You buy a Guppy from the shop. It looks okay. It has a nice yellow tail.
Two weeks later, you visit your friend’s house. He has the exact same breed of Guppy, but his looks different. His fish is glowing. The yellow is deep gold. The body is thick and energetic.
You ask him: “Where did you buy that?”
He says: “Same shop as you. I just feed them differently.”
Guppies are what they eat. If you feed them cheap, brown flakes every day, they will look dull. If you feed them a “Glow Up” diet, they will shine. Here is how to turn a RM3 fish into a show-stopper.
1. They Are Not Just Carnivores
Many beginners treat Guppies like Bettas, feeding them high-protein meat all the time.
Guppies are Omnivores. In the wild, they graze on algae all day.
To get the best colors, you need a mix of Meat (Protein) for growth and Veggie (Algae) for color.
- The Secret Ingredient: Look for food containing Spirulina.
- Spirulina is a blue-green algae that is rich in carotenoids. It naturally enhances the red, orange, and yellow pigments in the fish skins.
2. The Local Superfood: Moina (Kutu Air)
We are lucky in Malaysia. We can walk into almost any LFS and buy a bag of live Moina (Water Fleas) for RM2.
- Why it’s great: Moina is tiny, usually smaller than Daphnia. It triggers the Guppy’s “hunting instinct.” They go crazy chasing them.
- The Benefit: It is pure protein and usually gut-loaded with algae. Feeding live Moina once or twice a week will make your Guppies grow significantly faster than pellets alone.
3. The “Tubifex” Warning (Cacing Darah)
You will also see bright red balls of worms at the shop called Tubifex. They are very cheap.
Be careful.
- The Risk: Tubifex worms are often harvested from dirty drains. They carry heavy metals and parasites.
- The Result: I have seen many Guppy tanks get wiped out by “Skinny Disease” (internal parasites) after eating dirty Tubifex.
- My Advice: Stick to Frozen Bloodworms or Freeze-Dried Tubifex. It is much safer.
4. The “Micro-Meal” Strategy
Guppies have tiny stomachs. They cannot eat a huge meal once a day like a Snakehead.
- Wrong: Feeding a huge pinch of food in the morning. (Most of it sinks and rots).
- Right: Feeding a tiny pinch 2 or 3 times a day.
- The Rule: If there is food left after 30 seconds, you fed too much.
5. Fasting Sunday
This sounds counter-intuitive, but it helps.
Skip feeding one day a week (e.g., Sunday).
Guppies are greedy. Their digestive tracts get clogged easily. Fasting allows them to clear their system, preventing constipation and bloating (Dropsy). A hungry fish is a healthy fish.
You don’t need to spend hundreds on imported Japanese breeder food.
A simple rotation of High-Quality Micro Pellets (like Hikari Fancy Guppy), a weekly treat of Live Moina, and a dash of Spirulina will make your fish look better than they did in the shop.
