Trimming Puffer Teeth

[Sharkbait19]

Hi,
I currently have a valentini puffer in quarantine and its teeth are extremely long—not so much that it can’t eat, but its mouth stays open and the top and bottom beaks overlap. I was considering trimming the teeth before moving it into the display tank, but was wondering what the overall procedure was on doing so. My experience on puffer teeth trimming is only with freshwater puffers, so wanted to make sure that the overall protocol was the same. Is clove oil still the popular sedation method, or is there a different commercially available option?
Thanks!

 

[KrisReef]

My dentist uses Nitrous Oxide but I have no experience with puffer sedation.

Please post some video or pictures when you do this.

My kids may need some work....

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi,
I currently have a valentini puffer in quarantine and its teeth are extremely long—not so much that it can’t eat, but its mouth stays open and the top and bottom beaks overlap. I was considering trimming the teeth before moving it into the display tank, but was wondering what the overall procedure was on doing so. My experience on puffer teeth trimming is only with freshwater puffers, so wanted to make sure that the overall protocol was the same. Is clove oil still the popular sedation method, or is there a different commercially available option?
Thanks!

I've worked with using a dremel tool to grind down the teeth of fish, but I always used MS-222 as an anesthetic to do that work. Here is a write-up I did on that:

Tooth issues​

Some species of fish develop dental problems in captivity. In most cases, this issue seems to stem from a lack of proper feeding activity that would otherwise keep the teeth worn down to a proper length. This problem is most often seen in pufferfish but can crop up in knifejaws and parrotfish – or any fish that feeds by grinding their teeth against a substrate to obtain food. This issue can be avoided by feeding the fish some food item that causes them to use their teeth to grind a substrate in order to obtain their food. For example, food items can be imbedded in plaster of Paris, and then allow the fish to graze on that, causing the teeth to be ground down during the process. If the tooth growth has already occurred, it may reach a point where the fish is unable to close their mouth properly, and this in turn can result in anorexia. In these cases, sedating the fish and manually grinding the teeth down (in stages) can resolve the problem.

Kelly Jedlecki, the "puffer queen" wrote an article on puffer dentistry:

by Kelly Jedlicki and Anthony Calfo

Jay

 

[Sharkbait19]

My dentist uses Nitrous Oxide but I have no experience with puffer sedation.

Please post some video or pictures when you do this.

My kids may need some work....

Here’s from when I did it with my amazons:

 

[Sharkbait19]

I've worked with using a dremel tool to grind down the teeth of fish, but I always used MS-222 as an anesthetic to do that work. Here is a write-up I did on that:

Tooth issues​

Some species of fish develop dental problems in captivity. In most cases, this issue seems to stem from a lack of proper feeding activity that would otherwise keep the teeth worn down to a proper length. This problem is most often seen in pufferfish but can crop up in knifejaws and parrotfish – or any fish that feeds by grinding their teeth against a substrate to obtain food. This issue can be avoided by feeding the fish some food item that causes them to use their teeth to grind a substrate in order to obtain their food. For example, food items can be imbedded in plaster of Paris, and then allow the fish to graze on that, causing the teeth to be ground down during the process. If the tooth growth has already occurred, it may reach a point where the fish is unable to close their mouth properly, and this in turn can result in anorexia. In these cases, sedating the fish and manually grinding the teeth down (in stages) can resolve the problem.

Kelly Jedlecki, the "puffer queen" wrote an article on puffer dentistry:

by Kelly Jedlicki and Anthony Calfo

Jay

Thanks Jay!
The puffer is no bigger than 2 inches, so I’d probably have to use cuticle clippers.
Do you know if marine puffers vs fw puffers have any differences when it comes to sedation, or do the same rules apply?

 

[Reefering1]

Can't imagine this need to be done on a 2" fish. Isn't there something he can chew on and get it ground down more naturally?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Can't imagine this need to be done on a 2" fish. Isn't there something he can chew on and get it ground down more naturally?

Once I get him into the dt he should have plenty to graze on. Really I’m just planning ahead for if I need to.
For amazons (fw puffers), their beaks generally grow too fast to be maintained with food alone.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

oh boy. I have a puffer. nothing to trim but this is going to get very interesting when I need to do this.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks Jay!
The puffer is no bigger than 2 inches, so I’d probably have to use cuticle clippers.
Do you know if marine puffers vs fw puffers have any differences when it comes to sedation, or do the same rules apply?

No real difference in sedation except the in using MS-222, you need to buffer it better if you use it on FW fish.