How sharp are their teeth?

[zookey]

How sharp are the teeth of a GSP? or How sharp should they be?

I have had a heck of a time finding food that my GSP will eat. He gets snails everyday because that is one thing he will eat. I have tried live shrimp but he is afraid of them. I have tried frozen shrimp but he will only eat a bit and then won't eat any more. I have tried bloodworm and he will eat them to a point but then stops. I tried "seafood delight" a combination of scallops/crayfish/muscle/clam/shrimp/prawn and he is not too happy with this either. A member here had suggested night crawlers or black worms. So today I happened to find Canadian Night Crawlers at the local bait shop so bought a small tub to try.

My puffer is only about an inch or so long so I cut a small piece off of a night crawler and offered it to him. He went after it will the vigor of a Paraná.... either he was extremely hungry or he recognized the worm as a familiar food. Either way after he beat on it for a while in the forceps I let go of the worm and it appears that he cannot bite through the worm.

I was so happy to see him WANT to eat so badly but it seems as if he has a hard time eating worms. Are worms rubbery? Should I hang onto the worm so he can tare at it and rip the meat apart? Are his teeth not sharp enough to bite through the worm meat? Should he eat more snails to help sharpen his teeth?

Tonight is the first time I have seen his belly "really round" when he decided he was done eating. Normally it is chubby but not "round" like it was tonight. Sure was nice to see.

[J-P]

that is an excellent question. I am also interested in the answer. When I had my GSPs they tore through market shrimp like no tomorrow.

[RTR]

Their incisors are not as sharp as a number of SW fish, but are a heck of a lot stronger. Think of them as sharp Felco pruners rather than boning knives. They do have pharyngeal teeth comparable to molars for grinding.

Clownfish have much sharper teeth, so do a number of wrasses - but neither of those have the jaw strength of puffers.

[Pufferpunk]

I can attest to clownfish teeth. How that %@&#! knows to bite the webbing of my hands, I'll never know!

[RTR]

For my pair of Ephippiums i had to use stainless mail gloves under drybox rubber gloves to keep my fingers from being shredded - I got bruises instead. But i could work with bruises and could not with cuts and scrapes.

The False perculas went of the webs between fingers sometimes, but they were a lot smaller and less nasty than the other pair.

[geronimo69]

If my Ceylon puffer got a hold of your pinky, I'm sure you'd lose the tip.... He can crush Malaysian Trumpet Snails and oftens breaks clam shells to pieces. I put them in open so he can get the food and "scrape" his beak, but he usually just bites the whole shell to pieces!

[jus85411]

yeah my GSP(when i had him) has taken pieces off clam shells from trying to get the meat. insane the power they have behind their mouth

[LilGreenPuffer]

Someone once posted about going to the ER after their Stellatus bit them. o.0