how will i know when puffer needs dentist?

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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pbrfan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 7:57 pm

how will i know when puffer needs dentist?

Post by pbrfan »

I'm a new puffer mommy.... I want to feed him right and keep him happy, but should he need a dentist how will I know when? If he lives a long full life is it a certainty that he'll need a dentist no matter how well I feed him?
15 gallon community tank with platys, guppies, otos and corys
betta in betta tank
Petey the puffer in his own tank
Horace Hunley the turtle in his tank with all my excess guppy fry
Bailey the cat
Ace the dog
lots n lots of barn cats
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Boxermom
Former Staff Member
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Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:34 pm
Location: Wisconsin
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Post by Boxermom »

What kind of puffer do you have? Try to post a photo so we can identify it for sure as many places mis-label them. Basically though, when they look bucktoothed, they need dentistry. There are photos in the dentistry thread of puffers with overgrown teeth. They shouldn’t be allowed to grow their teeth so long that it interferes with their eating ability.
Tina

Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
pbrfan
Puffer Fry
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 7:57 pm

Post by pbrfan »

Petey is a green spotted puffer and is so far camera shy
15 gallon community tank with platys, guppies, otos and corys
betta in betta tank
Petey the puffer in his own tank
Horace Hunley the turtle in his tank with all my excess guppy fry
Bailey the cat
Ace the dog
lots n lots of barn cats
User avatar
Hilly
Mentor
Posts: 1903
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:36 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: Current: Tetraodon Lineatus
Previous:
Tetraodon Sabahensis
Montrete Abei
Tetraodon Biocellatus
Carinotetraodon Salivator
Location (country): UK
Location: Nottinghamshire, UK

Post by Hilly »

Not a certainty he'll need a dentist, plenty of hard shelled foods in his diet and you may never need to do it.

Have a look at the feeding article in the library for ideas.
Hilly
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