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Guppies are one of those fish we all seem to fall in love with
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I don't know if it's true to say they have personalities like a better or an Oscar might
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but there is certainly something about them that millions of us seem to adore
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If you're newer to guppy keeping, you may be wondering why your guppies always seem to be hungry
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Is there an underlying issue? Should you keep feeding them? Can feeding them too much be bad for them
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In this video, I'm going to answer the question, why are my guppies always always? Why are my guppies always hungry and let you know what you can do about it
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Hello friends, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Richard
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and I'm the owner of the fishkeepingansers.com website. So why are guppies always hungry
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The first thing we need to know about guppies is that they are opportunistic omnivores
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They will essentially eat anything they come across that is even remotely edible
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As omnivores, they will happily eat food that is meat or vegetable based. In the wild
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This will include flies worms and waterborne crustaceans as well as smaller fish and even dead fish They would also eat small pieces of plant that are free floating as well as bits of algae
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The chances are, in the wild, they will eat tiny mouthfuls of food all day long, from sun up to sundown
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Guppies are always on the lookout for food. Transfer those same fish into our aquariums, albeit many thousands of generations later
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and we end up with fish that have a deep desire to eat constantly. yet they have the luxury of large quantities of food being dumped into their aquariums at regular intervals
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This results in a fish that instinctively wants to eat all the time, coupled with the desire of the fishkeeper, who often really enjoys feeding the fish
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As such, if we're not careful, we end up feeding our guppies far too often because it always appear to be hungry
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Stories from competition breeders from days gone by tell of breeders feeding their guppies so much food to grow them quickly
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the guppies literally ended up exploding due to overeating. Now with all that said there is a scenario that leads to guppy eating continually and still losing weight and becoming thinner This can occur when guppies have internal worms Sadly guppies that pass through wholesalers and even local fish stores frequently pick
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up internal worms such as tapeworms. Internal tapeworms reside inside the stomach or intestinal track of the fish
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The worms consume almost all of the goodness from the food before the guppy can
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This means even though your guppy is eating nonstop, it may continue to lose weight and become
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thin. One way internal worms spread between fish is in the fish's poop. Fish A poops, then
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fish B comes along and eats that poop. Ingesting the worms or the worm eggs at the same time
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Guppies are notorious for eating anything, even fish poop. In the wild, fish can cope with
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a small number of internal tapeworms, and the worms rarely become a problem due to the
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vast lakes and river systems the fish live in. However, in our small enclosed aquariums, internal
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tapeworms can prove fatal for our fish. If your guppy is are new to you or they're living in an aquarium where fish have been added recently
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there is a good chance the guppies are always hungry due to the presence of internal tapeworms Fortunately there are a number of good medications available on the market to treat tapeworms In the US Parac cleanse which is made by Fritz is said to be extremely effective against internal tapeworms
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If you're based in Europe, Escher Gdex is the product you want to look out for
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Escher Gdex is my own personal choice of treatment for internal and external parasites
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I've placed links for each of these products in the description below
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Guppies will all of these products in the description below. Guppies will always give the impression they're hungry and they spend much of their time begging at the surface for food
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If you're feeding them a high quality diet two or three times a day and you've treated them for internal tapeworms
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the chances are there is nothing wrong with them. It is just in their nature to want to eat all the time
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Another question I frequently asked is why is my guppy laying on the bottom of the tank
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And I answer that question in the video linked on screen. Thanks for watching
