Trimming teeth

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Troender
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Trimming teeth

Post by Troender »

I've just done one of the scariest things I've ever done to a fish: I've trimmed a puffer's teeth. My lorteti male had become very long in teeth, and he also has become pretty thin lately, so I found there was no way around it: I had to something about his teeth. And, don't be angry with me for this, because there was no other solution; It's impossible to get Finquel or clove oil here, so I had to do it with him awake. :scared: OMG, it was so hard! Those tiny teeth, and I was so afraid to hurt him. And to makes things worse, my hands were shaking pretty much. :( He puffed a few times at the end, and I don't blame him. I was surprised he waited so long before puffing (FW puffers really don't puff very often). I have no idea how well I managed to do it, so I really hope he is OK. Now, he is very, very angry with me, and is hiding behind the filter, not moving at all. I guess he will stay there for a while. I dropped a few snails into his tank, so he has something to hunt if he wants to when I go to bed. I really, really, really hope he will be OK. But if I had not done it, I would have lost him in the end. Oh, my dear little puff. :smitten:
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by Lil' Swimz$ »

hope he gets better! I need to trim my lorteti female's teeth Aand I think I'm going to be doing it without a sedative.
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by hadla »

lol, congrats for getting through it! i dont think i would have been able to do it. hope he isnt mad at you by the morning!

can filquel not be shipped to you or something? cause i need to get some and then i could try to mail you some...
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. -RTR
sevenyearnight

Re: Trimming teeth

Post by sevenyearnight »

I think it's much better to trim the teeth without sedation.
Clove oil should never be used since so many puffers don't wake up, or worse wake up brain damaged.
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Troender
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Gender: Female
My Puffers: 1x GSP (Bolla), 1x m. something. Bought as a leiurus, maybe a turgidus (Tiger), 1x c. irrubesco (Tott(a) aka Houdini) 1x c. salivator (Jack the Ripper), 1x m. cochinchinensis (Hufflepuff - R.I.P.), 2x c. lorteti (Tommy and Tigern = Calvin and Hubbes), 1x m. suvatti (Koseklumpen), 1x m. palembangensis (Dragonfly), 2x t. biocellatus (Koken and Fiken).
Location: Askim, Norway

Re: Trimming teeth

Post by Troender »

hadla wrote:can filquel not be shipped to you or something? cause i need to get some and then i could try to mail you some...
It's not allowed to import fish meds (or any other animal meds) to Norway (I guess farmacies and vets can do it though), so it would actually be smuggling. :wink: I have done it many times from webshops though, always asking them to not write "fish meds" on the note to the customs. But this is from webshops (if it is caught, it will only be returned to the shop that sent it). I have no idea what will happen if it's sent from a person and not a shop. But send me a PM if you will get some.

My lorteti is still on the exact same spot behind the filter. If he had been resting on something, I would have to check if he were alive. He doesn't move. I guess he got very, very stressed out of the whole thing. I hope he doesn't use too long time getting back to normal. He must be very angry with me! It wasn't done very quickly, so he had to go through a lot of handling. Poor thing!
Inger Anne
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Just think how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin

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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by chuckfriedrice »

Sounds like he had a bad day ! Sound like your gonna have to give him time and just keep an eye to make sure theres no lasting effects! Maybe a little bribery wouldnt hurt! LOL
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Troender
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Posts: 1843
Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 8:04 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: 1x GSP (Bolla), 1x m. something. Bought as a leiurus, maybe a turgidus (Tiger), 1x c. irrubesco (Tott(a) aka Houdini) 1x c. salivator (Jack the Ripper), 1x m. cochinchinensis (Hufflepuff - R.I.P.), 2x c. lorteti (Tommy and Tigern = Calvin and Hubbes), 1x m. suvatti (Koseklumpen), 1x m. palembangensis (Dragonfly), 2x t. biocellatus (Koken and Fiken).
Location: Askim, Norway

Re: Trimming teeth

Post by Troender »

He is out of hiding, and came to the front glass to watch me now. :D The light is not on in his tank yet (it's still morning), and I was looking all over for him with a torch light, and couldn't find him. I didn't see him right in front of me! :lol: I wish I had been able to cut his teeth even further down, because I still think they are long. But it will have to do for this time. I can't let him go through it all again. I don't recommend anyone else to try to do it with the fish all awake. It was definitely not easy, and I felt so sorry for him. I still feel a bit guilty about it.
Inger Anne
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Just think how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin

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hadla
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by hadla »

Troender wrote:He is out of hiding, and came to the front glass to watch me now. :D The light is not on in his tank yet (it's still morning), and I was looking all over for him with a torch light, and couldn't find him. I didn't see him right in front of me!
lol! that happens to me with figgy. im looking everywhere in the back of the tank for her and shes busy swimming up and down trying to get my attention in the front
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. -RTR
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by Tweetie-pie »

Hi I'm new here but have a Figure 8 Puffer Tweetie whose teeth have grown so long that he can only eat (I hope) plankton & bloodworms...sort of...they get stuck in his teeth.I have phoned all over & looked on the Internet which I'm not that great at.I live in BC after calling my koi guy who sent me to another vet that does koi who sent me to another & so on..My Vet called & gave me the name of a Dr. Martin Hulena @ the Vancouver Aquarium who put me in touch with the fellow he uses for On Calls.He said he would do it but was leaving for Californa in 2 hrs so I called the vet he recommended & they are getting all sorts of equipment & supplies together...which is great! Except I have to wait now for Monday to find out what it's going to cost me...they did say it would be in the hundreds!!! I'm on a disability...I don't have hundreds to spend on my Tweetie....I'm hoping I can get them to give me some sort of a discount! If not I'm going to have to do it myself so you will be hearing from me & any tips would be great. :scared: :scared:
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by J-P »

welcome to the board!

please see:
library/hospital/dentistry/

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28228&hilit=+trim

these last 2 posts can be moved to the hospital so you can get more personal attention.


BTW can you get Finquel?
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by sevenyearnight »

Don't use clove oil is my only advice.
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by Tweetie-pie »

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction.I have a feeling I can do this as long as I prepare for it.It has to feel right before I will do anything.I'll make sure the counter height is correct & everything in easy reach.I will wait until I hear back from the vet with a price though...cause I'm such a worrywart when it comes to my animals &fish.I would have kept a watch out on his teeth but with personal health issues & now I'm looking after my parents with theirs I didn't notice until recently how long they were...after this I'll be more careful. :lol:
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by J-P »

and breed lots of snails ;)
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by Tweetie-pie »

That is in the works...I have a few in my 2 other tanks.I was also told that I could try putting bloodworms on a piece of coral then letting the bloodworms dry on it so when he goes to eat then he will have to work at it which should help his teeth.I hope. I bought the clippers..smallest ones I could find & also bought the Oil of Clove but when I got home I found than I will need to find a dropper..so I will have to hunt around the house for one.I'm really nervous about doing the trimming but today is the day.Thanks again for the help. :scared:
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Re: Trimming teeth

Post by Pufferpunk »

Se if this vet you're in touch with can give you MS-222 to tranq him with instead.
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