Feeding Guppy Babies

[guppymommy]

"Once they become a little larger, frozen foods are an excellent way to speed up their growth, with things like bloodworms being popular and easy to buy."

How much larger (or how old) should the baby guppies be before you start to feed them frozen foods like bloodworms?

 

[Annastasia]

Maybe a week or so. I start mine out from day one, but that's just me. The main thing is to make sure it's small enough for them, and that it's totally defrosted.

 

[sweetp544]

I feed mine a livebearing flake food that has blood worms in it. It comes already very finely ground up so you dont have to grind it up too much more. And I feed them that from day one also.

 

[Annastasia]

I also recently discovered a Livebearer flake that has small pieces of Tubifex Worms in it. That's easy to crush up and feed to fry too. It's by Nutrafin, if you want to take a look. I'm not sure how readily availible it is though, I've only seen it at 2 out of my 9 fish stores.

 

[stargirly1208]

i found this excellent food called first bites made by hikari that is perfect to feed fry. mine are growing so well on it! the best way i do it to ensure that i don't overfeed is take a paperclip, dip it in the water then into the food and shake it in the water. it's perfect because some fry don't understand how to go to the top for food yet anyhow. this food is small enough for them to eat too, even the crushed flake food is too big for me i found. i also fed them some live brine shrimp which u can get and breed really easily from most petshops. i do this about once every two weeks.

 

[Morquinn]

Yeah, I have that first bite stuff, its like sand! It doesnt sink very well though, and only the babies at the top were getting any because the other fish liked it too, although im sure it would be perfect stuff for fry in their own seperate tank, but since mine are swimming with the big dogs, they dont come up to the top that much when they were smaller. They do eat that stuff though, but it is hard to portion right, even a little dab looks like not enough, and then when it goes in the water, its like triple the amount LOL. Anyways, I have been giving my fry crushed flakes, first bites, frozen bloodworms, beefheart and brineshrimp since day one, as well with some greens (veggies that I feed my reptiles, they dont eat it though I dont think) and they seem to be growing SO fast! They are bigger than the fry at the petstore that were born like 2 weeks before mine, well maybe not bigger, but same size at least.

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

i dont like feeding by fry on bloodworms i did once on 6 of them died

 

[sweetp544]

I also recently discovered a Livebearer flake that has small pieces of Tubifex Worms in it. That's easy to crush up and feed to fry too. It's by Nutrafin, if you want to take a look. I'm not sure how readily availible it is though, I've only seen it at 2 out of my 9 fish stores.

Thats actually the stuff i was talking about the first time i posted, except i made a mistake and typed bloodworms. My fry love this stuff and grow extremely fast. Just like you said annastasia, i dont think it is too popular where im at it is kinda hard to find too.

 

[bettawen]

you could get a frozen bloodworm block and grate it, i use that for fry as well as bbs and microworms

 

[barbiedoll]

That's such a cool idea to grate a block of frozen worms!
My baby guppies look so mad swimming about with a bloodworm twice thier length sticking out of their mouths!
I have TetraGuppy flake food which seems to go down really well. crmbled up from day one.

Stargirly: Is Hikari back in UK now? I still haven't seen any - want some goldfish food from them and betta food too edit: oops - you is in Ohio - silly me!

 

[Annastasia]

If you do use frozen, make sure it is totally defrosted, otherwise you may have some serious issues on your hands.

 

[guppymommy]

I moved my fry into a seperate 5g tank so they are no longer in the breeder net. I was able to find Baby Bites by HBH and have been feeding my fry this. I also bought freeze-dried bloodworms and have found these really easy to crumble for my fry. They seem to enjoy them! I've only fed the bloodworm once-a-day since I'm not sure how much would be too much. The package says to feed once or twice daily, but I thought once would be enough for them. Am I wrong? Would the fry grow faster if I fed them the bloodworms twice a day? I feed them the Baby Bites four times a day, but only give them the bloodworms with the first feeding. Am I feeding them too much? Too little? They seem to be thriving and growing well, but this is my first experience and I'm not sure what is appropriate. Several different sites suggest feeding them up to 6 times a day, others say only feed them three times a day. I thought four would be a happy medium.

Thanks so much for the advice. I'm looking for different foods, but I only have my local petstore and Wal-Mart to purchase my aquatic supplies from. Neither of them have much of a selection, though the petstore seems to have a wider variety than my WM does.