Teeth of SA puffers

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
creampuff
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 101
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:08 am
Location: Singapore

Teeth of SA puffers

Post by creampuff »

Just acquired an SA puffer. It's currently a little over an inch. It hardly moves during the day, but flies all over the tank when the lights are out. Being new to the tank it's not really eating yet, but my concern are more over its teeth.

I have read in literature that SA puffers teeth grow faster than any other FW puffs, and require an almost daily snail diet, or their teeth needs to be trimmed every 3-4 months. Even with snails, they need to be trimmed every 6 months or so.

I noticed that the puff that I got had pretty long "front" teeth, and they seem to protrude out of the mouth, and pretty much results in an inability for the puff to close his mouth. He keeps opening and closing his mouth in a "biting" fashion even though there is no food around. I'm wondering if this is the normal/ok length for the SA puff, or does this mean his teeth already needs trimming? *shudders*

My other puffs do not have this problem, so I'm wondering... and if I really need to manually trim his teeth, could someone please refer some articles/instructions as to how to trim a puff's teeth?!

Thanks a million. :wink:
I'd rather be a puffer than a snail. Yes I would, if I could, I surely would...

Proud owner of: Beetroot: Fahaka, Hammie: Hairy Puffer, Fishball: Congo Puffer

RIP: Wasabi: Male irrubesco, Hamachi: Female irrubesco, Popcorn: SA puffer
Top
User avatar
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:
Contact Pufferpunk

Post by Pufferpunk »

Check out the post in the Hospital forum on Puffer Dentistry. There are pics. Definatly sounds like your puff needs some dentistry.
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!"
Top
creampuff
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 101
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:08 am
Location: Singapore

Post by creampuff »

Thanks!

I just managed to trim them teeth awhile ago. it was a totally traumatising experience for me.. lol, having never trimmed puffer's teeth before. I used 3 drops of clove oil initially but it never knocked out, so I increased the dose a little. It never really totally knocked out, but enough for me to trim the teeth. It's very tough to see those teeth though! The mouth is so small!! :roll:

But the job is done. It's now happily swimming in the quarantine tank. But it's still not eating the snail inside the tank. Maybe it doesn't know that's food... :wink:
I'd rather be a puffer than a snail. Yes I would, if I could, I surely would...

Proud owner of: Beetroot: Fahaka, Hammie: Hairy Puffer, Fishball: Congo Puffer

RIP: Wasabi: Male irrubesco, Hamachi: Female irrubesco, Popcorn: SA puffer
Top
User avatar
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:
Contact Pufferpunk

Post by Pufferpunk »

Try crushing the snail & droping it in front of the fish. How much water did you have him in when you tried tranqing him? 3 drops should have done it in a small container.
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!"
Top
creampuff
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 101
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:08 am
Location: Singapore

Post by creampuff »

3 cups of water. Around there. But my drops were tiny... so maybe that's why. I'll try crushing the snail later today. Thanks!
I'd rather be a puffer than a snail. Yes I would, if I could, I surely would...

Proud owner of: Beetroot: Fahaka, Hammie: Hairy Puffer, Fishball: Congo Puffer

RIP: Wasabi: Male irrubesco, Hamachi: Female irrubesco, Popcorn: SA puffer
Top
Post Reply

Return to “Hospital”