Valentini Puffer teeth problems

[ajroc31]

I swear this hobby is quickly becoming a nightmare. If its not one thing, its another. Now, its my Valentini and his teeth. At first they were really jacked up, it looked like someone punched him in the mouth. That thing looked ugly. Now he stopped eating, and I am wondering if its from a 'lock-jaw' that I have been reading here about. He is acting fine, does not seem stressed, but his mouth is closed, meaning his teeth are not showing, but he is not eating. It seem that his condition changed very quickly. He was jacked up for about a month, and now over the past few days it changed. I tried harder food, but he is not interested. I have never seen him eat a snail, or a crab, not even pick at the rocks. Should I get him a cheap hard coral to chew on, or anything of that sort? Please let me know, I would hate to see the poor thing starve to death.

 

[aquaknight]

Canthigaster puffers do not have 'beaks' like porcupine or dogface puffers, but instead, more of like 'plate' like teeth. From what I've gathered they don't need to be constantly 'worked down' like the bigger puffers. But they do still need to have challenging foods to work the muscles/etc out to stay healthy.
I've also noticed that Canthigaster puffers are far from the 'smartest' fish, when it comes to avoidance. When trying to be caught they literally will fly full speed into any and everything to try escape. So a mouth injury isn't remarkably surprising.
Can you maybe get a picture of him up? They shouldn't be hard at all to get eating. Have you tried silversides? Cut a smaller silverside into about 1/4" chunks. They're my Blue Dot's favorite food.

 

[ajroc31]

Thanks for awesome help, I was little suprised to see him with mouth problems, considering I had a Valenitin before, and never seen anything like it. I will try the silversides today, thanks again.