Guppy fish are exceptionally popular aquarium pets since they look stunning and are extremely easy to take care of. These friendly fish are quick to adjust to a new home and aren’t fussy eaters.
However, as a Guppy owner, you may be wondering, like other fish breeds, whether Guppies eat brine shrimp or not. Well, we have the answer for you!
Can Guppies eat brine shrimp? Guppies can eat brine shrimp, and they love it! Feeding live brine shrimp instead of frozen ones would be more nutritious for Guppies. However, a diet of only brine shrimp every single day may not be nutritious enough.
There are many other foods that can offer nutrients for your Guppy. If you want to get a Guppy, then you should definitely add these foods as supplements to brine shrimp for a well-balanced meal. Nothing will make your Guppy fish happier than a proper diet!
Feeding Guppies Brine Shrimp
Guppies love brine shrimp, and it’s the number one food for them. Baby brine shrimps are more nutritious than adult ones. You can definitely add baby brine shrimp in your Guppy fish diet to raise them effectively.
Basically, if you’re raising Guppy fry, then baby brine shrimp are an ideal food for them (but also for adult guppies). The natural movements of the shrimp attract the Guppies into eating them. Another great reason to feed your Guppies brine shrimp is the high level of protein.
Brine shrimp has 60% protein content with 25% fat. It also contains carbohydrates as well. The high level of protein and fat will help your fry to grow bigger, faster. However, adult brine shrimp have very little nutritious value.
So, you should avoid making adult brine shrimp the primary food source for your precious Guppy.
Another plus point is that your Guppy fish can digest brine shrimp easily. They can also survive for several hours, which can give your Guppies a continuous supply of food.
Most commercial fish foods tend to dissolve in the water and reduce water quality. But not brine shrimp! Surviving for a reasonable amount of time, they can help you maintain your tank’s water quality.
Frozen Brine Shrimp vs. Live Brine Shrimp
Live brine shrimp are always the best option for your Guppy fish. Unlike processed foods such as pellets, commercial flakes, or free-dried foods, live ones will give your Guppies more nutrients.
Well, it doesn’t necessarily mean that frozen brine shrimp are bad. They just tend to have less nutritional value compared to the live ones, like other frozen foods out there.
You can culture brine shrimp at home with ease. For that, you can buy a brine shrimp hatchery kit to hatch the eggs. They usually take about 1-3 days to hatch. So, keeping multiple hatcheries running in parallel would be the best call.
But if you don’t want to go the extra miles, then you can buy live brine shrimps from the pet store. However, make sure that they are baby brine shrimps. You can also go for the frozen ones as your Guppy would love to eat them too.
How to Feed Brine Shrimp to Your Guppies
Guppy Fry
As long as the shrimp are moving your Guppies will eat them. So, when the brine shrimp eggs are hatched, you should stop the water aeration system and allow the shrimps to settle down. After all the brine shrimps settled down, you should siphon then out and place them in a net.
You can then directly pour the shrimps into your Guppy tank and watch your guppy fry eat.
Adult Guppies
But for the adult Guppies, you need to rinse the shrimps before feeding. So, first run them under tap water. Next, take a container and fill it with water from your Guppy’s fish tank. It will help to remove the metabolites that can harm your Guppies.
Lastly, pour them into your Guppy fish tank and feed them directly. You should avoid pouring too many brine shrimp into your fish tank. Only feed your Guppies as they need and no more than that. The video below shows you how it is done properly.
For the frozen ones, you have to thaw it first. You can put the frozen cubes in a bowl and fill it with tank water. You can also warm up the tank water beforehand to accelerate the thawing process. Once the frozen cube fully melts, all you have to do is pour it in your Guppy fish tank.
Thawing it beforehand prevents the frozen cube from drowning to the bottom. It also evenly distributes the brine shrimps in the aquarium.
What Do Guppies Eat Beside Brine Shrimp?
Guppies can eat a wide variety of food besides brine shrimp. They are practically omnivores. So, they need meat and vegetables in their diet. If you continue only feeding them brine shrimp, they’ll suffer from nutritional deficiencies.
Flake Food
The most common food for your Guppies is flake food. Flake food comes in a wide variety, and they offer all the necessary minerals and vitamins for your fish. You should try to feed quality flake food at least once to your Guppy fish.
Remember to check for the ingredients on the label and choose the flake food that offers the most value.
Veggie Pellet
Veggie pallets can be another excellent food to add to the diet. Basically, these contain greens such as plankton, algae, spirulina. All of these are rich in vitamins B, C, D, and E. They also contain calcium and iron.
Beef Heart
Beef heart is a great food source for Guppy fry. You need to clean the beef heart and get rid of all the fat. After that, blend it or chop it into smaller pieces and feed it to your Guppy fry. However, as they are rich in fat, you should avoid feeding it to your adult Guppies.
Daphnia
Daphnia is a great supplement to brine shrimp. Like brine shrimp, you can get them as frozen or live. However, it’s best to feed your Guppies live ones. Daphnia contains a considerable amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrate.
Aside from these, it also offers vitamin D and A for your Guppy fish.
Vinegar Eel
Vinegar Eels are rich in protein (almost 50%) and fat (20%). You can culture these at home. Although they are quite easy to culture, the harvesting process is a bit troublesome.
But keep in mind, you should avoid feeding too many vinegar eels to your guppies due to their high protein content.
Micro-Worm
These are similar to vinegar eels and a high protein source for your Guppies.
Blood Worm or Mosquito Larva
Mosquito larva or blood worm are tasty treats for your Guppies. You can catch them by running a net through any standing water. But make sure you only get a small number of mosquito larvae to prevent them from hatching.
Earthworm
Guppies eat earthworms as well. They can be a great occasional treat for your Guppies. But make sure you chop them in small pieces and rinse them before feeding.
Vegetables
Well, proteins will promote their growth rate, but they do need vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy life. Vegetables are rich in many vitamins and minerals such as A, B-6, B-12, C, D, E, iron, calcium, and magnesium.
So, try to feed your Guppy fish vegetables such as spinach leaves, cucumber, zucchini, carrots, green beans, peas, kale, corn, broccoli, and potato.
What you can feed when out of fish food!
Many people ask us if they can feed their guppies human food or how they can feed their guppies while on vacation. We have created two articles for you:
How Often Should You Feed Your Guppies?
Well, Guppy fish tend to look hungry, and you can easily overfeed them. There’s no limit to how much they can eat! As long as you keep feeding your Guppies, they’ll keep eating. But, you should always avoid overfeeding as it can harm your Guppy in the long run.
Feeding your precious Guppies 1-2 times a day is enough. Just make sure you offer a balanced diet and a wide range of food.
You can offer them a small amount at a time so that they can eat within 30-40 seconds. So, multiple small pinches of flake food are enough.
However, if you feed your Guppies live food like brine shrimp, then don’t throw all of them at once. You should always divide them up in smaller portions.