# Guppies Eat Plants?



## GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy (Feb 11, 2012)

I believe guppies are herbivores, so will they eat a diet of plants only, or are meat feedings necessary?


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## kevinlambchops (Dec 23, 2011)

Plants as in aquatic plants? if so, they don't. At least mine don't.


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## OwenL (Jan 25, 2012)

The guppies i've had in the past have never eaten plants..even when i had duckweed floating around...


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## OwenL (Jan 25, 2012)

to add, i've never actually heard of anyone feeding their guppies meat... or meat products


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## TWA (Jan 30, 2012)

Guppies don't eat plants. In response to the guy who hasn't heard of guppies eating meat, my guppies get blackworms and bloodworms as a treat with flake. Fun to see a little guppie with a whole worm hanging out his mouth.

Why are you asking for this info? Looking to feed guppies, wanting to know if they're okay with plants, wanting to know if you've got to buy worms?


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## OwenL (Jan 25, 2012)

I should've worded it properly. I thought meat = pork, beef, chicken. Not worms. lol. So I've never heard of anyone feeding their guppy meat = I've never heard of anyone feeding them pork, beef or chicken. 

Their natural diet does consist of mosquito larvae, daphnia, microworms, they even eat their own fry if it happens... but as far as feeding them meat like pork beef and chicken, no. lol.


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## TWA (Jan 30, 2012)

Oh, no. I've tossed spare beef heart in there, they weren't thrilled about it. Don't give your guppies chicken and pork.


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## OiZO (Feb 2, 2010)

I had a guppy that i used to cycle my first 12g long. He was nipping my HC leafs off the stems. I never could tell if he ate some or not but either way he was killing my HC. I ended up tossing him out the window of my 2 story house....Anyways i think in most cases they wont touch any plants.


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## Fish Ed (Oct 25, 2011)

My guppy will nip some of the algae off my plants.


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## tlyons01 (Nov 23, 2011)

My guppy fry eat the algae off of the plants and the mother guppy was eating my vallisnerias. Pecking at them and eating the bits of plant. She even ate from some that was floating at the top


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## wesley21 (Mar 7, 2012)

I have a very large female guppy and over time she has wiped out all the green myrio in my 75 gal., and has started eating on the red myrio. I can actually sit and watch her bite off and swallow whole leaves, and she seems to have shown my two new females the same trick. It may be because I only feed once a day, though they like to nibble on the algae wafers I throw in for my sailfin pleco after lights out.


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## Desperado070 (Jan 19, 2020)

meat or fish, high in protein is meat with meat diet instead of ...

yes guppies do eat plants, check the ingredients on your guppy food...
if they wil eat your plants depends on the guppy themself, some wil, some wil never.
again it also depends on how much you feed them, anyone who is full isn't searching for food 24/7.

guppies can survive on plants but to thrive you gonna need to give them meat, in other words, protein.

in fact, meat makes up the majority of the fish.
fish meat is called "fish," just like how chicken meat is called "chicken."


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

I would consider guppies omnivores. I feed my own flake and frozen foods that are "meat" based (fish, shrimp, krill, etc.) but most tropical flake foods have a fair amount of plant matter included. Similarly, most spirulina and veggie flakes on the market contain a lot of meat. I keep shrimp in my two guppy tanks and occasionally offer the shrimp blanched spinach, peas, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and so forth. The guppies seem to ignore this. I have never witnessed them eating my aquarium plants nor seen evidence of them having done so.


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## HairyNoseWombat (Jan 14, 2020)

> anyone who is full isn't searching for food 24/7.


Most fish have no idea when they are full and given a chance will eat far too much, fish are opportunistic feeders they will eat when there is food because they never know when their next meal will be. 

Guppies love things like zucchini


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> I occasionally offer zucchini and so forth. The guppies seem to ignore this.





HairyNoseWombat said:


> Guppies love things like zucchini


and


Blue Ridge Reef said:


> I have never witnessed them eating my aquarium plants nor seen evidence of them having done so.





wesley21 said:


> I have a very large female guppy and over time she has wiped out all the green myrio in my 75 gal., and has started eating on the red myrio. I can actually sit and watch her bite off and swallow whole leaves...


This is what I love about this forum. I say this with zero sarcasm. Aquarium keepers can have wildly different experiences with the exact same species and it's important to remember that!


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## Quint (Mar 24, 2019)

To add to BRRs comment some of the variance isn't the fish keeper related either. Fish learn things, when one group is fed pellets since old enough to eat them they associate that as there food source and may take a decent amount of time to change. Same goes with flake or any other type food. Guppies being captive bred for an extended period of time this can be extensively the case IMHO. 

Same goes for wild caught type fish, some cichlid types for example. They won't touch premade foods initially. They want that moving live critter to go after which stimulates the natural hunting mode if u will.


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## HairyNoseWombat (Jan 14, 2020)

I will see if I can find the video, I used to have a female Betta that loved nothing more than munching on roots from floating water sprite, No body believed me that can Bettas eat plants till they saw the video.

I also used to have Bettas that actively hunted Malaysian Trumpet snails, I dont know if it has anything to do with it but they lived in a tank next to a tank full of " sids" (Dwarf chain loaches.)


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## Desperado070 (Jan 19, 2020)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> and...
> This is what I love about this forum. I say this with zero sarcasm. Aquarium keepers can have wildly different experiences with the exact same species and it's important to remember that!


If you are looking for information this is exactly why the internet is the worst place to do so.
But animals are all different so some things are normal, especially with food.

I had a 5 gallon tank overstocked with 20 guppies, 4 adults 4 4 week old fry and 12+ new born.
After I got me new tank cycled so I could move me adults and older baby's over al the 12 wer and are still alive.
With the stories about how guppies eat their own young, well my experience even while overcrowded they won't.

Same for plant eaters, luckily do I got fast growers.
Never seen the 4 adults eat them, but clearly see the 4 older fry (now about 6 weeks old) pinch of the leafs and eat them.



HairyNoseWombat said:


> that loved nothing more than munching on roots


Yea that is what they like to do from me to...


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

I had half black blue deltas that were savage baby eaters, nothing would grow up in a tank with adults. I once watched a birthing mother casually eat one of her own fry! I now have Japanese double swords that don't bother their fry at all. These are somewhat less beefy guppies so that must play a part, but I suspect some lines are more prone to do this than others.


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## SueD (Nov 20, 2010)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> and
> 
> 
> 
> ...


And why I prefer forums over FB: an 8 yr old thread can be found and the discussion continues as if it started yesterday...


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