Will Guppies Eat Bread? Yes, But It is Not Good!

Having a pet generally comes with a change of pace. You learn how to take care of it, you learn its feeding behavior, and pretty much mold your schedule around it. While guppies are not so demanding in terms of attention and care, they do have their unique needs and behaviors that you need to understand.

I have seen a lot of guppy owners avoiding the work and time necessary to provide their guppies with the ideal food. Instead, they resort to homemade “recipes” like bread, which is today’s topic of discussion.

So, do guppies eat bread, and, more importantly, should they?

Why Bread is Not Good for Your Guppies?

You can probably make bread for your guppies using flour, water, and dough, making for a healthier product. Store-bought bread, however, is a no-no. It typically contains a lot of chemicals and additives, most of which are harmful to your guppies. These may include yeast, sugar, corn syrup, artificial coloring, various flavors, etc.

These can cause a variety of health problems to your guppies and might even kill them in the long run. I advise you to avoid feeding them bread if you care about your guppies’ health.

What to Feed Your Guppies?

With bread out of the picture, what should you feed your guppies? Fortunately, guppies are not that pretentious since they are omnivores. They rely on a mix between protein-rich foods and plants that they can find in their environment. Domestic guppies tend to share the same food preferences and, with multiple options at your disposal, there’s little-to-no reason to feed them foods that can harm them. Bread included.

Some of the food options available for domesticated guppies include:

• Live food – Yes, you can feed your guppies live food since it’s relatively easy to come by. You can get it from the store or make your own at home. Brine shrimp, micro-worms, daphnia, vinegar eels, these are all viable options that your guppies will enjoy thoroughly. I recommend getting growing your guppy food at home. There are plenty of breeding boxes to grow brine shrimp, daphnia, or vinegar eels, virtually providing you with an unlimited food supply.
• Homemade Food – You can also supplement your guppies’ menu with items like beef heart, whole eggs, egg yolk, chicken breast, and so on. These protein-based foods are ideal for providing your guppies with the protein intake they need to stay healthy and fit. You can also rely on a vegetable mix to offer them the green nutrients that they rely on to remain healthy. Some of these products include spinach, carrots, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, etc. You have a lot of homemade options at your disposal, allowing you to create tasty and nutritional foods with a minimum of effort.
• Commercial Food – Most guppy owners I know rely on commercial food to satisfy their guppies’ appetite, and it’s understandable. Guppy food is generally widespread and affordable, and you can buy it in larger quantities at once. This will minimize the time you spend preparing homemade foods for your guppies.

Some of the best food options include dried brine shrimp, freeze-dried blood worms or tubifex worms, veggie pellets, flake food, or spirulina tablets. You can find additional options as well if you wish to keep your guppies’ menu as varied as possible. Which is something I would definitely support.

There are three things I would recommend regarding commercial guppy food:

• Only rely on the biggest brands in the field – Don’t seek to cut corners when it comes to getting the best food for your guppies. A few pennies saved can translate to a lower-quality food with suboptimal nutritional content. Always get your food from the biggest brands in the industry to ensure your guppies with the ideal nutrient intake.
• Understand the importance of variation – You need to understand that wild guppies have a lot of diversity in their menu. They eat whatever they find, including insects, plants, algae, mosquito larvae, smaller fish, leftovers from other aquatic creatures, etc. This variety is key, as it allows guppies to get all the essential nutrients to grow and remain healthy over the years. You need to replicate this diversity in your food options, including both protein-rich foods and plant-based meals.
• Cheap fish food can be actually harmful – Like I’ve mentioned previously, cheap fish food can be suboptimal in terms of nutritional content. However, it can also be harmful to your guppies. Aside from lacking crucial nutrients, it may also contain specific additives and chemicals that will pollute the water and lead to algae build-up.

How to Feed Guppy Fry?

Guppy fry eat pretty much whatever guppy adults enjoy, with small variations here and there. In general, you should provide them with overtly crushed foods since their smaller mouths can’t fit the same things adults can. You should also worry less about the fat content since fry can benefit from a plus of animal-based fats. Not to say they should eat as much as possible, but they can have a bit more than the adults since they need to fuel their growth.

You can also buy powder food rich in nutrients or make your own food paste at home, using both live or dried food and veggie pellets. You can check some of my previous articles detailing how you can use vegetables and animal-sourced foods to make a nutritious paste to feed your guppies regularly. You can then store the paste in your fridge for later use.

How Often do Guppies Eat?

A lot of guppy owners ask this question, and I’ve always thought it wrong. I believe the adequate question should be, “How much or often should I feed my guppies?” That’s because, typically, guppies will eat as much as they can, but it doesn’t mean they should. The difference is that, in the wild, they will have to fight for their food constantly. It’s not as abundant as it is in their tank, where a massive monkey pours more in their environment in a day than an entire generation can eat in a week.

And, yes, overfeeding is a problem with guppies, as is with any other animal on earth. To avoid this issue, I recommend only feeding your guppies once or twice a day at most. And, most importantly, don’t throw in too much food at once. Only provide guppies with what they can eat in a minute or so. Everything above that will just settle on the substrate and begin to decay, eventually polluting the water.

Wrap Up

Seeing as the article’s topic was whether guppies eat bread, we kind of went on a tangent for a bit, but it was for an understandable reason. My point was showing that there are plenty of healthier, safer, and more nutritious food alternatives for your guppies than bread.

Why would you feed them bread in the first place? Where does this come from? It’s not suitable for your guppies, it’s not nutritious, and it can kill them. Just because they will eat it doesn’t mean they should; they don’t have your big monkey brain to reason their food choices. So, be the bigger man and stop feeding them bread!

If you have any more questions about guppy food, feeding patterns, or what to avoid, send me a question, and I would be happy to reply.