When to Begin Feeding Guppy Fry?

Guppy fry will typically begin eating a couple of hours after they’re born. Although they are part of the same species, guppy fry and adult guppies have different requirements regarding water temperature, food, oxygenation, etc.

To care for your guppy fry properly, you need to know a few basic plot points. The most important ones relate to their feeding behavior, more specifically, what to feed them, how often, and how much.

This article will talk about the fry’s nutritional requirements, helping you provide them with the ideal diet and environment to boost their growth.

What to Feed Your Guppy Fry?

Guppy fry consume the same foods as adults, just in different proportions. The fry also requires a surplus of animal fat since they are fully developed and their bodies require a plus of nutrients.

Optimal nutrient intake is necessary not only for their development but overall health as well. A well-balanced diet will allow your fry to develop a stronger immune system and grow faster, stronger, and healthier overall.

It’s also worth noting that guppy fry tend to be overtly voracious. They will consume a lot more food than they should, leading to overfeeding and health problems. This is why keeping a strict feeding schedule for your guppy fry is key to prevent any health issues along the way.

Another key aspect to consider is food diversity. The fry, just like the adults, need to get their nutrients from a variety of sources. Below you have three major food categories, providing your guppies, both fry and adult, with the optimal nutrient intake daily:

Flake Foods

Flake foods are a no-brainer since they’re easy to come by and highly nutritional. They are also comfortable to serve when you’re in a hurry and can’t prepare your guppies the food yourself. You can find various flake foods with different nutritional tags, depending on your guppies’ needs.

I suggest looking for a blend of animal and vegetal nutrients to provide your guppies with all the nutrients they need.

Live and Freeze-Dried Foods

In nature, fry and adult guppies thrive on live food. We include here food options like tubifex worms or brine shrimp, which have guppies as natural predators. If you can get live food for your guppies, you’ve already solved the problem. If not, freeze-dried foods are the next best thing.

The key point to mention here is moderation. Guppy fry will need the extra fat and protein intake coming with baby brine shrimp, for instance. Adults, not so much. Compared to the adults, the fry need to boost their growth rate fast, which means they can process the fats and protein more effectively.

I recommend feeding adult guppies foods high in fats and protein only occasionally. Otherwise, they will experience health problems since, in nature, guppies don’t have the opportunity to eat too much or too often. Their bodies can’t handle too much nutrient intake since they’re more used to scarcity rather than luxury.

Homemade Foods

I would say that this is the ideal way to feed your guppy fry. You can personalize your guppy’s food so that it contains everything it needs for proper development.

Some of the most noticeable homemade food options include:

Live Cultures

This requires you to grow the ‘food’ at home. The best live cultures for your guppy fry include:

• Baby brine shrimp – With a content of 60% protein and 40% fat, carbs, and other nutrients, baby shrimp is ideal for feeding your hungry fry. You can grow them in shrimp hatcheries which are easy to handle.
• Daphnia – Daphnia have a high vitamin A and D content, which are essential for your growing fry. You should keep the daphnia cultures outside, however, due to the stingy smell they produce. They will require a separate tank where you can feed them bacterial cultures, yeast, algae, or spirulina powder.
• Vinegar eels – Vinegar eels also come with a high protein content (50%), making them ideal for growing fry. Adults should only eat vinegar eels occasionally due to the high-fat content (20%).

Chicken Breast

Chicken breast contains a lot of protein, even more than baby shrimp. This is ideal for guppy fry who are always in need of nutrient-rich foods. The chicken breast also has low-fat content, making it great for adult guppies as well.

You only need to boil the mix and serve it in smaller chunks so that the fry can nibble on it.

Frozen Vegetable Tablets

These should be homemade since you can personalize them according to your guppies’ needs. You can blend several vegetables, including spirulina, algae, zucchini, and spinach, providing your guppy fry with a mineral and vitamin-rich food.

I recommend making several days’ worth of the paste, freeze it, and keep it in a cool place. You can then cut little pieces off of it when you need to feed the fry. You can use the same paste to feed your guppy adults as well.

Protein Paste

There’s a lot you can do here. I recommend mixing several food ingredients, including baby brine shrimp, tubifex worms, bloodworms, mosquito pupae, chicken breast, and even beef heart. The latter is a superfood for guppy fry, thanks to the high protein and fat content. I don’t recommend feeding this to your adult guppies, however, for obvious reasons.

This protein mix will contain a variety of different nutrients that your fry can’t naturally get from one source.

Egg Yolk

Egg yolk is another fat-filled food with great nutritional value for your guppy fry. It’s easy to prepare since you only need to boil the egg and separate the yolk, turning it into a paste. Don’t use too much, however.

Egg yolk can easily foul the water and increase the ammonia levels if not eaten. I also don’t recommend it for adult guppies due to the high-fat content.

If you have time and are willing to prepare your guppies’ food yourself, numerous recipes are available. Just remember that guppy fry needs more protein and fats compared to adults. Proper nutritional intake during their first weeks of life will boost their growth rate significantly.

An adequate diet will also help them grow stronger, faster, healthier, and reproduce sooner.

Food Recipes for Fast-Growing Guppy Fry

Having several options for food recipes can make things a lot easier for you. If you like preparing food for your guppies and have the time to do so, here are several options available:

• Standard Gelatin Food – This is easy to prepare since it doesn’t have too many ingredients, nor does it need a lot of cooking. You only need some unsweetened gelatin, vegetables, seafood, and fish vitamins and you’re good to go.
• Meat-Based Fish Food – The ingredients include unsweetened Gelatin, shrimp, white fish, and beef heart. Mix the Gelatin with water, boil the meats together, and then add the Gelatin on top of the boiled meat once it cools off. You can even boil vegetables and add them to the mix for a plus of minerals and vitamins.
• High-Protein Fish Food – Shrimp, salmon, carrots, peas, spinach, garlic, and, of course, Gelatin. You cut all the ingredients into smaller pieces, add some water, and throw them into the blender. You can then boil the resulting paste at low heat for about 30 minutes. Mix them with the Gelatin once the pasta is cooked, and you’ve got yourself a protein-rich meal that you can use for days to come.
• Homemade Flake Food – Use nutritious ingredients that you know your guppies need. These may include shrimp, fish, carrots, daphnia, soybean powder, spirulina, etc. Blend them or use a food processor to create a thick paste which you can then cook in the oven. I recommend low heat so you won’t overcook it.

Homemade foods are great if you want to provide your guppies with specific ratios of vitamins, minerals, protein, and fats.

You can use this recipe list or make your own recipes by combining ingredients of your choosing and cooking them briefly. Pay attention not to overcook the food since overcooking destroys a lot of the nutrients in the process.

Conclusion

While guppy fry consume the same foods as adults, they may need diets with higher protein and fat content. That’s because they are in full growth and their bodies require all the nutrients they can get.

Another aspect worthy of mentioning is that homemade foods are more nutritious and cheaper overall. Just remember that guppies, adults, and fry alike, require an optimal mix of animal protein and vegetal minerals and vitamins. This mix will keep them healthy, energetic, and thriving over the years.