The Puffer Forum

i was gonna clip my one f8s teeth when i move him to new tank but i went out to the pet store and wal mart and didnt find any all i see for toothache stuff is benzocaine 20% is that the technical term for clove oil or do i need to look somewhere else?

As someone who has South American puffers teeth trimming is something I'm familiar with. Benzocaine as far as I know is a local anesthetic in humans, so I don't think it would be safe. I have used clove oil in the past before I was able to secure a small amount of MS-222. If you have to use clove oil be very careful as there are suggestions that it can cause other issues such as brain damage if not used particularly carefully.

MS-222 is very available in the USA... a quick google search for that or finquel will help.

Yes, use M-222 / Finquel.
Don't use clove oil please, too many people said their puffers suffered brain damage, even just using once for short periods.

Anyone remember the product "Euthanize"? It was clove oil.

+1 to all the nay-sayers on clove oil.

i ordered some ms 222 for 20$ roughly ty

Great! Where did you buy it from? Is it the Finquel?

good move. Follow the directions explicitly and if you have any Q's don't hesitate to ask them here.

@PP i found them at argent first but with shipping and all it was gonna be $60 to which i said hell no! then i looked at second search result from western chemical and they have it for $6 with $13 shipping and yes it is finquel i believe. i couldnt find good cuticle nippers at the stores i went to would a small nail clipper work as well? or a big nail clipper? the flip out ones with the curved cutting mouth are the kind i have

No, you really should use the nippers. They are at any drug or beauty supply store.

roger that

I'd just like to be one more person saying "I'm glad you were able to order the MS-222 (and avoid using clove oil)"!

I've always used the cuticle clippers as Pufferpunk suggests. I do keep a pair of regular nail clippers on hand, but I think the cuticle clippers make it easier to avoid accidentally cutting the puffer's lips.

Best of luck!

well it came in the mail today and it is called tricaine-s and it is in powder or crystalyne form. Not sure how much to use for one puffer. what do you all think?

the instructions should be on the main site.

I've only used it in powder form. I did it by trial and error since I had no way to measure an amount as small as was required. I put a bit in water, put the fish in and then added more slowly in very small amounts until the fish tipped over.