The Puffer Forum

Help greatly appreciated here... We just came back from holiday and our little F8 had caught his beak on a thin strand of plastic weed It seems to have got caught sort of between his top tooth - he was tugging and tugging but he couldn't get free. I was freaked out he'd puff, so I cut the strand of weed. He's swimming freely now, but the strand is still stuck between his tooth. He's trying to feed but i'm not sure he's really getting anything past it.

The good news: he can't have been like that for too long because our fish-friendly neighbor was feeding him right up until yesterday and said everything was fine. Phew.

What should I do? Clove oil and try to get it out that way? We've never used it before... I've left him alone to chill out for a bit for now - figure he's stressed out enough without me chasing him round the tank straight away. But yes, any suggestions would be great. It needs to come out

PS - he's a little skinnier than when we left for our holiday - a friend has been feeding him but I'm probably guilty of over-feeding a bit usually, so he's definitely skinnier than normal... Would him being a bit thin (and probably tired from the struggle) make clove oil not a good idea? Should I just man up and net him \ try to remove the weed under the water so he doesn't puff?

Clove oil is never really a good idea. See if you can net him, hold him gently through the net, and try to pull the piece out. Like you said, keep him under water so that if he puffs there's no harm done. Hopefully it'll come out easily.

Does he have a pinched look to him? Could you post a picture?

Phew - just sat and handfed him some bloodworms and they went down fine. Nice fat tummy now, bright colours, whizzing round his tank and not lurking at the back looking sorry for himself.

I tried using some large plastic tweezers to grab the end of the thread when he swam up and hold it still, hoping he'd pull it out himself but he had a good go and it's still stuck. Will give him a break and let him digest those worms, then we'll try to net him and see if we can wiggle it out. Want to do a nice big water change but think I'll leave it until the morning, he's got enough on his plate at the moment!

Thanks very much for the advice Flutter. Wasn't keen on the clove oil idea at all, so glad you said that. Will try to get a picture later. He didn't look pinched, just a bit more streamlined than usual!

Would it be better to wait a few hours after lights out and try to catch him sleeping? Maybe it would be easier to net him and remove the piece while he's groggy. Or would he wake up and get even more startled? IDK, just a thought. Also, if he goes a few days without eating I'm sure he'll be fine.

Good luck.

Are his teeth overgrown?

Hi Pufferpunk - they're verging on the long side now, yes, despite lots of baby snails

Would a combined beak trim and weed removal operation be a good idea do you think? I don't feel particularly confident about it, but if it needs to be done, it needs to be done... Can a trim be done without clove oil?

Better to get yourself some Finquel (MS222).

I'm based in the UK (annoyingly just back from the US this morning!) - do you know if it's available over here? Happy to head to a vet's first thing tomorrow if it is

On a US related note - any New Yorkers out there, I know it sucks to support the stores, but there's a porc puffer in the Union Square Petsmart that needs saving, broke my heart

Ask for the chemical name, tricaine methanesulfonate or MS-222. I believe there may be something else available there for you too.

Will do, thanks very much for the advice.