The Puffer Forum

I've got a couple of A. nefastus, and they don't take any interest in shelled foods like small snails etc. I've been feeding them prawns, bloodworms, a little bit of frozen fish and chopped cockles as they eat that. As you might imagine, they need their teeth trimming because they're not taking the hard foods and they're struggling to eat (getting skinny).

I sudated one with clove oil a few minutes ago to take a better look, and as they're only 1" long I can't see how I'm going to be able to trim them. I can't even fit the nail scissors in their mouths. Any suggestions would be brilliant.

cheers,

Tom

Cuttlefish bone perhaps, put it in the tank and see if they attack it or try and get food attached to it in some way so there is a chance they get some teeth scraping on it. Any joy with cockle in shell tooth wear would be minimal but every little would help especially if you scooped most of the food out so they were picking the bits off the shell.

There are photos of my trimming puffer's teeth that were <1" in our Library. You can do it!

I question the ID of your puffers though. I'd be more inclined to think they were silus or modestus, as I've never heard of nefastus eever being made available in the aquarium trade.

Pufferpunk wrote:There are photos of my trimming puffer's teeth that were <1" in our Library. You can do it!

I question the ID of your puffers though. I'd be more inclined to think they were silus or modestus, as I've never heard of nefastus eever being made available in the aquarium trade.

It was posted up that these had become available in the trade from one of the more reputable specialist fish shops in the UK.

Darn, again you guys get the rare stuff over there! I would still like to see the fish for ID & know how it was positively IDed as such.

Cheers for the tips Hilly. Pufferpunk, I managed with my old GSP after reading your article, but once I'd knocked one of these out I got it in the net and thought "how the hell am I supposed to open it's mouth wide enough without hurting it??" I will try to trim again and will feed them on bloodworms for now as they're easier to eat. I'll will get a cuttle bone too and see how that works.

After seeing Neale Monks' post (I think it was him) about nefastus at Wildwoods I went down and got a pair. Never got a positive ID so far though. Will have to get some pictures.

Thanks a lot,

Tom

Couple of piccies:





Tom

Nice pics Tom

They do look like the pics of the Nefastus on P. 43 of the Aqualog. Silus look a lot more plumper and these are more streamlined.

I'd say they were Nefastus from comparison pics in the Aqualog.

LOL, the 2 silus on the top of page 44, look like totally different fish, so there has to be some other way to tell the difference between the species, than streamlined figures.

Fin rays! start counting!!

Why didn't yo usay that in the 1st place. You said plummper--all my puffers are plumper than those pics! Especially the dead ones.

Well not many people can get shots of fin rays to count em. So going on a visual comparison they look different to me to silus/modestus.

Which fin do you count? Is it the dorsal? If so, how many should the nefastus have? I reckon if I use the original size image I could count.
Cheers guys,

Tom

Silus have between 23-28 rays on the dorsal and nefastus has between 23-27. All the 5 Auriglobus species are extremely close so I dont think it's gonna help you much here.

This is the description:
A Nefastus, uniform pale green or yellow green with light flanks with a darker spot on the upper surface of the head posterior to the eyes. THe protrusion of the upper lip over the lower is characteristic. Spines are downward pointing. Nasal organ is relatively small compared to others apart from A. Amabilis.