Can Guppies Eat Betta Pellets?

One of the most popular fish that aquarium owners choose are guppies. These are ideal for new tank owners or the more experienced. Guppies will add lots of color to anyone’s tank, and they are relatively easy to tend. Because there is often a mixture of fish in the tank, when it comes to feeding, guppies may head straight for the food, which is designated for the betta fish.

Now, many new tank owners ponder over the purchase of one food rather than buying two kinds for each fish.

So, can guppies eat betta pellets? The answer to this is yes, and Guppies can eat betta pellets. Betta pellets are meat-based food and will be a source of protein for guppies. However, though guppies can eat and even survive on betta pellets, their diet should not be exclusively made up of this fish food. They do require vitamins and minerals for proper health.

Good Diet for Guppies

Guppies will eat pretty much anything, yet they will look for foods that are similar to what they find in their natural environment. As they are omnivores, they eat near enough anything available to them. Hence the possibility of feeding them betta fish food.

However, these foods don’t contain all the nutrients they require. For the main part of their diet in your aquarium, they will require good quality fish flakes. These need to be high in protein without any filler food.

For the proteins, you will see in the ingredients. Check that it mentions meaty products, shrimp, and other kinds of fish. Foods that come with soy or wheat as fillers need avoiding.

As a supplement to their diet of these fish flakes, you can feed your guppies frozen or live foods like small shrimp or bloodworms. They are also quite partial to mosquito larvae. If you have any vegetables like lettuce, peas, or small pieces of cucumber, your guppies will be happy yo munch on these for a while.

With the betta pellets, your guppies could quite happily continue to feed on these, yet it is better to vary their diet. Even their fish flakes need alternating with fresh or live alternatives, because sticking to one kind of food can lead to nutrient deficiencies.

How Often Should I Feed My Guppies?

With guppies, the issues aren’t really what should you feed them, or what you shouldn’t. It is how often you should feed them.

Many experts say it is better for your fish; to feed them too little rather than too much. You will find it is important when they are giving birth.

As a rule, guppies are fed between two and three times per day. You can use this feeding to help divide their diet, flakes in the morning, and the fresh or frozen foods in the evening.

However, when they are ready to produce more guppies, you will quickly learn guppies don’t lay eggs. Guppies are live-bearers and give birth to live offspring. Once this happens, they do need separating from adult guppies because once dinnertime is coming around, these small guppies may end up as their evening meal rather than some frozen vegetables.

This means you need to be aware, how hungry and how often you feed guppies. It is especially true if you have juvenile fish.

One other thing to note is that baby fish eat twice as often as fully-grown fish. Because of this, they can eat between four and eight times during the day when they are babies. To make sure they are safe, and they can receive the right amounts of nutrition. It can be the case; they require separation from the juveniles and the adult guppies.

This benefits these older fish at the same time as it prevents them from overfeeding.

Many aquarium owners may worry about underfeeding their guppies. You will see that guppies can go for around two weeks without eating, so if you are away from home, you don’t have to worry too much.

If you worry over your guppies while away, you can purchase guppy vacation fish feeding blocks. You place these in the water, where they dissolve slowly and let food into the water for fish to feed on.

How Much to Feed Guppies?

This is one large variable, and rather than an amount. Guppies need feeding as much as they can eat in two minutes. Even though they are small fish with small bellies, they do love overeating, so you do need to be careful.

You can tell if they are overfeeding as they take on a swollen appearance, and to rectify this, all you have to do is skip the next feeding.

One concern is when guppies are not eating all their food. As they are surface feeders, this food will soak and finally sink to the bottom of the tank. This can be a sign of overfeeding, but there can be other issues from this, such as constipation.

Guppies will appear sluggish and uncomfortable, but with all these uneaten food, it will harm the water in your tank. Most guppy foods are none clouding, yet after a while, there will be a negative impact on the water in your tank if there is an accumulation.

Does Betta Live with Guppies?

When you look at the original question, do guppies eat betta pellets? It won’t be that everyone has leftover pellets and wishes to use them. It will be that an aquarium owner wishes to have both kinds of fish in one tank.

Luckily, this is possible if you follow some guidelines.

When you are looking to have mates for your guppies, you can follow a general rule of one guppy for each gallon of tank water. This will translate into other fish of the same size, hence a betta fish. However, because betta are territorial and fighters, larger tanks will be more advisable.

Other fish that pose less of a problem for guppies will be platies, mollies, corydoras, and mollies among a few others. Other fish which are live-bearers can make ideal partners for your guppies.

Tank conditions are similar for both fish. Here are the levels you need to know:

• Guppies – a temperature of 74 – 82F and a pH of 6.8 to 7.8
• Betta – a temperature of 78 – 80F and a pH of 7

When you are looking at these combinations of fish, you may find you are limited for the ideal pairing, which will make for harmony in your tank.

• You may lose some of your wonderful colors of both fish. Female guppy’s pair better with female betta fish than any other gender or breed pairing.
• The main parts of the tank guppies prefer to swim are the middle to the top. On occasion, they can begin encroaching on the territory of your betta. However, if they have their territory marked out, then guppies will often stay clear unless there is food.
• For this reason, you are better at feeding each fish at opposite ends of your tank; this way, they should be consuming food that is designated for them.
• One final thing to note with fish in the same tank is you ought to aim for one male guppy for every two female guppies. This can reduce the occurrence of attacks on each other.

Conclusion

Now, you can see that guppies can eat betta pellets, yet they shouldn’t rely on these as their entire diet. Mix it up with live foods and vegetables, so they get a balanced diet.

If you have a betta, be wary when feeding and check they don’t have their fins nipped by your guppies. The two can live together, and in most cases, they will stay away from each other.

Using all the information above, you can have a tank with some of the nicest looking fish possible. Just be careful, and you can enjoy these fish as much as they enjoy sharing their tank and food.