my tiger shovelnoses' nose?

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ntxhuav1

Feeder Fish
Jan 4, 2008
2
0
0
Moreno Valley, CA
When i first bought the lil guy about 3 inches, his head reminded me of an alligator's head...kinda cool lookin. He's about 7 inches now and has a huge appetite and healthy...but what i don't get is, from his eyes to the tip of his mouth, it curves downwards? He don't look like an alligator no more, it looks more like some kinda parrot or something.

Is this normal? I've seen bigger tiger shovelnoses and they don't look like that. Is it just a temporary thing? Are they like that at a certain stage in their life then it starts becoming straight again or what? Or maybe he's just deformed? Or maybe something in his diet? I've tried different things but his favorite are feeder goldfish and ruby reds.

Anyone know?
 
Small TSN's look just like the big ones. it's hard to tell from just a description but it sounds to me like you have a deformed fish. As loas as he/she's eating well and happy I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Tank Monster.JPG
 
ntxhuav1;1406359; said:
When i first bought the lil guy about 3 inches, his head reminded me of an alligator's head...kinda cool lookin. He's about 7 inches now and has a huge appetite and healthy...but what i don't get is, from his eyes to the tip of his mouth, it curves downwards? He don't look like an alligator no more, it looks more like some kinda parrot or something.

Is this normal? I've seen bigger tiger shovelnoses and they don't look like that. Is it just a temporary thing? Are they like that at a certain stage in their life then it starts becoming straight again or what? Or maybe he's just deformed? Or maybe something in his diet? I've tried different things but his favorite are feeder goldfish and ruby reds.

Anyone know?
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Do you have a picture of it?
 
It may be that he hit the side of the tank and bent his nose. It may or may not heal back to normal depending on the fish. But I wouldn't worry about it, it adds to the fish's personality.
 
Mystus Redtail;1407074; said:
It may be that he hit the side of the tank and bent his nose. It may or may not heal back to normal depending on the fish. But I wouldn't worry about it, it adds to the fish's personality.
Click to expand...

Doubt it. These fish are not culled because it takes a while for it to be noticible. I have one that had this curvature along with missing pelvic fins from the time it was 2". Here's my pics. He's now 20". Probably would be 22" if not for the curvature. The most recent pics are from the pond so it's hard to tell but you can see that it gets worse with age as his lower jaw protrudes where it didn't before. Still eats more than any fish I own though. I call him lumpy. Never had a thing wrong with him besides the obvious.

new fish 004.jpg

new fish 105.jpg

new house fish 305.jpg

seaworld yaya 310.jpg
 
Also this is the least skittish tsn I have ever owned. I can pet him and hand feed him.
 
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