The Puffer Forum

I'm so gutted!

I feel so guilty!

I used some Koi sedate to knock him out and I think I took to long to trim his teeth

On the bottle it said to add 10ml of the solution to 9litres of water

I put Bollo into 20litres of water and then measured out 2.5ml of the solution and just driped a couple of drops into the 20litre container, I then pressed go on my timer which was set for 5 mins.

The idea was to add a few drops every 5 mins until it took affect, this way I thought there would be no way of him OD'ing on it. I carried on adding small drips every 5 mins and when he finally slowed down it had been 1 hour and 15 mins and I had treated the water with 15ml (so under half what it said on the bottle). He hadn't rolled over yet but as I picked him up he rolled on his back.


I put him straight into a towel and then started to cut his teeth. It was a lot harder and fiddlier than I thought it would be and I didn't even think I'd taken that long. When I had a look at the video afterwards I saw that it was 8mins before I got him back in the water! when I saw him not moving I held him in front of the power head to push water through his gills, the thing is it just filled him up with water as if he was puffing! I tried to hold him with one hand and then gently pump him with 2 fingers on my other hand over his gills to try and get the water pumping through them from the powerhead. I stopped and I saw the inside of his mouth moving very slowley. I put him in the baby box in the main tank and just stared hoping he would move. He began to twitch and seemed to right himself so that he was sitting with his belly on the floor.


Maybe I should've just left him alone at this point but he wasn't breathing and I was worried that the only reason he'd come round was because I'd got water flowing over his gills so I took him out and did the same again and held him over the powerhead. Unfortunately when I put him back in the baby box he didn't recover


Hey Cristiemo and Jase feel free to say I told you so as you did both warn me that you thought this may not be a good idea, instead I took the advise from the Administrator on The Practicalfishkeeping forum

I think it was a combination of errors on my part as in retrospect even though I thought I was doing the right thing by only adding a few drops every 5 mins I was actually leaving him in the solution for a lot longer than he probably should've been in there (although it was a very slow build up of the solution and he showed no signs of it affecting him untill the last few drops were added). I should've just put a small dose in the container and then added bollo for 5 mins and then taken him out when it didn't work and then added more and then put him back in and so on (not sure if this would of made a difference or would've just been the same since I was adding a few drops extra every 5 mins).

I've left him in the baby box and it's so sad seeing him dead, he was looking so healthy and happy to

Here's a vid I made yesterday of him looking nice and plump and happy that I was going to post in the other thread of Bollo being ill

Oh, no! That's awful! And after you had just gotten him through the parasites, too! I'm so sorry. That's just absolutely, totally, completely... awful.

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Oh, no! That's awful! And after you had just gotten him through the parasites, too! I'm so sorry. That's just absolutely, totally, completely... awful.

I know and the worse bit about it is that it was my fault

I suppose to him it was just like slipping off to sleep, I don't think he suffered any pain

That's an awful feeling. And I know what it's like. I had some guppies way back when, and it was my fault when they died. Not even going to say how, 'cause it's so embarrassing. Yeah, you must feel like giblets right now. Chin up! You were doing your best. If you hadn't done anything, he would have starved from the overgrown teeth.

LilGreenPuffer wrote:That's an awful feeling. And I know what it's like. I had some guppies way back when, and it was my fault when they died. Not even going to say how, 'cause it's so embarrassing. Yeah, you must feel like giblets right now. Chin up! You were doing your best. If you hadn't done anything, he would have starved from the overgrown teeth.

His teeth were at the point where stuff would get stuck in them every time he fed on anything larger than bloodworm

If I ever get another SAP in the future a least now I'll know exactly how to trim the teeth

Yes. Every failure is also a learning experience.

You said he was in the box? If so I would leave him there. He may not be dead. Being that he was sedated it may just take him a long time to come out of it. Annabelle was only in the meds for a few minutes and she was still loopy a few hours later. Just leave him in the box and leave him alone. He might suprise you. If I'm wrong I'm sorry for the loss.

Oh I'm sorry Puffert.

One thing we did find with the clove oil that might have helped you a bit.. if you just drip it in, it doesn't mix well, so the fish is basically in plain water and suddenly swims into a concentrated dosage of the sedative. We found that it works best to add the clove oil to some water in a container and shake the heck out of it, mixing it up well, and THEN add the puffer (or pour that water into your bowl of water with the puffer in it.

Could be you kept adding more and it wasn't getting mixed in.. or the long exposure wasn't that good either. I dont' think it was the time it took you to trim his teeth, as many people have found puffers after they've jumped out of their tanks and dried up, still alive.. I'd lean more towards it being the sedative or the exposure time to it.

I'm sure it was a good death though, he had no idea what happened, just went to sleep...

I'm so sorry for your loss
Bollo will be remembered. You've tried your best.

Sorry to hear bout your loss, although i have to say i agree with Mayj, that i think its the meds that probably killed him, considering the size of a Koi vs the size of a SAP, even 2.5ml may have been too much for his body to handle?

Sorry for your loss...

I think it was the 1 1/2 hours in the solution. Knock them out, cut the teeth & get them back in fresh water all within 3 minutes from beginning to end.

Thanks guys

Yeah I thought I was doing the right thing by adding just a few drops every 5mins but didn't think at the time that it was all adding up and getting into his blood stream the longer he was in there

Every time I dropped some in I made sure to get my hand in there and give it a good mix, I guess it was just to much for him especially with me taking him out of the water aswell, if I'd just done it before he was totally knocked out and just drowsy maybe he would've pulled through

Next time I'll go to the vet and get a perscription for MS222 if they'll let me have it

I would never say i told you so about that. It's all just a learning experience. Sorry for your loss of Bollo.

Jase wrote:I would never say i told you so about that. It's all just a learning experience. Sorry for your loss of Bollo.

Thanks mate

Really sorry mate, my boss lindsey trimmed the teeth on 2 SAP without knocking em out a month or so ago, i watched, the best way to do it, but only if you know what your doing and have done it enough.