puffers beak

ryan

ryan

Member
I have a Valentini Puffer thats beak is starting to grow pretty large. I feed him unpeeled shrimp often, but it doesnt help. I have also tried clams and mussels barely cracked hoping he would eat some of the shell, but he wont take a bite unless he can get to the meat. Ive also tried it with the shell uncracked. no luck. I feed him pellets quite often and he has a hard time getting some of them into his mouth now. Any suggestions?
 
rainmaker6

rainmaker6

Member
Try feeding snails, such as Ramshorns. They won't live long in marine, so remove any uneaten ones. Other than that you can perform the dentistry yourself. Put a few drops of clove oil in a bucket of tankwater and introduce the puffer. After he is anethesized (sp), remove him and trim the teeth with cuticle scissors. Revive in tank water and then re-introduce to the tank. More stressful to you than the fish.
 
ryan

ryan

Member
I have a ramshorns snail in my freshwater tank thats eating all my live plants. How conveinant (cant spell). If this doesnt work though Clove Oil? Can you buy this at a grocery store? Also it seems very stressful to the fish. Have you ever tried this and it worked?
 
rainmaker6

rainmaker6

Member
I have not personally tried this, no need to. I feed my puff a snail a day and it seems to be working so far. I have read multiple accounts of that surgery being done, though. e-mail me wetwillie25@hotmail.com and I can send you the links.
 
pufferman

pufferman

Member
Shrimp shells are not hard enough to file down your puffer's teeth. The best way to do so is to feed him small fiddler crabs (live or dead) or claws from prawns. The only problem is they're less frequently sold than other frozen seafood. They're much harder than shrimp shells, but not as much as snail shells. They're almost impossible to crunch for a small toby. Hopefully this will help you!
 
unleashed

unleashed

Active Member
wow alot of puffer feeding question these days..are you useing cc or live sand? I found with my puffer he liked to chew on the cc daily he did this he would get so much in his mouth it would shoot out of his gills.but i never had a tooth problem with him they always seemed to stay small.so if your not using cc i suggest putting some in your tank I know most feel cc isnt as efffective bio filter butif it will save from costly dental work on him or painful filing techniques I myself think it was worth it.i would even suggest just putting some in it with your sand.
 
ryan

ryan

Member
Yes I got the mail. Thank you thats a great link you sent. I picked up some of the small snails last night. The fish store gave me a bunch of them so my fw tank can now be overpopulated with them. If that doesnt work I will be doing the clove oil thing sometime within the next couple weeks. Ill keep you posted on how that goes.
 
ryan

ryan

Member
Thank you Rainmaker. I just got done putting my puffer to sleep and trimming its teeth. Very easy process. Just put him back into the tank about 30 min. ago. He is swimming around like nothing happened. Took about 1 min. for him to go to sleep 1 min for the clipping, and 1 min. before he woke up and started swimming again.
 
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