Sure, just didnt want my cure to be taken out of context or misinterpreted etc.
I have a medium 6" porcupine puffer. He was about a year and a half old when he started suffering from lockjaw. To make a long story short, I was feeding him a mix of food, and he was sneaky and started to just pick the krill out of the mix...
And as you may or may not know, freeze dried krill can and will give puffers lockjaw over time. To my knowledge this is caused by a vitamin deficiancy, but other theory's exist as well. This is NOT due to lack of iodine, as some older theories suggest. The problem isnt the krill per se, its feeding too many krill and too little of other foods....and in the case of my puffer, he was just picking all the krill out of the mix I was feeding. Anyway..
After he had not eaten for about 2 weeks, I was concerned. I tried hand feeding him various things, which was usually an easy way to get him to eat. He tried lunging at things, but it seemed like his mouth wouldnt open. And he would twitch like he was fighting to get his jaws open, which sometimes he would and he could bite once, and then they seemed to lock up again.
I rigged up a tube feeding/gavage mechanism which consisted of a old aiptasia-x applicator (minus the metal tip) and about 6" of airline tubing. I thawed some spirulina brine shrimp and added some vitamrin (liquid fish vitamin complex) and sucked some up in the tube. At 1st I tried squirting it at his mouth, but he didnt eat it. So I tried putting it IN his mouth, which he did not like and puffed up and swam away. So, I gently (yes VERY gently) but firmly grabbed him, waited for him to puff, then another 1-2 minutes for him to deflate, then I stuck the end of the tube in his mouth and squeezed some food into his mouth. He coughed it all up, so I gently inserted the tube about 2-3 inches down his throat and squeezed a little food in. I let him go after that as I did not want to overly stress him. I repeated this once every day for about 2 weeks. At 1st he would flee the tube and my hands, and got very good at avoiding me. After about 1.5-2 weeks he would seek out the tube when I put it in the tank, and I just aimed it into his mouth and squeezed when he was swimming forward and the food would just drift into his mouth. After about 1-2 weeks of that he would swim right up on the tube and try to bite the end, I'd wait for him to put his mouth on it or right before he bit it and squeeze the food into his open mouth. After about 2 weeks of that, he swam up to the tube one day and ripped it off the syringe and tried to chew it to pieces. His jaws had clearly improved, but sometimes it looked like he had to "crack" his jaw before he could eat. I found it similiar to TMJ that I had as a kid, where sometimes my jaws would lock up and I had to "pop" or "crack" them like a knuckle to make them work right. He appeared to be doing the same kind of thing. All in all I think it took about 2.5-3 months before he was completely cured, and now he eats anything I put in the tank, and he's back to begging at the front of the tank again. I've found he snaps up anything I hold at the waters edge, including pea's and other vegetables, although he does look pissed off when he finds out it's vegetables. I make sure to feed him 90% NON-krill items, and on the days I do give him a piece of krill, I rehydrate it in liquid vitamins prior to feeding him.
This was my method, and it was 100% successful. I had purchased some MS-222 (Tricane-S) as I thought I would have to knock him out to tube feed him, but after thinking about it long and hard, I thought it would be better to try it without drugs. Add to that I have heard of people using that method, and after the fish wakes up, they vomit up all the food you've given them. And not to mention if you dose it wrong you end up killing your poor fish.
I'd like to point out that I am well read on puffers & puffer care, and this was %100 a case of lockjaw and NOT overgrown teeth, or parasites or fungus or anything else.
Thank you, and I hope this method can save other puffers in distress.
If your puffer is very small (as in you cant grab them like I did) you might try the tricane-s method, but be SUPER FRICKING CAREFUL with dosage.
this puffer means the world to me and i will do anything to help him get better. i know this is not an overgrown beak. his beak looks normal and i can tell when he tries to eat that it is his jaw and not the beak. he did eat but not like he normally does. im also sure its lock jaw because he eats lots of krill and a few silversides. from now on the krill will be absolutely gone from his diet. eventually he will get hungry and have to eat some thing else. i soak thier food in a vitamin liquid made by seachem but apparently this was not enough. what vitamin did you use and do you have any other tips? what do you think caused it to go away? does it just need time or do you think it was more of the vitamins that did the trick? also could you post a picture of the feeding tube that you used or a similar one?