F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
- NervousNobody
- Puffer Fry
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F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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.
Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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???
- NervousNobody
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
If you use cuticle clippers you should be able to cut the beak from the sides, it's your only chance I'm afraid
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
- Pufferpunk
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Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
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2 T biocellatus
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Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
Use the Finquel.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebinde ... tistry.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebinde ... tistry.htm
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
- NervousNobody
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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?
Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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.
It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another. We consider those, when the cerebral structure/intellectual faculties most developed, as highest. A bee doubtless would when the instincts were.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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.
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.
WARNING: Puffers are mischievous little blimps with enchanting powers. You may not be content with having just one.
- NervousNobody
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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.
- NervousNobody
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
Sorry in the dim light it looks pink but in full light looks white. Still, is it supposed to smell so sweet?
Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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.
Excuse me while I go sniff my fish tranquilizer
Mine appears white in dim light and has no discernible smell.
It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another. We consider those, when the cerebral structure/intellectual faculties most developed, as highest. A bee doubtless would when the instincts were.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
- NervousNobody
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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
- NervousNobody
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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.
- NervousNobody
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Re: F8 Overgrown beak - Unable to trim!
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!