So I finally got the courage to attempt the first ever tooth trim on my Figure 8. You may remember my thread "Ehh...teeth trimming." Well, anyway, I was so nervous about cutting off his lips or overdosing or just in general doing something stupid that I was only able to trim a very small amount of the top teeth and none on the bottom. He recovered just fine, but I'm wondering when it would be safe to retry trimming. Oh, and he never seemed dead like it said in the article. I could see his side fins (can't remember what they're actually called, sorta brain dead today, lol) moving the whole time, but he didn't react at all when I nudged him with the net. So, I went ahead and tried trimming as he'd already been in the clove oil/water solution for about 2 minutes because I was waiting for him to act dead and flip over. Anyway, he didn't move at all when I was trimming, so I'm not sure why he didn't flip upside down and seem dead while sedated.
Like I said in the other thread, his diet should be fine for good teeth maintenance in the future, but for some reason, it isn't enough to trim down his overgrown teeth. At least, not fast enough for me. So, once I can trim them properly, that should be the last time I'll have to manually do it.
Would a couple weeks be enough? A month?
Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
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.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
Couple of weeks should be ok. Try to get an extra pair of hands to assist you, then you can pull back the lips & trim them short.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
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bazil323
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Re: Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
I'll do that. Uh, I can't believe I didn't think of that when I was doing it the first time! My hubby was right there. Hopefully now that I know what it's like, I won't get so freaked out.
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marksrush
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Re: Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
Man teeth trimming scares me to death, I sure I hope I never have to do that to any of my puffers. Good luck the second time around.
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mommy2puffer
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Re: Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
Mine didn't go belly up either, so I guess I wouldn't worry about it. He didn't wake up during the trimming, recovered just fine. But it still wasn't fun so now we have a .5gal snail tank. We also forgot to use gloves so I felt bad, worried I'd hurt him rubbing stuff off, but he was ok.
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Myaj
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Re: Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
The worst part for me is always trying to hold the tiny fish steady without squeezing too hard.. I always think I'm crushing the little guy!
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Re: Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
I decided eventually I was more comfortable soaking my hands in water for a time and letting them get soft and wrinkled than using gloves, just so I'd have finer touch.
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bazil323
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Re: Crap! Need to repeat trimming!
Yeah, I just used the net like the article said. I didn't even think about using gloves, but I never touched him directly, so I think that was okay.
I really, really hope that the repeat trimming goes well, because I really don't want to ever do it again. Thankfully, he recovered just fine from the first sedation and seems just fine. It didn't take him long to recover either.
I really, really hope that the repeat trimming goes well, because I really don't want to ever do it again. Thankfully, he recovered just fine from the first sedation and seems just fine. It didn't take him long to recover either.