breeding may be an option. This involves keeping fish from the same strain and choosing pairs carefully over several generations.
Maintaining Water Quality
Pet parents should test their aquarium’s water regularly to ensure its pH, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels are stable and within a safe range. Many guppy species benefit from the addition of freshwater salt to their aquarium. If freshwater salt is added to the tank, the water’s specific gravity should be kept at 1.004 and should not change more than +/- 0.001 in 24 hours.
Regular Testing
An aquarium’s filter, water temperature, and other equipment should be checked daily to ensure they’re working properly.
Water Conditioner
Before being added to an aquarium, water must be treated with a water conditioner to remove toxic chemicals like chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals.
Cleaning
Do not use hot water, bleach, or chemicals while rinsing filter media.
Common Guppy Diseases and Prevention
Like all aquarium fish, Guppies can suffer from diseases-especially if their water quality is poor or their environment is stressful. Stress weakens their immune system.
Prevention
Observe your Guppies daily. Loss of appetite, clamped fins, or erratic swimming are early warning signs.
Guppy FAQs
- Do guppies make good pets? Guppies are great starter fish and make excellent pets.
- How many guppies should be kept together? Guppies prefer to school, so groups of at least four to six are ideal. You can keep as many additional guppies as you wish, dependent upon the tank size.
- What is the lifespan of a guppy? Most guppies live 2-3 years.
- Are guppies hard to take care of? Guppies are some of the easiest fish to keep. They’re generally not aggressive, fit in most tank sizes, aren’t picky eaters, get along with most other similarly sized fish, and as freshwater fish are easier to provide for than saltwater fish.
- What do guppies need in their tank? Guppies require treated freshwater that doesn’t contain chlorine and is kept to their optimal parameters, which includes utilizing both a filter and a heater. Guppies also benefit from having an appropriate substrate in their tank that also supports keeping live plants in their tank.
- How do I keep my guppies happy? The most important part of keeping a guppy happy is making sure their water parameters are always normal, keeping them with other guppies, and making sure their tankmates are appropriate if they live with other species.
- Will guppies breed in my tank? If you have both a male and female guppy in one tank, they will absolutely breed if they are able. Guppies are livebearers, and keeping a group of guppies with both sexes often leads to many generations of guppies maintained in your tank.