Is my porcupine dying?

[Enzo]

Hi, I've had a porcupine puffer for about 9 months so far and he has been doing fantastic till today. For the last nine months I have been only feeding him krill because that was all he would eat. I tried everything else but he only wanted krill. He has always had a voracious apitite for krill. Today he went at the krill like normal, but he couldn't seem to bite it. He kept going for it but he couldn't bite down on it. I think that his jaw might have overgrown from the lack of shells in his diet, but krill still does have a shell. Although he usually does swallow it. I tried feeding him some brine to see if he'd take that, since it's smaller and it might grind down his teeth again, but he won't take that. COuld it be the fact that his jaw has overgrown? If so, How will I help him, or can I do anything. This is my most favorite fish ever I surely don't want him to die knowing that I couldn't do anything about it. Thank you

 

[Anonymous]

Puffers and other toothy fish in this group (boxfish, some triggers) can have their teeth grow too long if not provided with hard food.

I would maybe try hand feeding him something soft temporarily and look up procedures for filing their teeth down. There is a woman who is a puffer fan who wrote up a piece on it somewhere - if I find it I'll post a link here. Maybe not the easiest thing to do but you might be able to find someone at a reef club or the LFS or even a vet that may be able to help.

Try some whole cocktail shrimp in the shell maybe ? Sounds like at this point the tooth problem has gotten pretty severe.

 

[Enzo]

he seems to be keeping his mouth open all the time. Which I have been told is a sign that hte puffers mouth is to large. And I did have snails and such in the tank for him. He won't take any other food also. I heard I should use a drop or two of clove oil per liter to make the puffer fall asleep then cut there teeth with clippers. Will clove oil be dangerous to the puffers health

 

[Terry B]

I don't know about using clippers or how the teeth are filed down, but yours is a typical story. Long term captive puffers that eat only krill will eventiually die because thier teeth grow to long. They need to eat things that wear the teeth down a bit. You should look for help at a public aquarium. Someone there may know how to perform denistry on your fish.
Terry B

 

[Puffer Queen]

The arothron family of puffers are prone to overgrown teeth. The diodon family is not prone to overgrown teeth. In my 12 plus years raising puffers, I have never seen a diodon with overgrown teeth. I perform dentistry routinely on several of my arothrons. (see www.lmas.org - tank tour link, then Kelly Jedlicki to see some pics).

Your scenario of porci eating krill only & developing "lock jaw" or inability to eat is a common scenario. I receive numerous emails a year with this same scenario. You can read others plight with this problem on www.wetwebmedia.com. I firmly believe it is a dietary issue that has caused this problem not teeth overgrown. Krill alone does not supply all the nutrients, vitamins & minerals that a puffer needs. Therefore a deficiency occurs which leads to a disease or ailment. This phenomenon is not just confined to the animal world, but humans suffer when fed a limited diet.

You can try force feeding (insert a feeding tube) a blenderized shrimp/squid flurry with extra vitamins & see if you can try to reverse this ailment. It may take several days to weeks to reverse...........after all it has taken several months to develop. Good Luck with your puffer friend!

 

[Enzo]

Umm well I bought this clove bud stuff... but I'm not sure if I should use it. It's from Aura Cacia, and is suppose to be for aroma therapy. SHould I use this? Or should I just try to grab him and then cut his teeth and hope for the best?