Puffer's Teeth

[fry_lover]

I am considering a South American Puffer for new odd-ball project (as discussed on this forum)

Forgive me if this is a much covered subject, BUT

how the bleeding-heck (pardon my French) are you supposed to manually trim down a Puffer's teeth And i certainly can't imagine taking a fish down to the vet!!!!

i am interested as if i dont feel confident in this area then i surely cant get the Puffer, as i will only be in for problems in the long haul and so will the Puffer.

What happens with the 95% of Puffer owners who surely dont know about this or do and dont address it? dead Puffers i assume???

I was (ignorantly i now think) under the impression that as long as the Puffer got the recommend food stuffs to "munch" on it was not a problem or is it just a specific problem for the South American Puffer, i read on this forum just a few minutes ago that even with maximum attention to foodstuffs to chomp on the SA puffer will need a trip down the vets every 6-months (unless you can do it yourself)

Am i reading too much into just one thread or does owning a South American Puffer involve such drastic actions every 3-6 months???

Here is where i read it

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=77823

 

[Ginge]

This is correct and can need to be done more often than nessasary if the correct diet of lots of shell food is not fed but its likly even if fed on alot of shell food the teeth will still need trimming. Basically you add a very small amount of clove oil to the tank and i puts them asleep then you trim them with nail clippers i think.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

Basically you add a very small amount of clove oil to the tank and i puts them asleep then you trim them with nail clippers i think.

sorry to bust on you ginge, but that explanation is so simplified that it's actually inaccurate. this is a run-down on how i trim teeth.

• you'll need two things of water (about the size of a cool-whip container or a plastic butter tub) and a pair of medium-quality cuticle trimmers (get them at the local beauty supply store)
• fill each of tub with tank water, to 2"-3" deep. make sure there's plenty of water to cover the puffer completely
• add a couple of drops of clove oil to one container (about 1 drop per cup); try to avoid getting any oil on your fingers.
• stir the water up so that the oil is pretty evenly dispersed.
• capture the puffer (net and a small cup) and release him in the water with the oil
• you'll need to watch this part carefully. he'll probably thrash around for a few minutes then start to calm down. very shortly after calming, he'll start to drift or tilt a bit in the water.
• pick the puffer up at this point (i hold mine in a net) and trim off the excess tooth growth. try not to rush it and if your hands won't steady, just let it slide for a couple more days. you'll want to be careful not to damage the puffer's face.
• after the trim, place the puffer in the other tub of clean water. the clean water should "wake" him up; i generally keep it in a dimly lit area for this part to reduce the stress.
• once the puffer starts moving around a bit, re-release him into the main tank. he'll probably lay low for a couple of hours and may sulk for a day or so, but if he's swimming around at all, he'll be fine

really, trimming the teeth is more nerve-wracking (for both owner and puffer) than it is difficult. some good ways of reducing the need to trim include feeding harder foods such as sinking carnivore wafers/pellets, feeding lots and lots of snails, and keeping the puffer on flaked substrates such as Wardley's Ceramic Pond Soil or Seachem's Laterite.

frankly, i don't trim mine until it's obvious that puffer is having trouble eating anything but soggy flakes and bloodworms because its very difficult for me to trim them when the teeth are any shorter. that used to be about every 4 months on a flake-diet on standard gravel. once i swapped over to a sinking diet on the ceramic pond soil and even when i kept him in a flourite tank, the teeth never reached a length in need of trimming in at least a year and probably longer. i recently swapped to a sand substrate and i'm keeping an eye on him. the diet in the new tank is pretty varied, but he eats a fair amount of snails, so time will tell how well the sand substrate works.

 

[Fella]

Pica's advice is great.

The idea is, anaesthetise the fish with clovve oil, and use nail clippers to cut horizontally across the teeth. It's a simple procedure, but I'll admit the first time I was shaking a lot, and it was a stressful experience for both myself and the fish involved.

Feeding snails and tough foods are your only true hopes of keeping the teeth trimmed.

 

[nmonks]

I'll go along with what's been said and say that it is certainly do-able. The most widely quote dosage for the clove oil is 1-2 drops per litre minimum, but no more than 5 drops per litre. I've found 2 drops/l works well with SAPs.

For details there's a good article at Wet Web Media though using a drill to slice away pufferfish teeth looks pretty scary!

SAPs are often quite small, and handling any small fish requires a certain degree of gentleness otherwise you could damage its internal organs. For this reason, like Pica says, it's a good idea to avoid tooth trimming for as long possible.

I did a dry run before actually trimming first time. I dipped the fish in the clove oil to make it sleepy, and then returned it to the tank to see how quickly it woke up. This gave me confidence in the basic procedure before I started messing about with clippers.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[sjcneedshelp321]

so just as soon as you can see it having difficulty eating this needs to be done? and is it essential to file? if i just cut it will it leave the little guy with sharp corners that will be painful to it? (like when you chip a tooth and its really painful in your cheek) what size do you trim to? sorry if im not making much sense here guys.
Thanks,
sam

 

[Dude]

arnt the teeth hard like our teeth? what happens if you dont cut them ?

 

[Fella]

arnt the teeth hard like our teeth? what happens if you dont cut them ?

The fish becomes unable to eat, and starves.

And they're hard, but because they're thin they're like clipping fingernails.

 

[nmonks]

Cutting pufferfish teeth is probably more scary in anticipation than in actually doing. It isn't actually hard to do. You'll know when you need to do it because the puffer can't swallow properly. One SAP I bought was at that point and bloodworms would get impaled on the teeth and he could neither spit them out or swallow them.

On the flip side, sandy substrates seem to help. I haven't figured out how or why, but I get away with trimming the teeth twice a year, if that. It may be the sand abrades the teeth as the puffer picks out food. Or, the baby Malayan livebearing snails in the sand give the teeth a really good "work out" when the puffer is foraging for snacks.

Some folks have had luck smearing food (like shrimp meat) into lava rock, and the puffer abrades its teeth while pulling out the food. Certainly worth a shot. Some puffers even take to those hard algae wafers, and those probably help, too.

I don't file the teeth. A simple clip is all that's needed. Less is more. Have you ever clipped the claws on a cat or dog? it's the same principle: you need to cut the dead outer part and leave the growing part (with nerves and blood vessels) alone.

Another issue with SAPs is that they are very highly strung. You want to get the whole operation down ASAP, and then return them to the aquarium (preferably with the lights out so they can recover peacefully). While SAPs are, in my opinion, easily the hardiest of all the freshwater puffers, they do have their limits and nervous shocks are among them. if they go bananas and throw themselves into the glass or up at the hood, I've seen them bruise themselves and die within a few days.

Cheers,

Neale