Puffer Dentistry

[lstratton]

How often do you have to trim your puffer's teeth and when do you know that they are overgrown? I have 2 SAPs and it is very hard to see if their teeth are over grown or not.

[manutius]

It all depends opn the puffer species. My Mbu has never needed it in 6 years, thank god!!! SAP are known for fast teeth growth, there is an article in the library that should answer some techinical questions for you

[puff_ball]

I have 2 SAPs and one needs his teeth cut more than the other. In the past 6 weeks I have trimmed his teeth twice. Infact, I have literally just done both of them! The other one has only had hers done about twice in the last 4 months so I guess it depends on the puffer and what each individual one does to keep it's teeth down. To see how overgrown mine are, I wait for them to be sideways so I can see how far down they've grown. Hope this helps

[anthrax]

sorry for hogging your thread.. hmm could newly bought baby fahakas have overgrown tooth? cause my fahaka does not seem to eat properly.. he does eat bloodworms but when i drop cockles in he simply ignores them.... or must i give him training haha

[Boxermom]

Newly caught and/or acquired puffers almost always need to be trained to eat different foods, especially dead foods.

[lstratton]

Could someone possibly show me a picture of what SAP teeth look like when the aren't overgrown. I just don't want to cut them back too far, so that they can't eat at all!

[Pufferpunk]

Before & after pics in the dentistry article in the Hosp section of our Library.

[anthrax]

Boxermum- ah i see. how did you train yours.. could i try using a satay stick and poking the meat and waving it infront of the puffer? but it does eat dead bloodworms.. but maybe cause they were wriggling under the water currents.. haha

[manutius]

A baby fahaka may not be able to tackle a cockle yet, what size is it?

[Boxermom]

Boxermum- ah i see. how did you train yours.. could i try using a satay stick and poking the meat and waving it infront of the puffer? but it does eat dead bloodworms.. but maybe cause they were wriggling under the water currents.. haha

I never had much luck getting my puffers to eat using a stick or string as many people do. You might have better luck though. A pair of stainless steel tongs seems to work best for me. I just make sure the pieces of shrimp or whatever food it is are small enough that it doesn't scare them. It can take a week or two but don't give in and feed them anything else. They'll be fine without food for that long and will eat when they are hungry enough. I sometimes have to bang them gently in the face for them to take a defensive bite, then they figure out its food and have at it.

[anthrax]

ah i see.. i tried feeding a flower crab pincers i think that scared him.. cause he is still a tiny fellow at around 2 inches without tail...... could i rule out overgrown teeth at this size and age?

[Boxermom]

Can't be ruled out because of size or age, but if you don't see them, it shouldn't be a problem. You just want to prevent it from becoming a problem. Prevention is much better than treatment IMO, if at all possible. Most of mine won't come too near anything I offer that's too big. Some won't eat while I'm watching, either. They like to be alone when they enjoy their food. So you might want to drop the food in and leave it a little while, maybe he'll get curious and take a few bites on his own. Just remove anything that hasn't been eaten after several hours.

[anthrax]

i see... kk will try to put in smaller pieces.. i have noticed that he eats whenever i am not looking too...

[anthrax]

OMG i am so happy!!! i fed my fahaka a little piece of crab leg and i saw it going at it.... just now under a driftwood.. I cannot tell you guys how happy i am to see that.. finally lol

[anthrax]

i think he is still wondering what is that though he did eat a little.. but its a really good start.... will perserve ha