The Puffer Forum

Its about time for Hero to get his teeth trimmed. What exactly fo i get as far as trimming goes and where can i get Clove Oil?

There is an article on Puffer Dentistry in the Library. I'm sure any pharmacy should carry Clove Oil.
Have you tried shelled foods or crunchy foods to keep the teeth down?

I have but unfortunately a bit late. I read the article in the library i am just wondering what i actually cut his teeth with, and is it just clove oil or a mix with water?

Most use fingernail clippers. I would wait for PufferPunk as I have never personally trimmed pufferfish teeth before.

So just regular finger nail clippers and clove oil from a pharmacy?

Cuticle nippers work best. There are step by step pics in my article.

I did it, and I thought I almost killed my valentini. Let me tell you some stuff not mentioned in the article.

You are going to need to sterilize your hands and some of your arms, use baking soda.
You will probably think you are going to kill your fish when it stops moving and seems to stop breathing, get someone to help you. Have them hold the fish (through the net or with good but soft and cleaned rubber gloves.
Try not to freak out, try to stay calm and don't panic, that can lead to mistakes.
Use either a (cleaned) toe-nail clipper or the cuticle clippers. I find the nail clipper easier to use because I am used to using them and the cuticle clippers unwieldly. Practice with either.
The teeth on the little ones curve fairly sharply, like a C. That can make them thicken and make it more difficult to clip. Be very careful and do your best not to cut its lips nor split or pull out its teeth.

You can scale up the "recipe" but make sure you keep the water and clove oil ratios the same. If you think you will be longer than a couple seconds, which you will on your first try, get a large, shallow container and do it either under water (with a helper) or take him out, clip a little, put back in water, wait, relax a bit, take out a clip again, etc. Keep a close eye on him and make sure he is still breathing and have plenty of fresh tank water for him if you panic.

Good luck.

Ok. Today i am going to try to get the Clove Oil and do the trimming today. How much do you trim.

As much as possible. No pulling, be careful and don't cut the lips.

I didnt get any today. So if i am not carefullwhile trimming i can pull the teeth out?!

I higly recommend cuticle nippers over nail clippers. Nippers have a nice point to them--clippers are large, clumbsy & will block your view of the mouth. You can see around the point of the nippers. They have 2 teeth on top & 2 on the bottom. Cut 1 tooth at a time & then even out the 2 so they are the same lengths, then do the bottom 2. It is easier to do this with a helper holding the fish, so you can pull back the lip & cut. I do not suggest continuallly dipping the fish back into the clove oil. (A better/safer tranq to use is Finquel, sold by http://www.drsfostersmith.com.) If you do use clove oil, as soon as the fish looks knocked out, try to trim as quickly as possible & then get it into fresh tank water to recover. I think all that dipping will take too much time. Just get it over with as quiclky but as safely as possible.

Yea, the water with the clove oil does not provide much of any O2 anyway, the clove oil paralyzes even the gills and the fish is effectively on o2 dep the entire time it's out. A a fish is cold blooded, so it can spend longer safely without o2 than us, but it's still best to reduce the time under the effects of the oil as much as possible.

Ok i got the stuff am going to use cuticle clippers and clove oil because i already got some. Just how much do i put in the water?

Nevermind i read the article closely. I am going to do it but i will have the coputer on incase anything happens!.

I clipped them though im not sure if i did it enough if so i am going to wait a week before doing it again. I hope he is still alive! His gills are moving so that is a good sign. I am going to check on him right now as i just finished.