Best Food For Guppies Compared & Reviewed 2023 (Optimal Diet)

Guppies need a varied diet to make sure they get all the nutrients required.

Here’s the information you need to know so you can get the best food and diet for your guppies.

Quick Overview For Guppy Food

All the foods here do the job. And in my opinion, selecting two or three of these foods to rotate around during the week is the best choice.

Last update on 2023-05-28 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

What Are High Quality Fish Food Ingredients?

Whole Fish

Whole fish is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to fish food. It gives you the most usable protein and contains all of the oils that are so important for fish health.

It’s also great to see listings for things like whole shrimp or krill. It means the whole animal was used instead of just the leftover shells and heads that you get from shrimp meal. 

Shrimp and krill also have the added benefit of being color enhancing. The red pigment that makes most shrimp and krill pink can help make red, yellow and orange fish more vibrant.

Spirulina

Spirulina is a freshwater cyanobacteria (aka blue-green algae) that is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. It even has some protein. 

And it’s easily digestible so fish are able to absorb more of the nutrients.

It also has color enhancing properties that can help make your fish even more vivid.

Kelp

Kelp is a marine macroalgae that grows to enormous size. Just like spirulina, kelp is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals in a form that’s easy for fish to digest.

This is a good substitute for all of the algae that guppies would normally graze on in the wild.

What You Don’t Want

There are several low quality ingredients that are used as cheap fillers for fish food. It’s a red flag if you see any of these listed as the one of the main ingredients.

Generic Fish Meal

Generic fish meal (fish meal that doesn’t name a specific species) is usually a sign of low quality food, especially if it is the main protein source.

Fish meal is made up of all the garbage that’s left over after fish are processed for human consumption. 

Processing plants fillet the fish, harvest the fish oil and then throw the rest (skin, scales, bones,  guts, etc) into a big machine so it can be ground into a paste.

Doesn’t that just sound delicious?

The problem with fish meal is that a lot of the good stuff has already been used up by the time the “fish” make it into the grinder. Things like the actual meat of the fish and the fish oil are taken out before the grinding.

Wheat

Wheat products are often used in fish foods as fillers, binding agents and fiber additives.

A little wheat to help bind fish food together is one thing, but wheat shouldn’t be one of the main ingredients of a fish food.

A fish’s body is just not designed to digest a grain like wheat. Their digestive systems will mostly just pass things like that through as waste, helping to foul your water.

Pro Tip: The one exception to this rule is foods meant to prepare koi to overwinter. Wheat germ is an excellent source of fiber for fish going through cold weather.

Soy

Just like wheat, soy is not something that you want to see as a main ingredient. Yes, soy contains protein, but it’s difficult to digest, even for humans. 

Fish digestive tracts are short and primitive. They’re not good at breaking down tough ingredients. Whatever fish can’t readily digest, their bodies just push through as waste.

That just means more poop from food that really didn’t benefit the fish at all.

Feed a Varied Diet for Best Results

In the wild, guppies are true omnivores. They cruise around and eat pretty much anything they  can get in their mouths.

They love to munch on algae, insect larvae, tiny crustaceans, diatoms and plant fragments.

It’s best to recreate this varied diet as much as possible in the aquarium. Offer your fish foods made from lots of different ingredients so they can get all the various nutrients their bodies need.

Think about it this way, you don’t eat just carrots all day every day. Sure, a carrot only diet would keep you from starving to death for a while. 

But eventually, you would get sick and die from malnutrition because carrots don’t have all of the nutrients your body needs to survive and thrive.

Fish are no different. Giving them foods sourced from lots of different plants and animals ensures their bodies get everything they need.

It’s especially good to give guppies lots of different proteins since they reproduce constantly. Females especially need extra protein so that giving birth a few times a month doesn’t deplete them.

Best Guppy Foods Reviewed

Omega One Freshwater Flakes

Main ingredients: salmon, whole herring, wheat flour, whole shrimp, pea protein, kelp

Description: Omega One is the best fish food company in the industry, in my opinion. Their foods are full of high quality proteins that come from a variety of aquatic sources. 

There is some wheat flour, used as a binding agent, but the salmon, whole herring and whole shrimp make up for it. 

It also contains some great plant based ingredients, like kelp, pea protein and spirulina, all of which provide valuable and easily digestible vitamins and minerals.

Freshwater Flakes are a great staple diet for guppies and other community fish.

You will need to grind up the flakes so that they’re small enough for guppies to eat. You can crush them between your fingers a few times before  adding them to the tank.

Last update on 2023-05-28 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Northfin Community Formula 0.5 Millimeter Pellets

Main ingredients: whole Antarctic krill meal, high Omega 3 DHA herring meal, whole sardine meal 

Description: I’ve been really impressed by this Northfin Community Formula. The first three ingredients are all super high quality sources of protein.

They’ve also got kelp and spirulina thrown in for good measure. This is another food that would make a great staple diet for community fish like guppies.

You might have to crush these pellets down for tiny guppies. It’s tougher than flakes, so you’ll likely need something like a mortar and pestle.

One thing about these, they sink really quickly. I’d recommend feeding only a tiny pinch at a time. Make sure that your guppies have time to swoop in and eat that portion and then add a little bit more.

Last update on 2023-05-28 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Cobalt Aquatics Guppy Ultra Pellets

Main ingredients: prawns, dried spirulina algae, jumbo squid meal, whole anchovy, whole sardine

Description: This is another well-balanced food that would make an excellent staple diet. I love that the main ingredients are a mix of high quality protein sources and spirulina algae. 

I also like that there is such a big variety of food sources used for this food. This helps give your fish a varied diet all in one convenient package.

This is a very small pellet that should be good for even guppy fry.

It’s supposed to be a floating pellet, but some users have found that it sinks quickly. 

I’d recommend that you feed this only a tiny pinch at a time and only add more as it gets eaten. If you dump in a bunch of food all at once, it’s likely that food will sink before your guppies have a chance to eat it.

Last update on 2023-05-28 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Omega One Color Mini Pellets

Main ingredients: salmon, halibut, whole herring, cod, shrimp

Description: This is another fantastic food from Omega One. The main ingredients are top notch. 

These pellets would make a great staple food, rich in aquatic proteins that fish can easily digest.

There is kelp in this formulation, but you may still want to supplement with some foods that have a higher spirulina and/or algae content.

This is marked as a slow sinking pellet, but in my experience, “slow sinking” pellets still sink fairly quickly.

You may need to grind these pellets so that they’re small enough for guppies to eat.

Last update on 2023-05-28 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Zoo Med Spirulina 20 Flakes

Main ingredients: salmon fish meal, spirulina algae meal, soy flour

Description: Spirulina 20 flakes are a great supplemental food that’s rich in protein, vitamins and minerals.

I would use this more as a treat than a staple diet. It’s rich in nutrients because of the spirulina, but it has only a single protein source.

But, I do recommend feeding it a few times a week alongside your other foods since spirulina is such a great color enhancer, especially for blue and green fish.

This is especially good to add on to your fish’s diet if their staple food doesn’t contain much spirulina or algae meal.

You will need to crush up the flakes so they’re small enough for guppies to eat. They’re easy to crush up with your fingers, and in my experience, they float fairly well.

Last update on 2023-05-28 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Which One is Best?

I really wouldn’t say that any one of these foods is the absolute best. I think most provide the variety of protein sources that fish need to be healthy, as well as some plant sources that provide essential vitamins and minerals.

In my opinion, selecting two or three of these foods to rotate around during the week is the best choice. 

Just like humans, fish should eat a varied diet to make sure they get all the nutrients they need, especially for growth and reproduction.

Luckily, guppies are tiny little eating machines that live only to suck down food and have babies. So you shouldn’t have a problem with picky eaters who turn down food.

I wish you and your fish the best of luck!

Last update on 2023-05-28 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API