I was looking into a South American Puffer (Colomesus Asellus) for my planted tank, they seem pretty cool. But kind of lost interest when I heard you had to drug them & clip their teeth/beak a few times a year. Does anyone have any experience with this, is that a pain or is it no big deal?
South American Puffers
- Thread starter jsamps
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You avoid this by feeding them snails, shrimp and other hard-shelled animals. Nobody clips their teeth in the wild, the teeth are worn by eating the food they were adapted to eat. You may still have to clip them every year or so, but there is no way you have to do it frequently if you feed them proper puffer food. Where did you see SA puffers? I have seen them in movies but have never heard of them being sold.
There are some Zebra Puffers on aquabid.com , I believe these to be the Colomesus Asellus. From what I have read this species has especially fast-growing teeth, you can slow down the growth with crunchy foods, snails, etc... but most need to trim a couple times a year.
Yeah, if you give them snails daily it will keep their teeth in check. Also, I don't know enough about these guys to know if they're like DPs or not, but with DP's overgrowth of the teeth is not a huge concern. Might be the same way with SA... you should check it out.