Teeth or other food problem

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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.
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TrevorA
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:04 am
Gender: Male
My Puffers: 1 Fahaka
5 GSPs
Location (country): South Leicestershire
England

Teeth or other food problem

Post by TrevorA »

I've had My Fahaka a few weeks now and he's eating well now, but will only eat worms or mussels, although the last couple of days the odd snail I've been putting in seems to be disappearing, hopefully being eaten, but I never see him do it.

However yesterday he dived on his muscle, which he takes from feeding forceps, and 2 hours later still had it in his mouth, eventually I netted him underwater in case it was stuck and before I got a chance to do anything that dislodged it when he swam against the net to escape.

Then he sulked for about 4 hours:)

This morning he was asking for food like normal and when he finished his muscle again there appears to be some food stuck just inside the roof of his mouth, I have tried to attach a load of pictures but its hard to see, I can't work out if there is a piece of mussel, maybe some shell on, jammed in his mouth or if his teeth are overgrown and the food is sticking on his teeth. Really could do with some advice. I don't want to keep netting him, but will if necessary, one possibility is to net him and use tweezers to remove whatever it is, but if it's his teeth I need to get more snails into him. Which I'm trying. I have nothing to anaesthetise him with, but will get it if I need to.

Any help or advice much appreciated.

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scpion
Fahaka Puffer
Posts: 672
Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:57 am
My Puffers: 23in Mbu, donated to SEA Aquarium
4in Fahaka 150g
Location (country): singapore

Re: Teeth or other food problem

Post by scpion »

Can't really see anything, unless it's hampering it's breathing or eating, I would leave it alone. I had dislodged a whole crayfish from mine some time ago.. Absolute nightmare...
I am not a Troll, I am just pissed..!
TrevorA
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:04 am
Gender: Male
My Puffers: 1 Fahaka
5 GSPs
Location (country): South Leicestershire
England

Re: Teeth or other food problem

Post by TrevorA »

scpion wrote:Can't really see anything, unless it's hampering it's breathing or eating, I would leave it alone. I had dislodged a whole crayfish from mine some time ago.. Absolute nightmare...
Yes, really hard to see in pics. Definitely not hampering breathing, making eating a little difficult but still just managed an earthworm in about 2-3 minutes so not too much.
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