Best Guppy Food To Enhance Color And Growth

Guppies are among those fishes which can eat almost everything we give them. Although they can eat anything but if you want your guppy to healthy and colorful you need to take a look at what you are feeding to your guppies.

Type of foods to enhance guppy color

In this article, I am going to talk about three guppy food options.

1. Flake food

2. Live food

3. Frozen and dried food

The 2 and 3 types of food you can easily prepare at home but if you are new to fish keeping and don't want to make food yourself, then fish flakes are the way for you to start.

Best food to enhance guppy color

In this section we gonna talk about the best guppy food options available to help enhance guppy color. There are many foods available for guppies moreover packed foods (fish flakes) which states that they are the best food available in the market. They put some marketing tactics to advertise their product like 'best' but we have not to be influenced by them and only focus on some good and reputed brand which can actually benefit guppy health overall.

Fish Flakes

These could be two sides sword if you don't pick them up carefully. Don't pick and random fish flake brand for, don't fall for marketing gimmick read the ingredients properly before buying, or if you don't have much time to do so you can rely on us. Mentioned below are our best picks to enhance guppy's color. You can buy all of them on amazon through given links.

1. New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes

These flakes are specially made to enhance guppy color and boost their growth. It is made from krill, herring, squid, and some other natural ingredients. These ingredients provide adequate proteins, minerals, and vitamins needed by guppies.

The other thing I like about these flakes is that they have garlic as an ingredient. For those who don't know that garlic is very good for fish's health. It's antibiotic properties strengthen the guppies immune system and help them to fight against many diseases and also prevent many diseases to arrive.

According to me, this is the best overall package for guppies. If I run out of live food I always prefer this to feed my guppies and it works very well.

2. Aquarium Tropical Flakes

As the name suggests these flakes are good for any tropical fish including guppies. These flakes work with community tank and as well as guppies only tank.

The reason I like these is that they don't add any artificial coloring to make them prettier. They keep them simple and let them do their real job which is to enhance guppies color and immune system which they do so and I am happy with them.

It is made from salmon, kelp, shrimps, and krill as it's primary ingredients. It's different ingredients help it to provide guppies a balanced diet full of vitamins (A, D- 3, B- 1, B- 12, C) which not many flakes can do for not at least.

The high protein content makes them ideal for fry as well. So if you have some packs of this in particular you are good to go without worrying about your guppies to die due to hunger.

3. API Tropical Flakes

These flakes are also good for all types of tropical fishes including guppies. It has a mix of all minerals, (copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, and more) and vitamins (A, D- 3, E, K, C) needed for proper growth and coloring of guppies.

These flakes are made out of fish meal, fish oil, wheat, wheat starch, squid meal, calcium, and more making it a balanced diet for fishes in every way possible and also loaded with vitamins and minerals.

The all-natural ingredients make the digestion process easy for guppies which eventually leads to less waste produced by guppies in the tank in the form of ammonia. Less ammonia means less need to change the water and also a better environment for fishes. These flakes can reduce ammonia waste in water up to 30% claimed by the company.

4. Aqueon Tropical Flakes

These flakes provide a balanced diet to every tropical fishes including guppies. These flakes are made in this way that guppies can easily digest them resulting in less ammonia release in water making water cleaner for longer periods.

To enhance color these flakes are made from marigold powder, and chili powder which helps to bring out guppies color. Wheat flour, soybean, corn, gluten, dried yeast, squid, garlic, and fish oil are some other minerals which balance the diet providing many beneficial vitamins  (C, A, D- 3, B- 12, B- 6) and minerals (calcium, magnesium sulfate, and copper sulfate).

These flakes are made specially to float for longer periods giving longer periods to guppies to consume them. It is a fact that guppies don't like smoked flakes they tend to eat floating flakes.

5. Tetra tropical color flakes

These flakes are a good mix of different ingredients which are good for every type of tropical fishes. It is perfect for top feeders as it is made to float for longer periods on top of the water.

The ingredients which are used to make these flakes are fish, dried yeast, shrimp, wheat gluten, soyabean oil, and algae. This vast number of ingredients provide a lot of vitamins and minerals required for guppy's color and growth.

The fact that these are high in protein makes them a good choice if you want to feed your fry. High protein content will help fry to grow faster and stronger with good colors.

6. Aquarian Tropical Flake Food

This great mix of vitamins and minerals has everything that any tropical fish needed for good health. It works well with guppies the balanced diet and nutritious value helps to produce good colors.

This great recipe is a mix of fish, cereals, vegetable oils and fats, yeast, algae, and eggs. These ingredients make it balanced and full of vitamins (A, D, C, E) and minerals. They are also good for fry growth due to higher protein and oil content.

The downsides of these flakes are they have higher ash content which causes higher waste in the water, makes water polluted a lot quicker than usual. The second downside is that it is a bit on a costlier side but it works very well it helps guppies to get amazing color with good health.

7. JBL Novo Guppy mini flakes

These flakes are specially made for guppies and live-bearing fishes. It really works well to get amazing colors from guppies and also providing a balanced diet at the same time.

This mix contains vegetables, fish, algae, yeast, and eggs. It is rich in antioxidants and provides adequate vitamins for guppy's growth. In my opinion guppies definitely love these flakes. You should also try to feed them to yours.

Live Food

You can culture live food easily at home. Shrimps, worms, and larva are some most commonly live foods fed to the guppies.

Brine Shrimp

Shrimps are one of the favorite food of guppies. Both fry and adults enjoy eating shrimp. Although they are liked by fishes they are also beneficial as they high in protein and fat content. It helps in all growth and color of guppy.

Culturing of brine shrimps is also fast and simple, you only need a hatchery and some brine shrimp eggs. Both hatchery and eggs are available on Amazon. For a continuous supply of shrimps set up 2 to 3 hatcheries working simultaneously as shrimp eggs take 2 to 3 days to hatch.

Daphnia

It is a great source of fat, protein, and carbohydrates it also has some essential vitamins (A and D) important for growth.

Daphnia is considerably easier to culture but it needs a separate tank. They need 6 to 8 hours of light, heated water with gentle movement. The only problem with this is you can culture them inside as they have a very foul smell. Outdoors would be a good place to culture them.

Vinegar eels

As daphnia they are also stinky smelling easy to culture creatures. They don't need much care to survive. The problem with eels is that they are not easy to harvest at all.

Eels are high in protein and fat content as brine shrimps do. These are ideal for fry as they need a good diet to grow faster. Feeding eels to adults isn't good because of the high-fat content in them.

Micro - worms

These little worms could be cultured in just a sealed container with the help of bread and water. Add a slice of bread in the container with some moisture and add some micro worms in it to seal the container well. In just a week thousands of worms will acquire the whole container.

Frozen and dried food

Live food isn't the only option you get for guppies. There are plenty of frozen and dried foods available which you can prepare at home.

Vegetables, fruits, dried shrimp, egg yolk, and chicken breast are some of the favorites by guppies. You can combine this food with live food to provide a balanced diet to your guppies throughout the day.

Vegetables and fruits

No doubt that guppies need a high protein diet to grow fast but we can't deny the fact that vitamins and minerals are also important for their health and color.

Vegetables are very rich in Vitamins (A, B- 6, B- 12, C, E, D) and minerals (iron, calcium, and magnesium).

Guppies can eat vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, peas, green beans, cucumber, corn, cabbage, zucchini, spinach leaves, potatoes, broccoli, and kale. You can serve these by combining these with egg yolk, chicken breast, and shrimps which will provide balanced dead to your guppies with adequate vitamins and minerals needed.

To feed vegetables first you need to soak them into water to soften them. Then blend them into a blender and some chicken breast, egg yolk, or shrimps. Now you can serve the paste into forms by freezing it and then cut it into small pieces and then serve. In other method put the paste on the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the baking sheet and bake it on 250 °F (150 °C) until the paste dries out and then serve to your guppies. Make sure not to overheat the pate that will eliminate the most vitamins from it.

Beef Heart

It is a superfood for the fry but due to the high content of fat not very good for adults at all.

Remove fat from the beef heart and chop it with a sharp knife in small pieces or you c blender to do so. Put some yolkhahahard-boiled egg mix it well and then serve to fry.

Egg yolk

Again a super easy to prepare and good for fry. The yolk of a hard-boiled egg is rich in vitamins (A, B- 12, C, D, E) and minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus).

If you are a beginner and wanted you to feed your guppy some healthy food hard-boiled egg yolk should be your way to go as they are super easy to prepare and widely available in homes and near markets.

Boil an egg for just 10 min and then crush the yolk part and serve to your guppy that it. But one thing to keep in mind is that it will highly pollute your tank water. You need to change your tank water more often if you stick to this particular diet.

Chicken Breast

This particular food is good for adults as it is low in fat and high in protein content which adults needed. It also provides some important minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium with some vitamins like B- 6.

Buy chicken breast from the market boil it into water then cut into small pieces and then feed.

Shrimp and Fish

Fishes are good for adults as they have high protein (60%) and low fat (30%) value. They can be given raw to guppies just chop it into small pieces so guppies can easily take them into their smallmouth.

Related: How To Take Care Of Pregnant Guppy

Other factors to improve guppy color

Leaving food there are some other factors that may help you to get amazing colors out of guppies.

1. Keep guppies away from dark places

Darker places can affect the color of guppy not because of visibility but due to the fact that guppies color pigments get influenced by the darker environment. If you want your guppy to be colorful you need to put your guppy tank in brighter places or you can buy a tank light that can brighten the environment around guppies.

2. Lack of live food

Sometimes your regular fish flakes (not once I recommended) can fulfill the requirements of your guppies. In this situation you should give your guppy good live food which can provide the required minerals and nutrients to glow your guppies.

3. Good water conditions

Bright colors are signs that guppies are happy with their water and environment. If the water quality is not up to the mark then it may reflect in your guppies color. If that is the case with you try to clean your tank and refill fresh water and invest in good tank filter and heater.