The Puffer Forum

i know i havent been here in a while, but i think i posted about my favorite dp freckles before. about a week ago, he started getting skinny, but still ate so i thought he would be fine. maybe 3 days ago, he was so skinny that his body except for his head was flat but he still ate a little. yesterday, i noticed how he tried to bite into a bloodworm but couldnt and he faced me and i could see the bottom part of his beak so i bought some clove oil(i was desperate and it would only get used once on him) and put two drops into a quart of water then very carefully clipped his beak. i think he might have been in it too long because it took at least 10 minutes of being in the clean bucket for him to move again(i was freaking out thinking he died). but once he was back in the tank, i could tell the clove oil probably damaged him because he kinda floated near the surface for a while and couldnt seem to swim in the direction he wanted to. about an hour later, he seemed back to normal. so i tried to feed them again and he took a small bite out of a bloodworm and i think he just gave up. i finally got some live blackworms today(tried to get some on monday but the lfs was out until today) and tried to feed him but it was like he couldnt see the worms right in front of him. after leaving him in there for a while, i decided since he was having trouble swimming again, id euthanize him. so i put him and a little tank water in a cup then added a lot of crushed ice. then i wrapped him in a paper towel and put it in a ziploc and threw it away. came back in my room and looked up humane ways to euthanize fish and started worrying he wasnt completely dead so i got the bag back out and made sure there was no air left in it then flattened the whole thing with a rock to make sure he was completely crushed and dead.

so now im just feeling really guilty and i just wanted him to get better but i knew he wouldnt. i wish i could have seen his beak like a week ago then he might have been able to eat more and he wouldnt have been so weak to get put under clove oil for a trimming... if youre wondering, he was about an inch long, the biggest dp i had in the tank.

So sorry for your loss... In the weak condition he was in, he probably wouldn't have made it. It's pretty darn near impossible to force feed a 1" fish. This actually is the 1st case I've heard of a DP with overgrown teeth but I do believe it could happen.

I can't imagine trimming a DP's teeth. That's awful.

Oh I am so sorry for your loss.
Don't blame yourself. You did all you could do.

thanks, i figured the bottom one was overgrown if he just spit out his food, it was like he couldnt get it into his mouth. and i actually was able to trim it with nail clippers without cutting his lip so i was proud of that. maybe it just took too long for me to do it...

yeah i was wondering if it was possible to force feed him before i had to put him to sleep.

heh every time i see any kind of wrasse, i think of you yuna

I'm so sorry for your loss! This is so sad... Trimming a dp's beak sounds incredibly difficult.

hadla wrote:heh every time i see any kind of wrasse, i think of you yuna

Aw, every time I see large wrasse my blood pressure goes up.

I do have to say about force feeding something so tiny I think it would be nearly impossible. I had to force feed a dogface puffer for some time and it was extremely difficult. He would puff every time I put the tube in...then he would spit most of it out. It was trying on the patience.

Are you going to get anymore puffers?

yunachin wrote:

hadla wrote:heh every time i see any kind of wrasse, i think of you yuna

Aw, every time I see large wrasse my blood pressure goes up.

I do have to say about force feeding something so tiny I think it would be nearly impossible. I had to force feed a dogface puffer for some time and it was extremely difficult. He would puff every time I put the tube in...then he would spit most of it out. It was trying on the patience.

Are you going to get anymore puffers?

i think i still have 6 dps left. last i counted, i only saw 4 though. whenever i can get another 20g, i want a figure 8. i still have instant ocean left from kirby so i could do a brackish tank. theres a store in sacramento that usually has them in stock.