Hello. I'm new to the puffer world and have just a week ago got my first figure eight. After getting him home, I got to get a closer look at him and realized he looked a little funny. Well, upon closer inspection, it appears his top lip (I assume you'd call it his lip) is missing! His bottom jaw sticks out and you can see right into his mouth.
I fed him some blood worms last night. When he'd go to suck up a worm, it would float right back out of his mouth. He'd have to suck it back up several times before he could actually keep it down. Despite that, he seems to be eating plenty--in fact, I think I over-fed him, as he's got a bit of a pot-belly today!
My questions are concerning his long-term health. I assume that, without the upper beak-part of his mouth, he wil be unable to eat any mollusk-type food, but do you suppose he will be okay on a diet of softer foods? Also, am I totally ridiculous for keeping a "handicapped" puffer out of pity, or should I take him back to the LFS I got him from and ask for a different one?
"handicapped" puffer
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.
-
RTR
- Mentor
- Posts: 6155
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 4:39 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): East Coast, USA
The upper incissor plate has likely been broken, and this may require repeated dental surgery on the lower plate (which will overgrow) while the upper regrows - if it does. The best would be to return the fish for one with full functional equiment as it were. If it were a long time pet, it would be possible to save the fish, but not without risk from repeated sedation and tooth grinding/clipping.
Where's the fish? - Neptune
), it was a big deal to do the dental work trimming the opposed plate while a broken one regrew. I have historically lost more than one puffer in that process.-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
-
gryffin218
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:10 pm
It's quite possible he could have suffered some of the wrath of the other puffers in the tank with him... he was the smallest one of them all. Who knows.
I'm afraid I don't trust myself with having to deal with repeated dentistry work. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this puffer's got much of a chance of growing backan upper jaw--it looks to be totally gone--so I assume he'll have quite a bit of needed dentistry work in the future, and I don't think that's something I can provide.
I suppose I'll take him back for a more "intact" one. I think this time I'll supervise more carefully which puffer they try to give me!
Thanks so much!
I'm afraid I don't trust myself with having to deal with repeated dentistry work. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this puffer's got much of a chance of growing backan upper jaw--it looks to be totally gone--so I assume he'll have quite a bit of needed dentistry work in the future, and I don't think that's something I can provide.
I suppose I'll take him back for a more "intact" one. I think this time I'll supervise more carefully which puffer they try to give me!
Thanks so much!
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
I'd feel so sorry for him, I'd probaby keep him.
Poor little guy is gonna go back and end up dying in someone's tank because they don't know how to take care of him.
I mean, maybe not, but I always worry and fear the worst
Poor little guy is gonna go back and end up dying in someone's tank because they don't know how to take care of him.
I mean, maybe not, but I always worry and fear the worst
When life gives you lemons, make grape juice.
Then sit back and watch as everyone tries to figure out how you did it.
Then sit back and watch as everyone tries to figure out how you did it.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32979
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact: