Sap Teeth

[matt28781]

i have a south american puffer about 2" i know they have fast growing teeth but i cant get him to eat snails or krill as to keep them trimed so what do i do

i mean how will i know when they get to big and it must be hard to triml teeth on a 3" fish iv trimed teeth on a ceylon but never anything that small.

advice welcome

 

[Fella]

It's unheard of for an SAP (or any puffer really) to not eat live snails. Are the water parameters all ok and everything else ok with the fish?


You'll know when to trim because the fish will look goofy, and be unable to eat. It's very obvious when it needs doing.

 

[matt28781]

It's unheard of for an SAP (or any puffer really) to not eat live snails. Are the water parameters all ok and everything else ok with the fish?


You'll know when to trim because the fish will look goofy, and be unable to eat. It's very obvious when it needs doing.

the puffer is in a 30gallon all alone all paramaters are 0 i think 0.25 nitrate there are a few snails in the tank incuding a few baby apple snails tiny ones hes just not interested in them.......

not to disagree but i think alot of ppl have probems with puffers eating shelled foods especially the ones that are tank bred thats why teeth triming is needed

 

[Fella]

It's unheard of for an SAP (or any puffer really) to not eat live snails. Are the water parameters all ok and everything else ok with the fish?


You'll know when to trim because the fish will look goofy, and be unable to eat. It's very obvious when it needs doing.

the puffer is in a 30gallon all alone all paramaters are 0 i think 0.25 nitrate there are a few snails in the tank incuding a few baby apple snails tiny ones hes just not interested in them.......

not to disagree but i think alot of ppl have probems with puffers eating shelled foods especially the ones that are tank bred thats why teeth triming is needed

SAP's that are offered in LFS's are not tank bred. They will be wild caught.

If you want to get him to automatically eat snails, crush one against the side of the glass first. If he still won't eat snails (which would be very unusual, shelled molluscs are their natural diet in the wild) then switch to cockles in shells. You can get a bag full for not too much money at your local fish store.

 

[nmonks]

Have to admit, my SAPs don't really care much for snails, especially not if other foods are available. But they do like small pond snails once in a while. All they do is bite off the foot and leave the shell, so I'm not sure they do much good. Having said that, my specimens get their teeth trimmed once a year, if that. Having a population of Malayan livebearing snails is (in my opinion) the reason for this. The SAPs eat the tiny baby snails rather than the adults, and eat them more as a snack than a meal. But in foraging in the silica sand for them, I think their teeth get worn down.

I'm cautious about trimming the teeth of very small SAPs. These puffers can freak out when stressed or handled too much, and if they throw themselves about, they can bruise themselves on the glass, and this kills one of mine within a day or two, and I've heard of others who have had the same problem. Anyway, I know some people don't approve of Malayan livebearing snails as pufferfish food, but I can't say that I've experienced any problems.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Fella]

This is a photo of my first ever puffer destroying a pond snail. It just goes to show all puffers are different. No 2 puffers are ever the same!

 

[nmonks]

Mine will eat those small Physa spp. snails, but not the shells. Just the meat.

Yes, they're all different. One of mine eats flake and green peas! The other one likes woodlice!

Cheers, Neale

 

[Fella]

Mine will eat those small Physa spp. snails, but not the shells. Just the meat.

Yes, they're all different. One of mine eats flake and green peas! The other one likes woodlice!

Cheers, Neale

I have a figure 8 puffer that eats ANY pre-prepared food I offer it, algae pellets, flake, etc. I was shocked to see him do it first time round!

If you look closely on the substrate, you can see that SAP destroyed the snails to the point where he ate at least some of the shells.

 

[hellohefalump]

When I had to trim Philip's teeth (SAP) I used to anaesthetise him first with clove oil. That way he couldn't thrash around, or puff with air. I think I used to use one drop per pint of water (CHECK THIS). I used half of what was recommended (i think 1 drop per half pint) because philip would take rather a long time to come back around afterwards and it was scary. It worked well.

At first Philip wouldn't take snails, but I perservered by crushing them first and he soon got used to the idea and eventually they wouldnt' need to be crushed, he'd take them whole.

 

[DarkEntity]

My T Turgidus wouldnt touch snails, where my Salivators will happily decimate them