Hey guys so I have a fahaka who's just short of 3 years old, about 3-4 months ago he lost his top left tooth. I mentioned this to my LFS and they said that it should grow back. I started to worry about his top right tooth as it was getting bigger and he was having some trouble eating certain things, I fed him a crab earlier this week and noticed that yesterday he was showing some sings of discomfort/pain ( he was swinging his body back and forth and opening his mouth wide) today I went to feed him some clams on a half shell and noticed that his upper tooth has shifted dramatically to the left and it seems that this one is too about to fall out. Is this something that this species goes through? It finally seems like his top left one is coming back in but he is hiding from me and being camera shy for the first time. Any ideas what is going on???
As far as his diet I tend to vary from squid to clams, occasional feeder crab and ghost shrimp. I recently purchased scallops and uncooked krill but this was after he lost his first tooth and he seems to have trouble eating the scallops. He lives by himself in a 110 gal tank and I do frequent water changes (2 a month) however I did go about 5 weeks w/o a change back in aug/sep because I was too busy with school and work=/
Thank you for you time and feedback!
Fahaka losing his top 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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puffaman
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Fahaka losing his top teeth
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- bertie 83
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Re: Fahaka losing his top teeth
It's certainly not something I have heard of before. Stick to softer foods for a week and see how he goes. Feed him anything without a hard shell. Keep the krill for an occasional treat, it's the equivalent to puffer crack. They get addicted to it and it's linked to lock jaw. Good luck and keep us posted
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly