Overgrown puffer teeth - plaster food blocks?

[zachfishman]

One of our exhibits houses a very large Arothron hispidus puffer. Its teeth are quite overgrown, and it is actually scratching the acrylic of the display. One option is to catch and sedate the fish for teeth trimming, but I'd rather find a more natural (and easier) solution.

Does anyone have a recipe for plaster food blocks that I could use to help the puffer wear its teeth down? I was thinking of making a fairly hard mix with pellets embedded inside to entice the puffer. Any thoughts on plaster of Paris (calcium sulfate) vs lime plaster (calcium carbonate)?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

See if you can find any posts by Kelly Jedliki. (spelling?)
Puffer Queen and has a wealth of experience with puffers.

 

[sandwi54]

What food has been give to the puffer? Does it include any shelled food to the puffer to wear down his teeth? All puffers need shells to gnaw on otherwise their teeth will overgrow.

Try to offer food with shells on (clams, mussels, whole shrimp with shell). If the teeth are too overgrown and the puffer has trouble eating, you may have to catch him to manually file down his teeth.

 

[NTP66]

One of our exhibits houses a very large Arothron hispidus puffer. Its teeth are quite overgrown, and it is actually scratching the acrylic of the display. One option is to catch and sedate the fish for teeth trimming, but I'd rather find a more natural (and easier) solution.

Does anyone have a recipe for plaster food blocks that I could use to help the puffer wear its teeth down? I was thinking of making a fairly hard mix with pellets embedded inside to entice the puffer. Any thoughts on plaster of Paris (calcium sulfate) vs lime plaster (calcium carbonate)?

I asked a similar question a while back, and MrTuskfish threw out the idea of using plain old, unflavored cuttlebone (the stuff you feed birds). I did a lot of searching, and it seems that a lot of puffer owners went that route. Naturally, mine avoids the cuttlebone, but seeing as how they're like $2/each, it's probably worth a try.

I think it'd probably be easier to go with sandwi54's suggestion of shelled food, though. Two birds, one stone.

 

[humaguy]

a fellow reefer swears by freezing fresh seafood in some ice...I have never tried it so I can't comment firsthand...

 

[the808state]

Crabs with shells works well too. Its harder to get on the mainland, but in FL you should be able to find them. Even emerald crabs would work (and they aren't to expensive if you can get them wholesale)

 

[syrinx]

I have drilled holes in blocks of pumice stone, and then just stuffed food into the hole.

 

[zachfishman]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I would feed hard-shelled foods, but suspect they'd get snapped up by other, faster tankmates. Feeding such foods with regularity might present a problem with the other gulping fishes (black sea bass, white grunt, Napoleon wrasse); feeding enough to keep the puffer's teeth in check could result in gastric distress for somebody.

I've asked elsewhere about using cuttlebones. If my plaster food brick idea doesn't work, I think I'll soak a large cuttlebone in fish oil and see what happens.

 

[spsgtr]

Aquatouch offers a service for this. You can contact them

 

[rssjsb]

Also, it's not as bad trimming their teeth as you might think. Don't let your reluctance keep you from acting soon enough. They really recover quite well unless they've gotten too thin. My old dogface puffer would attack krill in the "recovery" bucket even before the clove oil wore off completely.

 

[zachfishman]

The puffer's health is not compromised, it has no difficulty eating. I just want to see if I can simulate a natural process, rather than catching and sedating a 12" puffer several times a year. I'm trying the plaster "cookies" tomorrow.

 

[rssjsb]

Sorry, misunderstood your post - wasn't fully caffeinated.

 

[zachfishman]

Update: the plaster was well-received. Time will tell whether it has a significant effect on the puffer's teeth. Interesting sidenote, the ORP on our system plunged (-100) after feeding the plaster. It was back up by the next morning though. I wonder if the plaster actually effects ORP or just how the probe reads...

Video! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201691527557293

 

[Shellyfish]

Is there any concerns with the fish ingesting plaster?

 

[zachfishman]

Is there any concerns with the fish ingesting plaster?

Considering:

A) This is practiced in the public aquarium industry (for puffers, triggers, and parrotfish)

B) Freshwater vacation block feeders are plaster

...I suspect we're fine. Plaster-of-paris is calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, and fine silica. I wouldn't feed it daily though (going to be a 2x monthly regimen for now).