Guppies are one of the best fish for breeding. That is because it is so easy to breed them, and most of the time, you won’t need to do much to encourage breeding.
Breeding them might not be that hard, but tanking care of the guppy fry might not be that easy.
You will have to take great care of the fry if you will want to have healthy guppies. The truth is that their parent don’t take care of the fry, on top of that the fry get eaten by the adults most of the time.
This is why keeping them in a separate tank once they are born might be a good idea to preserve them.
Guppies are livebearers, which means that the female guppy carries the little guppies until she gives birth. This happens approximately once every month, and about 30-60 small guppy fish are born at a time.
This is why you might want to limit the amount of guppy fry that is born. I’ve wrote a complete guide on this topic in my linked article.
Best Food for Baby Guppies
In this article, I will write about at the best commercial food to feed your guppy fry. Diet is essential at this point in their development, as it allows them to gain the vital nutrients from the food, such as proteins and other ingredients such as vitamins and minerals, which let them grow.
I’ve wrote a more detailed article about guppy fish feeding and a magic guppy food recipe, which will encourage faster guppy fish growth.
Here, I will provide you with an overview of the best foods to feed your guppy fry:
1. Brine Shrimp Hatchery Dish
This is one of the best recommendations I can make to any beginners or experts that have baby guppies.
It is one of the most convenient and also convenient ways to develop brine shrimp at home on your own and then feed it to your guppies.
You get everything you need to hatch the brine shrimp with this package. All you need to add is saltwater. First, you have to fill the seawater to the required levels.
Next, all you need to do is add a scoop of these brine shrimp eggs to the saltwater and leave the aeration lid open. Place the system in the sunlight and wait for a day or two.
After a day or 36 hours, baby brine shrimp will start to develop. Once that happens, you can scoop the brine shrimp from the dish and put it into the aquarium where your baby guppies are.
They will love this food, as it is one of the most popular diets for guppy fry. It also has all the nutrients needed to let them fully develop.
2. Hikari Bio-Pure Freeze Dried Daphnia
The next on the list is the bio-pure freeze-dried daphnia product by Hikari. This food is made with pharmaceutical methods of freeze-drying, which guarantees the top quality of this food.
It is a perfect food to feed any invertebrates but is also ideal for feeding your baby guppies.
This food is high-quality, and it contains all the necessary nutrients to keep your baby guppies healthy and let them grow as quickly as possible.
It contains many vitamins that are vital for the healthy development of the baby fish but is also free of any parasites or likely harmful bacteria. You don’t want those to harm your guppies.
The best thing about this package is that it doesn’t cloud the water when it is put into it. It is designed in such a way that it is as natural as possible, and it prevents you from having to clean the aquarium after using this food.
The packaging is also very convenient for feeding, as it features an excellent patented dispenser at the top of the packaging which will let you measure out exactly how much food you are feeding to your guppies.
All in all, an excellent package that you should consider for your baby guppies.
3. Hikari Guppy Food Micro
With this package, you get everything you need for your guppy babies. This guppy food is perfect for feeding not only your babies but also grown-up guppies.
It is made specifically for this fish species, so you can expect that it has all the required nutrients for these fish.
This food will promote the growth of your babies. Also, it will encourage the breeding habits among your guppies, which can help you if you are looking to breed more guppies.
The reason why this food is recommended for baby guppies though, is because it is an excellent source of food and nutrients for the babies, and it will let them grow as naturally as possible.
Consider the Hikari Guppy Food Micro for your guppy babies, this version of the product is suitable for the fry, and it allows them the best development possible while also maintaining their health.
4. TetraColor Tropical Flakes
While the name suggests that this food is made for tetras, it is not true; it is a versatile source of food that works for just about any tropical fish.
This source of food is everything you will need for your baby guppies, and you won’t have to worry about adding another source of food at the start.
It contains all the nutrients necessary to let your fish grow naturally, and you will be able to see the best colors of the fish very soon.
This source of food is perfect for top and mid feeders, which the guppies are. Not only is it appropriate for the fry, but you can also use it for grown-up guppies.
These flakes are very natural and are made in such a way that they pollute the water as little as possible. It is rich with proteins and other beneficial nutrients that promote the growth of your fish.
It is balanced, and it offers all you need from a food source. Consider the TetraColor tropical flakes for your guppy fry to let them grow as much as possible.
5. Omega One Freeze-Dried Bloodworms
Your guppy babies will love this food. It is a package of freeze-dried bloodworms, a source of food that these fish adore.
That is because they love the taste of bloodworms. Plus, this source of food is full of beneficial nutrients and vitamins that will ensure that your fish will grow.
This source of food is an excellent alternative for live foods that you can feed your fry. Of course, it is well-known that live foods have a lot of nutrients, but these freeze-dried bloodworms are not far behind.
You can expect a lot from this source, as it can be used as the primary source of food as well as a treat for your guppies.
The Omega One bloodworms can guarantee you premium quality and are entirely bacteria-free. This will ensure that the fish will stay healthy and that there will be no possible parasites from food.
These bloodworms are a fantastic way to feed your guppy fry. It is not only suitable for guppies but just about every other freshwater species out there. You can rely on this source of food for premium quality.
Live Food for Guppy Fry
If you can afford to do so, you should consider feeding live foods to your baby guppies. This is why live foods are a fantastic source of food, and you can find some great live foods in your local store, even.
If you don’t have access to these live foods, then you can also use frozen or dried sources, such as the ones I listed earlier.
Live foods are full of fantastic nutrients that speed up the growth process. They might not be available in your vicinity, but if you can, you should try to feed your guppies live foods as well.
You can buy live foods, or you can even breed it at home and do it on your own. Here are the best types of live foods for guppy fry.
Baby Brine Shrimp
One of the best sources of live foods for guppy fry is little brine shrimp. That is because these shrimps not only taste great for the fish, but they are also full of nutrients that can speed up the growth of your guppies.
And they are very edible from the fry point of view, as the baby brine shrimp are easily digestible for the fry.
Micro worms
Micro worms are another excellent source of live food. Earthworms are the most common types of worms that I feed guppies, but there are other types that you can use; bloodworms or different types of worms can also be used.
The micro worms work well because they are very easily digestible by the fry.
Infusoria
Under Infusoria, we can include microorganisms such as protozoa and other microorganisms. This type of food can be bought in retail pet stores, or you can create them on your own in a specially made aquarium.
These organisms are hard to come by in an aquarium naturally, so you will have to produce it on its own.
When do Guppy Fry Start Eating?
After the fry is born, they will usually start to eat after few hours. The timing depends on fish to fish, though.
The consensus seems to be that the fry starts to eat after a day. However, there have been reports of owners that their fry starts to eat only after three days or even more.
Most often, they will start very soon. A guppy fry is almost independent of the very start, as they begin to swim very early and begin to eat quite soon.
They also grow up quite quickly, and it can take up to a few months to complete their growth cycle.
How Often to Feed Baby Guppies?
That is a question that cannot be answered with a specific number of times it should be fed.
The guppy fry will be very greedy at the start, and it will seem like these fish are ready to eat at any time. But this is not good, especially if you want to avoid overfeeding (which you should).
A guppy fry will be ready to eat after a few minutes after they have ended their last meal. That is because they process the food they eat very quickly, in about 20 to 30 minutes.
Soon, they will be asking for more and if you are not careful, you will end up overfeeding the fish.
The best way to go about this is to create a feeding schedule and feed them five times per day with small amounts of food. This allows you to keep track of how much you feed these fish.
Again, it is very easy to overfeed at this point, and you should strive to feed them smaller amounts more regularly.
That allows them to process food more comfortably, and it prevents constipation, which can cause possible problems to the fry.
What to Feed Guppy Fry When Out of Food?
The guppies are known as being omnivores so that you can look to other sources of food than meat, such as vegetables.
The best way would be to find some baby worms around your house, but that is not always feasible.
In the worst-case scenario, you can cut some vegetables – cucumbers, lettuce, zucchini, carrots or peas, into tiny pieces and feed them that.
The problem could be that these types of foods could be too big for the fry. In the worst case, you can feed them grain products, but that food is devoid of nutrients, so try to avoid that at the start.
Conclusion
Breeding and growing your guppies can be very satisfying. It does take some work, but eventually, you will end up with healthy guppies that you can have for yourself or sell them for profit.
Whatever your purpose is, the diet of the fry is one of the most important aspect of growing them. Hopefully, you will be able to grow your guppies into healthy fish.