# Trimming puffer teeth/beaks & clove oil?



## pat3612 (Mar 24, 2008)

Hi hope this should help have to do mine today to. Go to www.thepufferforum.com at the top click on Learn then click on library do a search on cutting teeth A dentistry article will come up . Its a little scary first time you do it but dont worry youll get use to it. You just have to get the stuff for toothaches. hope this helps let me know how it gos.


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## seAdams (Jun 2, 2008)

You can get the pure clove oil at most pharmacies. It comes in a very small bottle. It's quite costly, but will last a very long time.

It's not possible to get live snails for your puffers to eat? You could breed pond snails in another tank and have a constant supply!:icon_smil


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/hospital/dentistry/

BTW.... This is going down as one of the top five classic posts. How to cut your fish's teeth. Awesome.

Subscribed and added to favorites.


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Honestly though... how hardcore is that to go at some puffer teeth with a dremmel? That would make me slightly nervous to say the least. 

"This process can also be used on larger puffers. You will need a much larger container and a Dremmel tool for trimming."


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## Valthenya (Feb 15, 2009)

on another hand i know my local fish store trims puffer teeth so you could try that..


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## rich815 (May 21, 2008)

I have a leopard puffer with long fangs now. In fact so long a large tuft of BBA grew on one of them! No kidding. A guy at the LFS trimmed it off for me. Still a small green spot on his right tooth but it's not growing now. It was starting to cover his head! 

I've been feeding him more dried krill which he goes after but does not seem to relish and he sometimes gives up. I have him in a separate tank and pop in ramshorn snails but he does not seem to eat them, only occasionally pecking them in a lazy fashion, and so now a big colony of snails lives with him. Otherwise I feed him frozen hikari red worms which he loves. 

Should I "starve" him to get him to go after the snails? Man, my little dwarf puffers used to eat the snail so fast it was scary. This guy no.


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## pat3612 (Mar 24, 2008)

I would cut down on the other foods puffers are renowned for being pigs also remember that you want the snails small enough that they have to eat them not just suck them out of the shell . Some puffers teeth just seem to grow no matter what you do .I only feed mine shrimp as a treat.


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## defiantk (Oct 17, 2006)

pat3612 said:


> Hi hope this should help have to do mine today to. Go to www.thepufferforum.com at the top click on Learn then click on library do a search on cutting teeth A dentistry article will come up . Its a little scary first time you do it but dont worry youll get use to it. You just have to get the stuff for toothaches. hope this helps let me know how it gos.


I just check it out and was very helpful, I'll let you know how its goes. Did yours turn out okay?




seAdams said:


> You can get the pure clove oil at most pharmacies. It comes in a very small bottle. It's quite costly, but will last a very long time.
> 
> It's not possible to get live snails for your puffers to eat? You could breed pond snails in another tank and have a constant supply!:icon_smil


I wasn't aware it was available pure. And they actually get ALOT of snails, atleast 5 a week. Have mounts of snails but they still have grown out of control.



Valthenya said:


> on another hand i know my local fish store trims puffer teeth so you could try that..


Good point, I'll ask. Would be excellent to watch first hand. Either way I need to learn (moving far away from any shops soon)



pat3612 said:


> Some puffers teeth just seem to grow no matter what you do .I only feed mine shrimp as a treat.


Same here

Thanks everyone! Learned alot roud:


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## infopimp (Dec 21, 2008)

Finquel (the anesthetic) worked great on my SAPs... they just roll over... you clip, drop em back in non medicated water and they wake up.

Then they are drowsy for a bit but seem happy. I clip when my puffers can't let go of their food - that's my cue.


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## aubtheis (Sep 2, 2015)

So I am preparing to cut my 2'' long GSP, and as I was preparing the solution, I realized that the clove oil and water do not mix very well, (which is obvious since any oil and water don't mix) I was wondering how much that matters, and how that will affect my fish?

Thanks!


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## Betta132 (Nov 29, 2012)

You have to put a bit of clove oil in a bottle with a bit of water, shake it really hard until you don't see oil droplets on the surface, and then add that to the bucket of water you're anesthetizing the fish in.


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