The Puffer Forum

I have a one 2" GSP I've had him for about 2-3 years. For a while now his teeth have been long and recently he has been have a hard time eat anything that is not brine shrimp or frozen bloodworms. I give him snails, but when he can't pick them up he gives up and swims to the top of the tank to beg. Today I attempted tooth trimming and failed. I was so afraid he would die! I put 2 drops of clove oil in 1 liter of water. I placed him in the clove oil water mixture and he started to slow down. I took him out and tried to clip his teeth, but i could not get the clippers behind his teeth! I bought the smallest cuticle clippers I could find. I gave up because my hands were shaking too badly and now he's back in his tank.

I've read so many bad things about puffer sedation I am afraid to try trimming again. I did find this thread on another website: http://puffer2.proboards.com/index.cgi? ... &thread=15

I wondered if anyone has done this before and if it will really work, or if anyone has any suggestions.

thanks

LOL I think you may have found the original TPF

That's so old, the redirect link doesn't even link here!

theres an rtr post where they have 52 posts haha! and i cant see why that wouldnt work!

yeah haha it's old...
I NEED help!!!

DrKennethNoisewater wrote:theres an rtr post where they have 52 posts haha! and i cant see why that wouldnt work!

Thanks I'll try it! I hope it works..

Get Finquel from http://www.drsfostersmith.com. Much safer tranq. Follow my article in our Library on this. If must be done, there is no alternative unless you want to ship me over there to do it for you. Just went out on a dentistry job today!

Even RTR's signature line is the same lol. +1 to the above. I don't consider clove oil to be good idea unless you want to euthanize the fish, which you could end up doing if you aren't careful. Finquel works great for my SAPs.

LOL! That is seriously out of date. Then we only had CO2 or clove oil - neither have much margin of safety, but back then it was that or starvation.

That post was in the first month of operation for TPF. Back then I was dumb enough that PP conned me into working.

if you have shaky hands, it is best to get someone else to do it for you.

For practice try and clip your own nails taking the edge off in 1 cut. Not the entire thing just a portion of it. 1 clip and a piece should go flying.

The same is with the teeth. 1 clip 1 bit. Ebb on the side of caution (not too deep). If they are still a little long you can do it again later.

J-P wrote:if you have shaky hands, it is best to get someone else to do it for you.

For practice try and clip your own nails taking the edge off in 1 cut. Not the entire thing just a portion of it. 1 clip and a piece should go flying.

The same is with the teeth. 1 clip 1 bit. Ebb on the side of caution (not too deep). If they are still a little long you can do it again later.

Sounds like a good plan, and start feeding snails every day afterwards!


I've never had a GSP, but my Fahaka and Ceylons teeth stay trimmed just by my constant feeding of snails, mussles and crays.

Do GSP teeth grow faster than others? They must...???

That I can't answer ... but they can be kept at a reasonable level with a proper diet. Once past that level it is time for a manual trim.

these kinds of posts make me empty my breeder tank into my puffer tank in a short period of time.....

J-P wrote:if you have shaky hands, it is best to get someone else to do it for you.

For practice try and clip your own nails taking the edge off in 1 cut. Not the entire thing just a portion of it. 1 clip and a piece should go flying.

The same is with the teeth. 1 clip 1 bit. Ebb on the side of caution (not too deep). If they are still a little long you can do it again later.

So last night I was able to clip off a little bit. I tried it again today with no sedative. I just held him with the net in a large bowl of water and he let me clip off a little bit more. His belly turned black so I quit for today. Now he is able to get dried shrimp in his mouth!
I'm going to Petco right now to get some snails!

gj!