The Puffer Forum

My adult GSP in saltwater has gotten to the point where she eats the shrimp I give her, only to spit it back out in bits and pieces because she can't "swallow" it. Has anyone here trimmed an adult's teeth?? I've done a F8 plenty of times, but just with smaller cuticle cutters. I'm just wondering how I go about rationing the clove oil and what i should use to trim with. Also, the GSP doesn't really look like my F8 did when I needed to trim its teeth, I could see the F8's teeth sticking out. However, the GSP seems to have it's beak back behind its "lips" more. Will this pose a problem? Thanks for any suggestions!!!

Also, do you think I could just feed it some small snails to start with and work my way up, gradually filing the teeth back down without resorting to clipping? I've just finally got a snail tank up and running and didn't have access to snail before now.

Snails do not "file" teeth, they just keep them in shape. Once a puffer's teeth are long, the only thing to do is hand trim. You may want to ues a bigger conatiner but still use 1 drop of CO/cup of water. It shouldn't be much different than trimming your F8's teeth. You may want to have an extra set of hands to hold the puffer, so you can peel back it's lips.

PP, did you have to trim your GSPs' teeth or only the SAPs?

Just the SAPs. GSPs ate lots of crunchys.

my sap must be too small for snails, he wont touch them, but he does love frozen bloodworms.

I'm not sure if they really can be 'too small for snails'. I got my GSP's when they were around 1/2 an inch and they loved snails as much then as now. They may just need some time to know that they are food.

Have you tried crushing a snail for your SAP? Sometimes that's what it takes to get them interested. I had 1/2" DPs that decided snails were good food after I'd crushed a few for them.

Eric

ill try that

So I trimmed the GSP's teeth down to a reasonable size. Everything went according to plan however now the fish won't eat at all. It's been almost a week since she last ate anything (when she had to start spitting it back out from overgrowth) and I'm worried that she's gonna starve. I usually feed her thawed out cooked shrimp that have been frozen, about 1/2 of one every other night or so. She won't take it, even off the fork I usually use to feed her. I've also dropped snails down right in front of her face and she doesn't do anything besides look at them. Water parameters have nitrites and ammonia at 0 and nitrates at around 20 after I did a water change yesterday.

Any suggestions of what this might be?? Should I go get some blackworms or something live to try and entice her? Maybe some crickets??? Any help would be appreciated because I believe she's going to die if I don't do something soon. Thanks.

i'll have to try that, I'll try anything right about now.

She may just be stressed too. Also, if nitrAtes went down to 20 after a water change, does that mean they had been 40 previously? Even that can add to an already stressed puffer. P_A's suggestion of garlic has worked for many to entice feeding. Good luck wonkadog.

Alright, I soaked the shrimp in garlic extract tonight and just tried feeding the GSP...no luck. She did get more excited than she had been before, I think the garlic triggered her appetite. However, she still acted as though she didn't want to eat.

I'm starting to think that she might have something wrong with her jaw. The very first time after we clipped her teeth, I went to feed her and she tried to open her mouth, only to look as though she couldn't really do it. Now, this time when the garlic took effect, she started making motions with her mouth and body as though she were trying to "yawn" but just couldn't. She's opening the skin around her mouth but it looks like her jaw "hinge" isn't functioning properly. Do you think I hurt her when we did the teeth thing? I held her firmly but gently in the net while the procedure took place. Could it be the infamous puffer lockjaw setting in, just coinciding with the trimming??? Any suggestions would be helpful as she is getting pretty thin and I'm at my wit's end. The worst part is that she's just as colorful and active as she's ever been....it's not like she's sitting at the bottom of the tank like she would if she was extremely stressed or sick....

After looking up lockjaw symptoms on the web, I thought about what I'd been feeding the GSP...and I'll be honest, it's not been a varied diet at all. Basically for the last 3 months I've fed her 1/2 a cooked (but kept frozen) shrimp 2 days, given her a day off, and then fed her another whole shrimp over 2 days, and so forth. Could this monotonous cycle contribute to how she is acting? If so, what's the next step, live food??

Have you tried offering her an earthworm?

I can get live blackworms at my LFS, would those be ok or do you think they'd be too small to attract her attention?? I'll try to get an earthworm anyway too.