The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone, I am having some problems with my f8. I have had him/her for over 6 months and the tank has been cycled for over a year. I have tested the water and everything is fine there. The problem I am having is this: this past weekend I clipped his teeth as he was having a hard time eating. I used clove oil. I mixed 2 drops in 3 cups of tank water, clipped his teeth and then put him into another bowl with 3 cups of tank water until he woke up. Waited awhile and put him back in his tank. He is now acting like he has never seen me before and will go and hide behind something whenever he sees me or anyone else. He hasn't eaten anything in almost 3 days (which he was a piggy before) and I have tried thawed bloodworms and mysis shrimp. He is really scaring me, when I first put him back in his tank he was doing some kind of twitching thing but that stopped. Have I done something bad to him??? I feel like I am going to cry everytime I look at the tank because he is so different now, he would follow around his tank and go nuts when he saw me. Please help!! I don't know what else to do. Thanks in advance!

Clove oil has been suspected of causing brain damage if the fish hasn't been revived quickly or if used repeatedly. How long was he out for? How long since he ate?

Moving this to the Hosp forum.

He was out for about 10-15 minutes total. He ate saturday (1/24) about noon and has not eaten since. Also in lookig at pics of other f8's, my guys mouth after trimming his teeth is still wide open. Could I have maybe dislocated his jaw and now he can't close it and that is why he is acting weird and not eating? I was very careful with him. I don't know what to do at this point, I will try to get a pic asap to show the open mouth but he hides whenever he sees me.

I'm pretty sure 10 to 15 minutes out is about 9 to 14 minutes too long - finishing in a minute or two after the fish goes under is important. I honestly refuse to trust clove oil at all myself - I have one puffer who I have to trim every 4-6 months, and I do it with him awake.

Are you aware they are not breathing while under CO? That is definately cause for brain damage.

Removed

OMG! I hope I didn't mess him up, he is acting a little more normal. I didn't realize that he wasn't going to get any oxygen and that I took to long He ate about 2 or 3 blood worms yesterday and about the same in mysis today. I don't know what to do other then just wait it out. Any suggestions since I don't want to euthanize him if there isn't really a reason to. Thanks for all the help!

Puffer fish don't have much in the way of a cortex, so their brains are more likely to fix than ours. Give him time to re-learn things, and he may recover his normal behaviors, once he relearns them.

Yeah, give it time. He might not ever be the same again, though. But give him time to relearn things. If he's eating, that's a good sign. I wouldn't use clove oil again though. I used it for my puffer because I was pretty sure that I wouldn't have to do it again. If I had a puffer that was more prone to needing tooth trimming, I would have sprung for the Finquel or whatever it's called.

Try leaving the lights turned off on that tank for a few days. My puffer seems to be a bit more confident with less light.