Pete the South American Puffers Teeth

[4DDM]

Hi all, some of you may have read about Pete the puffer in previous posts. He is doing very well and loves his new tank. The only issue is his teeth... they are massive!! I took a look at some SA in my lfs and their teeth are not even close to his and those puffers are bigger!

He is probably not much more than an inch long and his teeth are probably a good 2 or 3 mm in size (intresting mix of imperial and metric I know). He can still eat and occasionaly gets blood worm stuck between his teeth, but I am worried they are getting out of control.

I have tried giving him assorted snails and whilst he occasionaly picks at them, he never has a proper go. When he yawns you can see that there is plenty of room for him get food in his gob, but he is addicted to blood worm and not interested in anything hard. I have also tried putting his food on a stone but he swims over it at it gets blown odd onto the sand!

What should I do? I really dont want to try cutting his teeth myself as he is so small and I am not sure I have the confidence, however I wonder if a vet would be able to a better job if they had not done it before.

Thanks,
Adam

 

[4DDM]

No one got any ideas? I dont want to leave it until it is too late. I would rather take action now while he is fit and healthy.

Thanks

 

[SirMinion]

His teeth need cutting or he will die.

Sadly this is the fate of many captive SA puffers which have the fastest growing teeth of all the puffer genus.

Doing it yourself is a heartstopping experience and I really wouldn't recommend it unless you know exactly what you are doing

Talk to your vetinarian and see what he has to say, talk to your local public aquarium - they will know of a vet who specialises in fish.

In the meantime try this excellent idea from PufferPack.

Place the puffer's food on a hard abrasive rock such as a piece of slate. The fish will scrape his teeth on the rock as he picks up the food and wear them down.

Good luck!

Here's an SA puffer with overgrown teeth. I hope that yours is not as bad as this!

 

[4DDM]

Thanks Sir Minion.

I know that something will have to be done if I cant get them to wear down naturally. I have tried the piece of rock idea but he just swims over it and it goes everywhere. I will give it another try though. I am quite annoied that the LFS sold him to me like he is as whilst he is not as bad as the poto you pasted, they are getting worse. I will investigate the local vetinarian option also.

Thanks again,
Adam