Due to the beautiful colors of angelfish, they are commonly kept by fish keepers of all levels of experience and depending on the specific species of angelfish you keep, they can be surprisingly easy to care for too.
Still, there are a few common problems that people can have with their angelfish resulting in a number of different questions each month about caring for angelfish.
One of the more common questions that we see, especially amongst beginner fish keepers is about treating an angelfish with clamped fins.
With so many people reaching out about having issues with clamped fins in their angelfish as well as the more common causes being relatively easy to fix, we wanted to publish our own article going over how to deal with clamped fins in your angelfish with the hope of helping as many of our readers as possible.
Some people reach out with slightly different questions about their angelfish having problems with clamped fins so we have decided to answer them all in this article to try and provide our readers with the ultimate resource.
It should ensure that our readers are able to treat clamped fins in their angelfish quickly and help their fish back to full health in the shortest time frame possible.
What Causes Clamped Fins In Angelfish?
The most common cause of clamped fins in angelfish is due to stress, anxiety or shock commonly caused by toxins in their water, being in an aquarium that is too small for them or due to their tank mates harassing them.
Out of those three, toxin buildup in the water supply is the most common but thankfully, it is very easy to treat.
The majority of fish keepers should have a water test kit amongst their accessories but if you don’t, you can get yourself a cheap water test kit that will be able to help you get a better idea of exactly what’s happening with your water parameters.
If your angelfish are already having issues with clamped fins than anything that is out of parameters will be obvious and stick out like a sore thumb on your water test kit allowing you to get to work on fixing it.
Different angelfish species will require different minimum tank sizes due to the different maximum sizes of the fish as adults but putting them in a tank that is too small can be another cause of issues in your fish too.
Most angelfish species will require a 40 gallon aquarium as an absolute minimum with larger species of angelfish requiring larger tanks. If your current tank is too small for your angelfish then simply upgrading tanks can be enough to prevent the clamped fins in your angelfish.
How To Treat An Angelfish With Clamped Fins!
If your angelfish has clamped fins due to poor water parameters and high toxin levels in its water then a fifty percent water change may be enough to correct the issue without any other treatment.
If your angelfish is stressed and anxious due to being in a tank that is too small for it then upgrading to a larger tank that is usually a minimum of 40 gallons should be able to fix the clamped fins in your fish.
The least common of the three main causes of clamped fins in your angelfish is due to being bullied or picked on by the tank mates in its aquarium.
This is often easy to see as the other fish will be chasing and nipping at your angelfish with this being surprisingly common in some tank setups depending on the fish species that you keep.
Unfortunately, this is usually the most difficult issue to treat as the aggressive fish may have to be moved into its own tank due to it being difficult to discourage aggression in some fish species.
One thing that may work is to upgrade to the larges tank that your budget and space allow. The more space available, the more space your angelfish has to do its own thing and relax but even a 40 gallon aquarium may not be large enough if your angelfish has an aggressive tank mate.
Can An Angelfish Recover From Clamped Fins By Itself?
In some situations, an angelfish can recover from clamped fins by itself but this will depend on the cause of the clamped fins in the fish.
The three most common causes of clamped fins in angelfish will usually need human intervention to prevent and help your angelfish back to its normal healthy self.
There are some less common causes of clamped fins in angelfish such as water flow rates in your tank that can stress some angelfish out that they can recover from by themselves though.
This usually needs a large rock to be in the aquarium for the angelfish to use as a way to relax in lower flow rate water and allow its fins to open back up.
The majority of the time, it is just better to adjust the flow rate in your tank if you are using a flow pump to reduce it to a level where your angelfish is not stressed.
There are some other less common causes of clamped fins in angelfish such as issues with bacterial, parasitic, and fungal infections that will also require human intervention too.
The bottom line is that if your angelfish does have clamped fins, there is a very high chance that you are going to have to do something to help treat the condition in them as quickly as possible or you risk the condition quickly leading to more serious issues in your fish.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over angelfish clamped fins to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you understand the more common causes of clamped fins in angelfish as well as some of the less common causes too. The majority of the time, clamped fins in an angelfish is easy to fix and you usually won’t have any serious, long term issues with your fish provided that you act as soon as you noticed the clamped fin condition.
