The poecilia reticulata, usually known as guppies or lebistes, is a very active and generally colorful small fish that is kept in the aquarium. Caring for her nutrition is a simple task, but it's best to know her needs to prevent her from overeating. Young guppies need a particular diet, even if the food is readily available in aquarium stores, while adults will have stronger health if you add some more nutritious food to the flake food.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Feeding Adult Guppies
Step 1. Purchase some flake food for tropical fish
You can buy it at a livestock or aquarium store and use it as a primary food in daily nutrition. Even though guppies eat any type of flake food, the best is the one produced by the high quality brands because it contains proteins and plant substances. Flake food intended for tropical fish often includes color enhancers that give guppies a brighter, more colorful appearance. Do not purchase granulated food, as it is difficult or practically impossible for fish with small mouths to consume.
If you prefer to buy more flakes than you use in a month, freeze what is left over to preserve the nutrients. Thaw a month's supply a couple of days before use
Step 2. Give the guppies a pinch of flake food once or twice a day
Pour a pinch of flakes into the water and watch them eat. They should finish the meal in about 30-60 seconds, and in any case no more than a few minutes. You could choose to feed them once or twice a day, as long as the quantities of food are adequate. It is easier to get out of hand than to give a reduced ration of feed.
Guppies will continue to eat or forage for food even when they don't need it. Don't feed extra meals because they seem hungry to you. In fact, when they are looking for food, they will help keep the aquarium clean, as they will prevent residues from building up and soiling the water
Step 3. Replace the flake food every now and then with some more nutritious treats
Although guppies will only survive in flakes, frozen or live plants and animals contain nutrients that are ideal for adding to flake feeds. Therefore, replace them every 2-7 days with some more tempting treats as long as they can finish it within 60 seconds. Here are some tips on the most appropriate treats for your guppies, which you will find in most animal husbandry stores:
- Artemia contain mostly protein and are ideal supplements if the flake food is high in vegetables and low in protein (40% or less). They are sold alive, frozen or in the form of flakes.
- Mosquito larvae make great appetizers that you can catch on your own using a net in standing water. Collect small amounts of larvae from time to time to prevent them from turning into mosquitoes. Earthworms are also useful for this purpose, but they need to be shredded and rinsed before giving them to guppies.
- Feed your guppies with shelled peas, chopped lettuce, finely chopped cucumber, especially if the flake food is high in protein but low in vegetables.
Step 4. Avoid live tubifexes and daphnia
There are many other types of fish food, which aquarium stores or other guppy owners can recommend. However, you should try to avoid tubifex and daphnia, even if they are recommended to you. Although guppies eat them with appetite, tubifexes sometimes contain deadly bacteria. Live daphnia, on the other hand, are harmful because they remove oxygen from the aquarium and are generally expensive and difficult to breed compared to other live foods.
Step 5. Look out for symptoms that indicate overeating
Since guppies have small stomachs, although they eat large amounts of food when available, the risk of overeating is common. If you notice any of the following symptoms, reduce the frequency with which you feed tempting treats or food. Some guppy owners only feed their minnows 6 days a week, making them fast on the seventh to keep them healthy.
- If you see a trail of feces hanging from the fish's body, it is a sign of an intestinal blockage caused by overeating.
- Adult males develop a round belly or chest lump if they eat too much fat. Reduce the amount of food and replace fatty snacks, such as mosquito larvae or beef heart, with a few bits of defatted ham.
- If the water becomes cloudy and dirty frequently, overeating or feces may be the cause. As a general rule, you should change 20-30% of the water approximately once every 1-2 weeks or more often if the tank is full of fish.
Step 6. Consider various methods of feeding guppies when you are out on a vacation longer than a week
Adult guppies can go without food for a week before they experience the first symptoms of a prolonged fast, so if you stay out for a couple of days, you might as well not feed them. During a longer vacation, it is advisable to follow one of the following methods:
- Use a food vending machine at regular intervals. Make sure you provide enough feed during your absence by scheduling the dispenser to deliver food 1-2 times a day.
- Try block or gel food before you go. These dry or gel-coated food blocks are left in the aquarium and eaten slowly. However, dry blocks can cause dangerous chemical changes, while the gel is sometimes ignored by fish. Try both solutions for a couple of days before you leave, so you can be sure you are okay.
- Ask a friend or neighbor to give the flake food once every 2-3 days. Since there is a risk that the inexperienced will give too much food, it is best to put a pinch of feed in a pill box or other container, after carefully marking the day of the week above. Point out to your caregivers that overeating could kill them.
Method 2 of 2: Caring for and Feeding Young Guppies
Step 1. Set up a breeding aquarium
Young guppies, also known as "fry", need a particular diet, different from that of adults, and should be separated from the latter as a matter of safety. Carefully set up a 20 l tank, making sure that has everything necessary for guppy survival. As with any other aquarium, a fish-free cycle is a great way to prepare it to accommodate fish.
Step 2. Divide the breeding aquarium into two sections using a breeding net
Purchase it from an aquarium store and divide the tank into two parts. Newborn guppies will be able to swim through the holes in the net and escape from their mother, who may be tempted to eat them.
If you don't want to buy a breeding net or aren't sure if it has the right size holes, you can protect the fry by inserting several aquarium plants to hide them from
Step 3. Move the pregnant females to the breeding aquarium until they have calved
Females have a dark patch on the abdomen which becomes much darker once the eggs have been fertilized inside. The eggs will grow for 21-30 days, while the abdomen will get bigger and darker. As soon as you notice that the mother has given birth, transfer her back to the main aquarium so that she does not compete with the fry for food and does not attempt to eat the young.
If you intend to breed guppies to sell them or produce special characteristics, move the male and female you have identified for your purposes to the breeding aquarium before the latter becomes pregnant. Return the male to the main tank once you detect the dark pregnancy spot. Note that females can store sperm for months, so if you purchase an adult female it is likely that she has already been fertilized by a male not present in the aquarium during the first few broods
Step 4. Prepare special food for your fry
Guppy fry have small mouths and a high need for protein, so they need to be fed separately from adults. Before they are born, prepare a special food for them that includes both proteins and plant substances. The high quality proteins are contained in artemia larvae (non-adult artemias), micro worms (microworms), minced beef heart and / or in the mixture of egg yolk and water. Vegetables should be used in small quantities, and among these you can use infusoria (microscopic organisms that give the water its green color), fresh and finely chopped lettuce or small pieces of boiled spinach.
Do not administer adult brine shrimp until they have gotten a little older. If they remain intact in the aquarium, it means that the fry are too big to eat
Step 5. Feed the fry several times a day
As they grow, they need more energy than adults, and a smaller stomach that needs small amounts of food approximately 6 times a day. If the water becomes dirty or cloudy despite frequent changes, reduce your rations and make sure they are small enough to consume.
Step 6. Change small amounts of water frequently
Once the fry are born, it is better to change 10% of the water or a little less every two days, instead of making a bigger and more stressful change every week or two. Juvenile fish are particularly vulnerable to water changes, and a high frequency of feeding can lead to rapid accumulation of feces in the aquarium.
Step 7. Gradually reduce how often you feed your food
After about 2 months the fry should be noticeably larger and will need to be fed 3-4 times a day. After about 4-5 months, they can begin to follow the adult diet, that is 1-2 times a day. You can choose to change their diet slowly to get them to accept flakes, gradually replacing some rations of their diet with this type of feed. However, certain strains and some individuals are likely to grow at different rates, but it will not be necessary to move the fry to the adult fish tank until they are all the same size.
You can start feeding larger foods, such as adult brine shrimp, if they are growing at a good rate. Keep feeding young guppies high quality food and monitor them to make sure they enjoy the new food
Advice
- It is easier to spot males thanks to the presence of a pointed fin at the base of the fish, near the anus. Females, on the other hand, have a more rounded fin and develop a dark spot on the abdomen which becomes more evident when they have been fertilized.
- Make sure the fry don't have a hard time finding food! Pour it directly on top of them. It is not necessary for adults, who should be swimming in the aquarium in search of food.
