My adult GSP in saltwater has gotten to the point where she eats the shrimp I give her, only to spit it back out in bits and pieces because she can't "swallow" it. Has anyone here trimmed an adult's teeth?? I've done a F8 plenty of times, but just with smaller cuticle cutters. I'm just wondering how I go about rationing the clove oil and what i should use to trim with. Also, the GSP doesn't really look like my F8 did when I needed to trim its teeth, I could see the F8's teeth sticking out. However, the GSP seems to have it's beak back behind its "lips" more. Will this pose a problem? Thanks for any suggestions!!!
Also, do you think I could just feed it some small snails to start with and work my way up, gradually filing the teeth back down without resorting to clipping? I've just finally got a snail tank up and running and didn't have access to snail before now.
Anyone trimmed adult GSP teeth
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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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Snails do not "file" teeth, they just keep them in shape. Once a puffer's teeth are long, the only thing to do is hand trim. You may want to ues a bigger conatiner but still use 1 drop of CO/cup of water. It shouldn't be much different than trimming your F8's teeth. You may want to have an extra set of hands to hold the puffer, so you can peel back it's lips.
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!"
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Pufferpunk
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wonkadog
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alright...
So I trimmed the GSP's teeth down to a reasonable size. Everything went according to plan however now the fish won't eat at all. It's been almost a week since she last ate anything (when she had to start spitting it back out from overgrowth) and I'm worried that she's gonna starve. I usually feed her thawed out cooked shrimp that have been frozen, about 1/2 of one every other night or so. She won't take it, even off the fork I usually use to feed her. I've also dropped snails down right in front of her face and she doesn't do anything besides look at them. Water parameters have nitrites and ammonia at 0 and nitrates at around 20 after I did a water change yesterday.
Any suggestions of what this might be?? Should I go get some blackworms or something live to try and entice her? Maybe some crickets??? Any help would be appreciated because I believe she's going to die if I don't do something soon. Thanks.
Any suggestions of what this might be?? Should I go get some blackworms or something live to try and entice her? Maybe some crickets??? Any help would be appreciated because I believe she's going to die if I don't do something soon. Thanks.
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lisalisa
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wonkadog
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I'm frustrated...
Alright, I soaked the shrimp in garlic extract tonight and just tried feeding the GSP...no luck. She did get more excited than she had been before, I think the garlic triggered her appetite. However, she still acted as though she didn't want to eat.
I'm starting to think that she might have something wrong with her jaw. The very first time after we clipped her teeth, I went to feed her and she tried to open her mouth, only to look as though she couldn't really do it. Now, this time when the garlic took effect, she started making motions with her mouth and body as though she were trying to "yawn" but just couldn't. She's opening the skin around her mouth but it looks like her jaw "hinge" isn't functioning properly. Do you think I hurt her when we did the teeth thing? I held her firmly but gently in the net while the procedure took place. Could it be the infamous puffer lockjaw setting in, just coinciding with the trimming??? Any suggestions would be helpful as she is getting pretty thin and I'm at my wit's end.
The worst part is that she's just as colorful and active as she's ever been....it's not like she's sitting at the bottom of the tank like she would if she was extremely stressed or sick....
I'm starting to think that she might have something wrong with her jaw. The very first time after we clipped her teeth, I went to feed her and she tried to open her mouth, only to look as though she couldn't really do it. Now, this time when the garlic took effect, she started making motions with her mouth and body as though she were trying to "yawn" but just couldn't. She's opening the skin around her mouth but it looks like her jaw "hinge" isn't functioning properly. Do you think I hurt her when we did the teeth thing? I held her firmly but gently in the net while the procedure took place. Could it be the infamous puffer lockjaw setting in, just coinciding with the trimming??? Any suggestions would be helpful as she is getting pretty thin and I'm at my wit's end.
The worst part is that she's just as colorful and active as she's ever been....it's not like she's sitting at the bottom of the tank like she would if she was extremely stressed or sick....-
wonkadog
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another thing...
After looking up lockjaw symptoms on the web, I thought about what I'd been feeding the GSP...and I'll be honest, it's not been a varied diet at all. Basically for the last 3 months I've fed her 1/2 a cooked (but kept frozen) shrimp 2 days, given her a day off, and then fed her another whole shrimp over 2 days, and so forth. Could this monotonous cycle contribute to how she is acting? If so, what's the next step, live food??
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Pufferpunk
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