Poor sighted Valentini puffer

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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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Iain3
Puffer Fry
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Joined: Fri May 03, 2013 10:07 pm
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Poor sighted Valentini puffer

Post by Iain3 »

I have a Valentini puffer whose teeth are becoming overgrown and have algea growing on them due to the inability to retract them, he was still eating ok but recently he started missing food, trying to eat it but then snapping in the wrong place, usually about 0.5cm above the food, like his depth perception is gone.

I have been realising that I will need to do some dentistry, trim the teeth and clean the algae off, I need to find the right info about aneasthetics, etc. Most of the guides I have seen are for freshwater puffers so want to check they are suitable.

Has anyone seen this depth-perception issue before? Do you think cleaning the algea growing on his teeth, which may be distracting him, will help?

Can anyone point me to a guide for trimming puffers teeth that is for saltwater fish, or can confirm that the one below is ok for salties too?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dI3j3zpWYg

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm hoping to do this tommorrow before he loses too much weight, if I can get answers to my questions and get the stuff I need.

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Nuclear_Glitter
Fahaka Puffer
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Location: North Carolina, USA

Re: Poor sighted Valentini puffer

Post by Nuclear_Glitter »

I will let someone else answer the question about the teeth trimming, because I'm not positive for saltwater puffers.

Anyway, the depth perception thing seems odd. How are your water parameters?
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." -- Henry Ford
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Poor sighted Valentini puffer

Post by Pufferpunk »

I think his issue is more about not being about to open his mouth to eat anything.
Please follow this article & trim ASAP: library/hospital/dentistry/
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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