Filing down a puffer's teeth?!

[Microcosmos]

Hello everyone!

I was just wondering, what do you do for a puffer that won't scrape LR to file its own teeth down? I have a tiny toby/sharpnose puffer who is now literally long in the tooth and I think it could use some filing.

Has anybody actually done this? If so, how? I don't want to traumatize the little beastie, but I don't want it to get to the point that it can't eat, either.

Ideas?

Thanks!

 

[leftovers]

im trying find the sarcasm in this post....i wouldnt recommend filing your fishes teeth...if anything provide meatier or tougher foods or hold off feeding a few days to see if it will start doing what it does naturally...

 

[Anonymous]

im trying find the sarcasm in this post....i wouldnt recommend filing your fishes teeth...if anything provide meatier or tougher foods or hold off feeding a few days to see if it will start doing what it does naturally...

Actually its a pretty well documented procedure and one rather often talked about amongst puffer owners.

The person to seek out is 'The Puffer Queen" aka Kelly Jedlicki

Great place for puffer questions I hear is: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/

 

[Anonymous]

Spot on Gresh, she has step by step instructions on that site.

 

[Anonymous]

What Gresham said.

I've never done it but as far as I understand it's a pretty straightforward process, you just need to MS-222 the fish and grind the teeth away with a Dremel tool.

If it's already to the point they need to be filed down it may be too late, but you can help this from reoccurring with preventative maintenance. I found a pretty easy way to keep them worn down was to feed the puffer by dropping medium sized sinking pellets into crushed coral rubble and rock fragments. You can even create a little feeding station if you like. When the food sinks into the rubble he will bite at the hard chunks to get at the food and then spit out the rubble. This was with a dogface puffer that I kept for 8 years without needing to ever file down its teeth. Obviously treats of crab leg, snail, clam and mussel in the shell will help too.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's the article:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_2/ ... uffer2.htm

I believe MS-222 is available for hobbyists from www.aquaticeco.com

 

[Microcosmos]

Thanks so much for the help you guys are awesome!!! I'll definitely post again here if/when I decide/figure out the best and cheapest way to do it!

 

[Elliott]

wow, I thought this was a joke!