Here’s a fts
Forgive the reflection (at least it distracts from the hair algae lol)
Forgive the reflection (at least it distracts from the hair algae lol)
Deadeye’s Amazon Puffer Thread
- Thread starter Deadeye
- Start date
Another sad update.
Lost Huey to what appears to have been internal parasites or myco, still not sure which… the white molly also is looking off.
Down to one puffer, but I plan to bring the school back up once I figure out this issue.
Lost Huey to what appears to have been internal parasites or myco, still not sure which… the white molly also is looking off.
Down to one puffer, but I plan to bring the school back up once I figure out this issue.
Some good news:
I finally accomplished what it took me 6 months of procrastinating to do - clip teeth.
It went about how I expected it to go, but hey, I didn’t kill him.
I attempted to sedate the puffer with clove oil, but when I couldn’t fit my smallest net into the sedation “tank” to remove him (turns out a solo cup is quite small) I panicked and dumped the cup into a net and into the tank of freshwater. He was still out cold though so I had a chance to cut teeth.
It took me at least 5-10 minutes to figure out (and I wound up turning the cuticle clippers upside down to do it) how to cut the teeth. By that point he had woken up. He was still a bit groggy at first so I could cut them well enough. I managed to get one tooth and half of the other, not sure if I even hit the bottom teeth, but I didn’t see any on him anyway. He started moving around too much at that point and I figured one tooth is better than a cut lip (ya wanna know…how I got these scars).
Finished product:
Hardest part was really catching him. Manzanita wood oriented like a root system looks great but is a PITA when trying to catch a fish.
I finally accomplished what it took me 6 months of procrastinating to do - clip teeth.
It went about how I expected it to go, but hey, I didn’t kill him.
I attempted to sedate the puffer with clove oil, but when I couldn’t fit my smallest net into the sedation “tank” to remove him (turns out a solo cup is quite small) I panicked and dumped the cup into a net and into the tank of freshwater. He was still out cold though so I had a chance to cut teeth.
It took me at least 5-10 minutes to figure out (and I wound up turning the cuticle clippers upside down to do it) how to cut the teeth. By that point he had woken up. He was still a bit groggy at first so I could cut them well enough. I managed to get one tooth and half of the other, not sure if I even hit the bottom teeth, but I didn’t see any on him anyway. He started moving around too much at that point and I figured one tooth is better than a cut lip (ya wanna know…how I got these scars).
Finished product:
Hardest part was really catching him. Manzanita wood oriented like a root system looks great but is a PITA when trying to catch a fish.
Congrats! I consider that very daring of you (I have never had puffers).
So, from here forward, how does one decide if it went well or not, and in particular, whether more cutting of more (or the same) teeth is needed? How does a recently 'trimmed' puffer perform in feeding, or how does one decide if he is 'fine'?
In the wild, presumably the teeth get worn with the routine feeding they do. Can that process be mimicked in captivity? Are people generally providing a proper diet? (one that offers appropriate nutrition, but also tooth wearing)?
Thanks for sharing!
So, from here forward, how does one decide if it went well or not, and in particular, whether more cutting of more (or the same) teeth is needed? How does a recently 'trimmed' puffer perform in feeding, or how does one decide if he is 'fine'?
In the wild, presumably the teeth get worn with the routine feeding they do. Can that process be mimicked in captivity? Are people generally providing a proper diet? (one that offers appropriate nutrition, but also tooth wearing)?
Thanks for sharing!
This is my first try ever with this, I guess the best way to tell if it worked is if the teeth were cut without injuring the puffer. I’ve seen some horror stories where the lips get cut up. The puffer is swimming around like norma now, so I guess it went well. Usually you want to get the teeth as short as possible so it takes as long as possible before they grow back.
The teeth are similar to rodents or to a bird’s beak. It continuously grows, so hard foods are necessary to keep it ground down. For most species of pufferfish, the beaks can be kept well trimmed by regular feedings of hard shelled inverts: snails, crabs, clams, shrimp, crayfish, even insects, replicating their natural diets.
For some species, notably amazons and avocado puffers, their beaks grow extra fast and not even the hard food diet is enough, and routine dentistry becomes needed.
Considering both amazons and avocados are riverine species, my theory (and this is purely speculative) is that they also use a lot of energy and metabolize fast (I have noticed that the amazons look back to normal pretty fast after feeding - the bellies will swell after large meals), thus needing lots of food. To compensate for the more frequent, hard shelled foods, the teeth may have evolved to grow faster and keep up. I doubt there’s any research with that though.
The teeth are similar to rodents or to a bird’s beak. It continuously grows, so hard foods are necessary to keep it ground down. For most species of pufferfish, the beaks can be kept well trimmed by regular feedings of hard shelled inverts: snails, crabs, clams, shrimp, crayfish, even insects, replicating their natural diets.
For some species, notably amazons and avocado puffers, their beaks grow extra fast and not even the hard food diet is enough, and routine dentistry becomes needed.
Considering both amazons and avocados are riverine species, my theory (and this is purely speculative) is that they also use a lot of energy and metabolize fast (I have noticed that the amazons look back to normal pretty fast after feeding - the bellies will swell after large meals), thus needing lots of food. To compensate for the more frequent, hard shelled foods, the teeth may have evolved to grow faster and keep up. I doubt there’s any research with that though.
The puffer is currently gorging itself on an algae wafer. Only prepared food it actually eats.
Very sad to post this, but it appears that this thread has come to a close.
Cyano has slowly been creeping back, so I broke out the chemiclean again. This time I made sure to take the necessary precautions of extra aeration (courtesy of the bubbler I added after the last incident)…it wasn’t enough evidently. I lost the other 2 tetras, and sadly, my last Amazon puffer.
My theory is that in a heavily planted tank, so much O2 is being used at night by the plant, that combined with the chemiclean, it leaves nothing for the fish, and that was the leading cause of death both these times.
One thing that makes it a bit better is that with the high likelihood of mycobacterium being in the tank, this at least stopped the fish from suffering of disease.
Cyano has slowly been creeping back, so I broke out the chemiclean again. This time I made sure to take the necessary precautions of extra aeration (courtesy of the bubbler I added after the last incident)…it wasn’t enough evidently. I lost the other 2 tetras, and sadly, my last Amazon puffer.
My theory is that in a heavily planted tank, so much O2 is being used at night by the plant, that combined with the chemiclean, it leaves nothing for the fish, and that was the leading cause of death both these times.
One thing that makes it a bit better is that with the high likelihood of mycobacterium being in the tank, this at least stopped the fish from suffering of disease.
