Long in Tooth!

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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manutius
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Post by manutius »

DREMEL???????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That would sound just like the dentists for sure. Then you would need to have a nurse to talk the secret teeth code too, "upper9, lower6, c3POwith amalgum, etc....."
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Pufferpunk
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Hubby talked me out of the Dremmel. Said one slip & it would all be over... Puffer wasn't very big anyway. I was looking over my 12" fahaka's teeth, trying to imagine trimming his.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Myaj
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Post by Myaj »

c3PO? What's he doing in your mouth?

R2D2 better get him out of there!
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manutius
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Post by manutius »

:lol: I have a gold crown, thats as close as you're gonna get :redface:
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bosshogg
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Post by bosshogg »

I have been reading the dentistry articles with great interest, I have an F8 and Abei and although I feed snails regularly I doesn’t hurt to be prepared. I had just got over the shock of anesthetising my fish when I read the article in the library, DREMMEL!

I have used these for years cutting titanium and carbon fibre and I have made mistakes with it, I am a little concerned that it could be used on my fish.

What interests me is when the teeth are cut do you have to open the lips to gain access?

If so does anyone have the size of the teeth i.e. width and height they should be for the range of teeth we see.

Reason is I am thinking that a jig could be made, similar to an eye of a needle; the teeth could then be put in the eye and the depth covered by the diameter of the needle so that the teeth could be trimmed without the guesswork also the needle would keep the lips out of the way.

There would need to be a number of jigs made.

I don’t know if I am making sense here, hope you understand my ramblings
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Post by Boxermom »

I understand what you are saying, but there's such a wide range of sizes for the different types of fish and their different ages. I haven't used a dremel, just use clippers on my SAP. I had to pull the lips up just a tad to get them short enough. When I think of using the Dremel, though, I don't think of a cutting wheel and not sure that's what people are using. I think more of a grinding wheel with a fine grade of sandpaper.
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
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Puffer Queen (Kelly Jedlicki) has an article at WetWebMedia, with detailed pics of her trimming large puffer's teeth w/a Dremmel.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Post by OraLacerta »

Yeesh. Even though I don't doubt it's a method that has been used before it sounds far too intimidating; just like your hubby said, "one slip and it's over."
-Michelle

Prevent unnecessary deaths due to disease- quarantine ALL new additions at least 4 weeks in a separate tank before adding to your main display tank!

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bosshogg
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Post by bosshogg »

Pufferpunk wrote:Puffer Queen (Kelly Jedlicki) has an article at WetWebMedia, with detailed pics of her trimming large puffer's teeth w/a Dremmel.
Yikes!!

I'll just go and feed another few snails to my puffers
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