Two New Guppies. Not Eating Much...

[SirJinx]

I bought two male guppies a week ago for my daughter. They are in a small 5 gallon tank. I put them in with a few fake plants (was told they like to hide) and a 20 gallon filter. Average temperature doesn't fluctuate much in the house and the tank has always been 70 to 72 degrees with the fish very active and fast.

Here's my observation. I only feed the two fish a tiny pinch of food, I mean it's really hardly anything. I drop the tropical flakes on the surface and the fish NEVER come up to eat it. Instead, they wait for the food to start falling. While it's falling, they only eat like 2 or 3 bites and the rest of the food falls to the bottom within 2 minutes, before they can even reach it.

My main concern is, why are they only taking 2 or 3 bites and not going after the surface food? I have read forums that say only feed what they can eat in 3 minutes. The problem is, I'm already feeding them a very small amount and they miss like 80% of what I put in the tank. I never ever see them bottom feeding either. They only eat whatever passes in front of their faces.

I hate to say it, but it almost seems like these fish are blind. I keep saying to myself, "Get the flake, it's falling right there in front of you." And then it just drops to the bottom.

Are guppies usually light eaters? Are my guppies not happy because they need to be warmer or want different food? Maybe something not flaky?

They seem to be very active, very fast, darting around and such, so I don't really think they are sick or anything.

Thoughts?

 

[Duz]

You get 3 types of fish:

• Surface Dwellers
• Mid Tank Dwellers
• Bottom Dwellers

Each will try to eat the food in their set level which is which they only eat the food directly in front of them. However, it does seem a bit weird how they don't attempt to eat the food which is slightly above or below them. Most fish will usually swim up to the surface and eat a lot of food there (except bottom dwellers).

As for your temperature you don't want it to drop below 22 degrees (71.6). Ideally fish prefer water temperature to be between 22-26 (71.6-78.8) but this can vary species to species. So if you increase your water temperature the fish may eat a bit more. Hope that helps.

The type of food your feeding them isn't too bad. I mean flakes are used for most types of fish and guppies generally don't have a problem with them (from what I know). However, if they don't keep eating you could do 2 different things. Either feed multiple times a day or change to a food which slowly sinks. I use JBL Novo Mini Grano Mix which slowly sinks over the course of a few minutes so that might also help.