HELP...Porcupine Puffer will not eat

[nataliem]

I am wondering if anyone has a cure or an idea of what I can about a puffer with Lock Jaw?
I rescued my Puffer from the LFS where he got his "addiction"

to krill. He was badly bitten when I got him and very white looking.
Since then ( 6 months approx) he has gotten darker and his fins have all healed, however he still would only eat krill. I have tried everything to get him off the stuff but everything I give is just spit back at me.
Just recently about 4 days ago he started acting funny. He would beg for food as usual and when I would feed him he would bite at it and miss. Then atack at the food again and just grab a tiny bit ( if anything) I have heard from several people that it may be lock Jaw, but he will still eat if I break it into smaill bitesize peices. and sometimes he is able to bite at it and spit it out.
He has a funny mouth (which was like that when I bought him) it is kinda slanted as if he had a stroke or something, but it has never really stopped him from eating.
I also have some of the crabs and shrimps disapear recently (which he has never been interrested in) and I was thinking he was maybe hunting them at night (cause there were no shells left or anything). So I was thinking there could be a possiblilty that he hurt his teeth from biting on them. or maybe he just needed his teeth filed down.
Anyways I am starting to really worry. I hope that I caught it early enough to fix. Does this sound like lock Jaw or anything else? I need advice ASAP.
Thanks..

 

[beth]

How are his teeth looking? Puffers typically need to chomp down on hard surfaced foods to keep their teeth filed down.
I'm going to move your topic to the Aggressive Forum, where you should get more insight from people who keep puffers.

 

[usirchchris]

From what I have read you can try to force feed the puffer, but more often than not once the symptoms become visible it is an irreversible condition. Definately do not offer any more krill...not being sarcastic, but one may try this if that is all it has been eating. I have read accounts of people force feeding lion fish...never a puffer...using tweezers to open the mouth, then inserting a tube forced down the throat so to speak and injecting vitamin enriched foods...I have never tried this, and don't know that I would have the "nerve" to do so, but you may

...My only suggestion is to try and do google searches on puffer lock jaw, and see what you may find.

 

[beth]

I re-copied this topic back to the disease forum, and also left a copy of the topic in the Aggressive Forum, which is where you will find the most people who have experience with puffers. I agree that lockjaw is nearly always irreversible, but I have no direct experience with pufferfish.
Pufferfish must routinely chomp down on shelled seafoods for the health of their teeth and mouth, as well as overall nutritional needs. The use of a single food is not healthy under any circumstances. You may try target feeding him, using a turkey baster. Keep an eye out for the topic in Aggressive as well.

 

[nataliem]

I have been worrying about his teeth since I got him. I thought up untill yesterday that I was going to have to try some "DIY" Dentistry, but the more I searched the web the more I found that Porcupine puffers tend to not have teeth problems because they don't have the same type of teeth as other puffers. But I still can't be sure.
I went home yesterday and tried to feed him some frozen blood worms to see if he would go for it. (which he always turned his nose too before) And he actually suprised me and ate them up! I gave him a whole second helping because I was so happy! He still seemed to have problems opening his mouth, but at least this is a good sign!
I am still worried that he does have lock jaw because he would see his reflection and try to bite at the glass but his mouth wouldn't fully open.
If anyone knows anything about lock jaw, or any other ideas of what I could try, that would be great!
Thanks!

 

[kjr_trig]

Thats great that he ate some.
Have you ever tried clams for him? Maybe start with one on the "half shell" straight from the fish market, need to get him on a better diet somehow.
Sorry I don't know about the long term effects or if lockjaw is cureable.