Latest Expert Witness News

Puffer fish needs the dentist after clash with Clyde the stingray

A Puffer fish needed emergency dental surgery after a fight with a stingray. Henry, a yellow Mbu puffer fish had to have a tooth extracted after the encounter snapped off a chunk of the tooth.

The battle took place in the tank Henry shared with Clyde, a ten-year-old American stingray, over a piece of shellfish at the Sea Life Adventure centre in Southend, Essex.

Despite being twice the size of Clyde, it was Henry who was left needing treatment.

Aquatic dentists coaxed Henry, a carnivore which originally hails from the Congo, into a fish bag before carefully lifting him into a sedation vat.

Anaesthetic was pumped into the water in his tank and he was gradually lulled into a deep sleep, where his breathing and heartbeat slowed until he was unconscious.

When the fish was numbed, he was lifted on to a fine-meshed net and laid on folded tarpaulin on a bench so the dentists could get to work.

The tarpaulin traps enough water around him during the procedure to keep him safe before he could be dropped back in the tank.

back