Apprentice fish dentist

Ello folks,

Just thought id share my little personal exp. my blue spot toby was becoming frightfully thin, cause? Her ever growing teeth had reached a point she could barely open her mouth.

After having called several vets here in geneva to see if anyone could help me with the dilemma but to no avail, i decided to bite the bullet and operate myself.

After having (easily) netted her by luring her with a shrimp i grabbed her and using a small nail cutter i clipped her teeth back. She puffed up as soon as she felt the cutters in her mouth not before....poor thing, though mine didnt i think i read somewhere that they could make noise if threatened? anyone ever whiteness this?

All in all it took less that 2 mins and once placed back in the tank she deflated right away. now she is back to beasting on large chunks of food again (sooooo happy).

So yea its an operation thats easily doable, if you have the opportunity to do it by a professional by all means do so but dont let them starve to death thats worse than trying to do something imo.

Oh also very important, im no vet so to make sure not to hit any nerves or damage her mouth i cut her teeth about half way. This means ill have to cut them again in about a couple months time

 

K+ for making the effort.

FWIW, feeding crustaceans with the shell attached will help keep her teeth worn down naturally. That's how they do it in the wild.

 

Hope he fattens up again! Nice job!

My puffer has no problem eating, he often picks at the live rock... don't know exactly what he's after but I don't mind.
He's broke 1/2 of his tooth\beak twice in the past before too!
Little bugger is getting bolder and bolder, he tried to take a chunk out of me last week but couldn't get any skin on the flat part of my hand, good thing!

 

A++ good job.

 

*shakes hand* Good job.

 

Hmmm.

Let us know how it turns out in the long run.

 

Glad you bit the bullet and saved his life.

+1 on getting some hard shelled food items in there for him to eat.

 

Been about 4 days since i cut her teeth back and it seems her belly is filling up nicely again

 

Amazing post.

Kudos to you !

 

Truly remarkable. Due to the foods they normally eat, their teeth continuously grow throughout their lives, similar to rats, beavers, and other rodents.

+1 to providing shelled foods, especially clams/oysters if she'll eat them.

FWIW I've never had a toby, but I've caught puffers before and some grunt when you catch them, like a croaker or spot (for those that fish).