The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone! I have been stalking these forums for quite a while, and I have finally gotten into a predicament that I feel is a desperate situation, and I must now ask for help. One of my figure eight puffers beak is so overgrown that when I attempted to trim it (putting him in the clove oil water before of course), I was unable to even get the clippers under his beak. It seems as though the lower beak might be growing over the top. I have been feeding him baby brine shrimp (since his beak is overgrown so much that he can barely eat the bloodworms. I should have trimmed it earlier but I thought the bloodworms and snails would take care of it, because my other figure eight puffer's beak is looking great! Right now, he barely manages to get any bloodworms, and when he does, they get stuck, though eventually he gets it out, so he is essentially living off of baby brine shrimp. Will feeding him the baby brine shimp help at all? Or would regular brine shrimp be easier for him than the bloodworms? I really want to get his beak down but I dont think anything short of taking him to a place I know that trims puffer beaks would really fix it.Plus I dont know if they will do it on a smaller puffer, and I really dont want to hurt him or to have him die! I can put up some pictures but at this point I dont think he can even open his mouth very much, so I am very desperate for some advice here.

Hi Nervousnobody and welcome to The Puffer Forum. Unfortunately once the beak gets overgrown no food will ware it down. Looks like you’re going to have to figure out someway to get them cut back. Clove oil isn’t your best way for sedative, MS-222 (finquel) is much better. Don’t know what to suggest maybe advertise on Craig list for someone with experienced to help???

Thanks so much for the quick response! I have heard about the accumulative effects of the clove oil and I was really afraid to use it but I am not planning on using it on him again. I suppose I will have to talk to that place about trimming him. I can only wonder what they would charge me o_o

If you use cuticle clippers you should be able to cut the beak from the sides, it's your only chance I'm afraid

Use the Finquel.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebinde ... tistry.htm

Well I called the place and they basically told me he was too small for them to trim. It looks like the finquel is my only hope, if I can even get the cuticle clippers in his mouth to trim his beak. My family is telling me to just use the clove oil I have to euthanize him, because I am going through too much trouble. How long would I have to work on him using the finquel?

Finquel is safe for a while. I've used it successfully on fish for over 3 hours (not on a puffer, in a school experiment). You'll have enough time to trim his teeth. That being said, you do have to keep putting him back in the water if you take him out. He'll continue to breathe while sedated but he needs to be in water for this.

Perfect timing for something like this to come up!

PP That article may be very useful for me in the near future!

Reason being is one of my GSP's is acting rather... odd. He is really acting timid again and he is also glass surfing all the time. I leaned in to get a closer look and I am not kidding when I say this but he actually flared his teeth like a dog and started to shake and swim ferociously up and down the glass. I think he is trying to tell me something and I suspect it may have something to do with his teeth as I have not been seeing him eat much lately.

@OP I hope your F8 will recover.

I have just received my finquel, and its definitely not a legitimate product. I am wondering what the powder looks like, in case this is the real thing. It looks slightly pinkish, and smells like the candy smarties so I am thinking that this is a fake. I thought that the powder was white so I am really suspicious.

Sorry in the dim light it looks pink but in full light looks white. Still, is it supposed to smell so sweet?

Where did you buy it from that makes you think it isn't the real thing?

Excuse me while I go sniff my fish tranquilizer

Mine appears white in dim light and has no discernible smell.

I got it off ebay, from some aquatics company that had very good reviews. Im tempted to test it on one of my fish but I rather wouldnt. Its a very fine white powder in its own heat sealed baggy in a small white plastic container with what looks like a homemade label on the front saying "FINQUEL (MS-) 10 grams" etc and a little half sheet of paper rubber banded to it with instructions :/ Its really shady

Looking over reviews . . . It looks like others have purchased the same thing as me and they all were very pleased with what they got, not one saying that it was a fake. I guess that the seller has a much larger amount of Finquel that he is putting into smaller containers to sell.

I realized that it smelled sweet because it was warm from being outside (pretty warm day here in arizona). After checking it out later, there was no smell. I dosed the water, put him in and it took a while but it knocked him out, and I managed to trim his beak! His upper beak had grown to the point that it was hiding under his bottom lip so the first time I did it I did not see it. All is well. Thanks for the help everyone!