Help With Amazon Puffers?!

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SmartySmurfs

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Hi,

I am new to the forum and this is my first post - please be gentle!!

I have 2 Amazon Puffers (Colomesus asellus ) in a sucessful 150L community tank. (one of my 3 tanks)


I am finding it difficult to feed my Puffers foods that will grind down their teeth - tried whole cockle but they did not eat them.... they prefer the bloodworm's that the other fish like - which would be fine except their teeth are now visable, and i assume from my reading / googling on them that they will keep on growing til they cannot eat.... i do not have any snails in the tank, and am reluctant to buy some snails as food, so was hoping someone could perhaps have an idea of other foods to try that may help their teeth - i am not confident enough to become their dentist, and although they were an impulse buy many months ago we are rather attached to the cheeky little things!

thanks in advance!

p.s
The tankmates:

2 red spotted severum
1 green Severum
2 blue Acara (currently sectioned off to one end of the tank with their wriggling babies)
2 silver sharks
1 3 spot Gouarmi
and my catfish John.
 
im sorry to tell you but i think you are overstocked :/ 3 severums! that will cause a lot of waste and seriously affect the water :/ And the poor fishies will get way to big for the tank.

anyway... some people just feed their puffers snails from the garden but i do not know if this could give them diseases :L
also you could feed them the frozen cubes of bloodworm so its something hard to bite on :good: or you could give them frozen prawns... this is from what i have heard off other people so i do not know if these are all the correct thing to do :/

im sure someone will help you :good: but your tank is overstocked :(
 
thanks.....:)
you say i'm overstocked?
my water is pretty spot on using the API master test kit?
 
WAY TOO OVERSTOCKED (puffers provide enough waste as it is!)!!! Ps, although amazon puffers are labeled 'community fish' sometimes, this is not really true. Some get away with it, but others find half eaten fish floating around in their tank the next day. Anyways, Amazon puffers are known for their faster growing teeth/beak than most other puffers. Usually on a good diet teeth are trimmed every 4-6 months, sometimes sooner depending on how fast yours are growing. There really is no way to not have to trim their teeth unless you have a consistent source of snails which like most puffers, their natural pray along with small crustacean and such. sooo... My recommendation would to read up on successful ways to perform dentistry which basically you need some way of sedating the fish and then just clipping their beak. Im sure there are plenty of sites, videos and other resources into how to do this as i have looked into this as well... And after you clip their teeth, id also suggest buying snails for them along with the bloodworms, because they can hunt and eat the crunchy shell of a snail to help wear away their beak while they still have a consistent source of food (the blood worms). Hope this helps, and good luck!
 
Sorry to have to tell you this, but dentistry is unavoidable. Unortunately at some point you will have to do it.
I've currently only got one SAP, started off with 2, but will hopeully be getting another 3 the weekend after next.
I've not had to clip it's teeth yet but expect to have to do so in about a month. No matter what you feed them, SAP's don't appear to wear their teeth down in aquarium.
I've kept mine in a tank with PLENTY of snails, but he/she is only interested in the flesh, not the shell. Also, not vaguely interested in prawn only frozen bloodworm.
Also what might be of interest but by no means typical, he/she has lived in a 120l tank with 9 adult guppy's. And 23 fry. With no deaths or damage.
 
welcome to the forum :good:

I;d agree your overstocked but you must be doing regular water changes to keep your readinsg low

how about getting a load of malaysian trumpet snails and see if they eat them, it may help to reduce the growth of the teeth

Simon
 
Overstocked necessarily mean too much waste, ie poor water quality. It also means, basically, your fish are too big and/or active for the size of your tank.
I'm guessing you've not had your silver sharks more than 6 months. After that amount of time you'll see what I mean.
My 2 sharks were about 2 inches 4 months ago. They'd be far too big for my 3ft tank now
 
thanks to all of you for your replies,

i have not yet not tried prawn, where can i buy these with the shell on??

I can only just see their teeth, we have had them for three months or more now... they love to pinch frozen bloodworm from a Severum (4 times the size of the puffers) and scoot off with it!

I do a water change of 25-35% weekly, using a gravel vac, sometimes i do two 15% changes a week instead, and i am a water quality test freak really - i test it three times a week AT LEAST! on all three tanks...

it doesn't look overstocked, but you have me worried now - they all seem really happy and healthy, and are very interested in life outside the tank too- asking for food in their own way when i enter the room. are you saying this will change, and i have big problems ahead?

I have seen the puffer dentistry vids on youtube - i'd worry about giving too much sedation the fish or harming them in some way :(
 
thanks to all of you for your replies,

i have not yet not tried prawn, where can i buy these with the shell on??

I can only just see their teeth, we have had them for three months or more now... they love to pinch frozen bloodworm from a Severum (4 times the size of the puffers) and scoot off with it!

I do a water change of 25-35% weekly, using a gravel vac, sometimes i do two 15% changes a week instead, and i am a water quality test freak really - i test it three times a week AT LEAST! on all three tanks...

it doesn't look overstocked, but you have me worried now - they all seem really happy and healthy, and are very interested in life outside the tank too- asking for food in their own way when i enter the room. are you saying this will change, and i have big problems ahead?

I have seen the puffer dentistry vids on youtube - i'd worry about giving too much sedation the fish or harming them in some way :(

Just check multiple (reliable) sources to confirm a right amount of medicine. See who uses what and how much and so on...
 
what we mean by overstocked is that your water will get very dirty, it may not be at the moment but i bet you them severums havent reached 10inches yet? :L the fish will get too big for the tank and will have a very poor life :/
 

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