Why guppy tanks are a great food source for your reef

Hey everyone,

I've been in the freshwater world for about 8 years now. I've tried alot of strange setups, and tried to experiment with alot of different biotopes etc. Now, since i know some of you people have predatory saltwater fish that are really big, that might eat small fish, i got a little tip for you. Setup a cheap 50 gallon tank, fill it with guppies (Prefferably ALL brown guppies. In my experience, these have some of the hardy genes like wild caught guppies, which can tolerate pretty much anything. The colored once are little more inbred, and some of them have horrible genes and just bad stuff). What i would do, is get about 4 males. Then get about 6 guppy females per male. Yes, its insane, but they love it. They will breed every single day, and after a month, you'll see small guppy fry in your tank everyday. These guppy fry are healthy, and you can chose to do like me: Which is setting up a nano tank for them to grow up in, or, as i did in the past. Feed them to your bigger fish. I got african cichlids, and these guys devour guppy fry like crazy, and they love it. Live food is just the best. So, i tried to feed my damsel with guppy fry, and he is crazy, he just ate them like crazy. So, why do you wanna feed live guppy fry? Well, your fish needs to get some live food once in a while, whether its brine shrimp, mosquito larvae or krill. But was it really important, is that you give them some live food, that can give some good nutrition. As you we all know, brine shrimp has a pretty low nutritional value, compared to many other foods. Guppy fry however, are highly nutritional, and will give great nutrients for your big fish. And, think about it like this: You've bred them yourself, there are no disease or parasitic stuff. And, you will get maximum health out of your guppy fry, because you know that there are no bad genetics, or any sort of inbreeding involved. Aswell as that, you can grow them to different sizes in seperate guppy tanks, and feed them to different sizes of fish. Man, even my aquatic frogs love guppy fry. Now, probably alot of people are gonna be like "That is so sad, why would you ever feed those cute little fish to those big ones?". But, i can tell ya, they will get alot more happy if you feed them some sort of small fish, and guppies are a great choice. I feed my african cichlids weekly with guppy fry. Believe it or not, it does boost their health, and it makes them feel alot better, because they feel like they are in the nature.

Good luck!

 

I've raised guppies as a hobby for too long to want to feed them to other things. I've purposefully moved away from fish that require live feeding.

 

Haha, yeah i know that feeling

 

Under no circumstances should live freshwater feeder fish, be offered to marine predators. While freshwater feeders typically don’t transmit disease to saltwater species (as they readily do to freshwater species), they are nutritionally inappropriate for marine fish and have been linked to serious health problems, such as fatty liver disease and gut/intestinal blockages.

 

Nope. Nutritional problems that lead to health problems. Guppies are not in my kids natural diet in the wild.

 

Hmm. i have always heard that freshwater feeders should NOT be fed to saltwater predators becuase of the fat ratio and nutritional value is different. Also, I thought most African cichlids were herbivorous. Why are you feeding them guppy fry?

 

And you would be right but not because of the ratio of fat and protein.The fatty acids in freshwater animals and marine animals differ. Over time, your fish will develop a fatty acid deficiency that will stunt its growth, leaving it susceptible to disease and shorten its life.

 

We had some server issues at work on Friday during my lunch and a few people were anxiously hovering over me to fix it.
They were eye-ballin' and drooling over my the venison steak I was eating.

Vegetarians and veagans, what do they know about BCAA's and protein!

 

Yes, you are right, most african cichlids are herbivores. However, haps, and peacocks actually needs some meat in their diet to stay healthy. These cichlids usually wont eat alot of vegetable matter either. Only mbuna cichlids are herbivourous, but they do eat meat when its available, its just important not to feed them to much protein (Can give them malawi bloat). But its very healthy for all african cichlids to get some sort of live food.

 

:O Well, lesson learned, haha It works really well for freshwater tanks though.