Axoltol food pellets for guppies

[Joanne]

Hi,

I've bought 2 guppies to start cycling the tank in readyness for my new axie. I have axoltol pellets & was told the guppies would eat these, any advice? Didn't really want to buy fish food considering these guys are gonna end up in a belly soon anyway!

 

[The Banana]

I would say they wouldn't, as axie pellets sink (or at least the ones I use do).
You could try little bits of bloodworms if you don't want to buy food. Or even just put a bucket of old water under a partly shady spot, mozzies should lay in it & you can feed them those.

 

[Colinna]

My guppies won't eat the axo pellets. I just drop in a small bit of flake for them. You can get small tins of quality flake quite cheap. Mine eat the blood worms as well.

 

[Joanne]

Thanks for the advice, I'll pick up some fish food tonight. Guessing just normal fish food flakes is ok? I have 2 guppies in a 2ft tank, any thoughts on if this will be enough to cycle effectively? Makes me so angry when pet stores give you wrong advice I'll stick to my aquarium from now on!

 

[Joanne]

So got some fish flakes & the 2 guppies are zooming around doing their thing. Kinda like them actually. Woke up this morning to guppy fry in the tank! So don't know if any will survive, have quite a lot of plants in there so the adults mightn't see them. New axie might have a few more to nibble on once he gets in! Will start to check water ammonia levels tonight. When should I test for nitrite? Tank has been up and running for 3 days

 

[The Banana]

I'm sure some fry will survive. Guppies are super easy to breed, and unlike most fish fry, guppy fry seem to know how to look out for themselves. They are MASTERS at hiding. If anything, you will soon be overrun by them.

 

[Joanne]

What a classic :lol: My mum is already getting attached to the guppies (she hates that they will end up in a belly!) so now I'll have to tell her there may be more! Read that crumbling in some cooked egg yolk is good food for the fry so I'll try that tonight - seems mega weird but I guess that's the cheapest option without having to go out and buy food for the food!

 

[ahritchie]

My guppies do eat axoltol food pellets (Rangen salmon pellets); if fact I have NEVER fed them fish flakes! They seem to do just fine nibbling on the pellets and are perfectly healthy. I have another Paramesotriton newt tank where the guppy population has exploded from about 10 guppies to 100+ within a few months.... and I intentionally don't feed them for weeks at a time trying to slow the exponential birth rate but they all survive somehow! I guess they eat algea, plants, uneaten newt food...but they are true survivors!