Dentistry Post?

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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.
Post Reply
User avatar
F8fan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:46 pm
Location: Bangor, Maine

Dentistry Post?

Post by F8fan »

Hi everyone! I'm Kelly and I have three figure 8 puffers in a 25 gallon brackish tank. I had saved a previous post here in my "favorites" on my computer about "Puffer Dentistry", it was a great article about how to dose your puffer with diluted clove oil and trim their beaks if need be. My puffers are doing great, so no need for the info right away, it is just one of those articles that would be good to call on and have should the need ever arise.
p.s. if you would like to see my puffers I have a little website for them: http://www.freewebs.com/f8fan/ check it out and tell me what you think of my little guys :)
Thanks!!!
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32773
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Post by Pufferpunk »

Is that the same article stickied above, in this forum? Nice tanks, fish & kitties!
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!"
User avatar
F8fan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:46 pm
Location: Bangor, Maine

Post by F8fan »

Thanks for checking out my site, pufferpunk! :D
Well, I checked the stickies, but I dont think that the article I remember is included in the stickies. This was a detailed article with pictures, of how to trim beaks on puffers, and it specifically was with figure 8 puffers. It had detailed instructions with pictures. Could anyone else give me instructions on how to do this so I can file it in my memory bank in case I ever need to do this? I am just worried about using too much clove oil. Where I live, in Maine, it is very difficult to obtain "nuisance" snails in which my puffers need to eat to trim and maintain their beaks, as for some reason it is illegal to sell those types of snails!!! (How stupid is that, they will sell you the puffers but not the snails!?)
Thanks so much, and I have made this noew site bookmarked, I am sure I will be back many many times!!!!!
Thanks,
Kelly
p.s. here is the old link if that helps at all....?
http://puffer.proboards2.com/index.cgi? ... 1085932782
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32773
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Post by Pufferpunk »

Check in the Hospital Forum--it's there. :)
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!"
User avatar
F8fan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:46 pm
Location: Bangor, Maine

Post by F8fan »

Yup, your right, I guess I'm still learning how to maneuver around, found it, boomarked it! It's a great post!!!!!! Thanks pufferpunk.
Pamela
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 456
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:50 am
Location: Oxford, UK

Post by Pamela »

That pic you use as a background...is it one of your fish? You could enter that in the logo contest.
Pami.
User avatar
F8fan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:46 pm
Location: Bangor, Maine

Post by F8fan »

Nope, I got that pic off from a website and use it for an avatar at a different forum.
User avatar
F8fan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:46 pm
Location: Bangor, Maine

Post by F8fan »

I like this evil looking pic tho....maybe this would be good for a logo contest?
Image
His eyes look all yellow and glowing.
User avatar
Myaj
Tech Team
Posts: 4587
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:27 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Bubba, turgidus
Paris, lined burrfish
Location: SE Wisconsin
Contact:

Post by Myaj »

F8 Fan, check out http://www.aquabid.com and even Ebay to buy some snails online and breed your own. Its very simple and easy, and your puffers will definately appreciate it!
Flusher
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 66
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:32 pm

Post by Flusher »

Wow - you've got some very nice F8s.

My larger two in a 20 gallon tank have decent markings, but these guys are in rough shape. Two of my three tiny F8s in my 45 gallon tank will hopefully look a lot like yours when they get bigger, but those particular two were picked up only a few days ago. Their colors are washed out, and their fins are nipped up. The third little puffer (the one I've had the longest of the three) is looking quite colorful, but his patterns are pretty lame.

All five of my F8s are recent acquisitions.
Jayhawk
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 348
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:04 am
Location: KC, MO, USA

Post by Jayhawk »

F8Fan - beautiful tanks and and fish. I hope my Figure 8 calms down enough to be hand fed like that (he is already much more excited to see me, but he really loves the little shot glass I use to defrost frozen krill and bloodworms in).

Have the mollies been in with the Figure 8s for long? They'd be handy for some algae nibbling!

Eric
User avatar
HRPuffersnStuff
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:51 pm
Location: State College, PA
Contact:

Post by HRPuffersnStuff »

Flusher, I now have 4 figure eights and I also used to think my figure eight, Bob's marking were "pretty lame." They are very broken, unlike my first 8 which was perfect (RIP HR) But they will all grow on you as you learn their personalities and you will love them all them same no matter what they look like!

Bob
Image

HR
Image

Jessica
User avatar
F8fan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:46 pm
Location: Bangor, Maine

Post by F8fan »

Flusher: When I got my F8s they were pretty beat up, too with ragged fins. It took a month or so for them to heal up from the LFS tank and get all happy and healthy in their tank here. Mine have always been colored up pretty well. I think the krill helps, there.

Jayhawk: The tank started out 7 months ago with one figure 8 and three mollies. They all get along great (if pretty much not even noticing each other is "getting along" :) Then about 4 months ago I got two more Figure 8s, and there is no aggression at all. My male black balloon molly died about a week ago, no telling why, he was hovering near the bottom for about a week before I came home from work one night and found only half of him (the puffers are all about tidy housekeeping heh heh) And yeah, they do a good job nibbling at algea.

I love hand feeding them, it's so much more "one on one" than throwing a krill in. And keeps the tank cleaner with a LOT less waste. When the puffers are done eating, I put the leftovers in the freshwater 55 gallon for the red tail black shark and the Kribs to eat as a treat.

And, WOW thanks for checking out my site everyone!!!

HRPuffersnStuff, your puffer pics are awesome, isn't it weird how some will have such distinct markings and some with me more "marbled" looking? Yours are great looking puffers!!!! None of mine have that clear, sharp, "8" on them like yours...

Now if only I could come up with names for them, I have a hard time when I dont know if they are little ladies or little gentlemen ;)
:wink: :wink: :wink:
Post Reply