Clamped fins won't go away?

[ksage505]

I've had a red dragon scale male veiltail for weeks now and he won't unclamp his fins! When I first brought him home he had some swim bladder trouble but after a few days of epsom salt baths it cleared quickly, other than that, hes had no more issues. A few days after his swim bladder issues cleared up he started clamping his fins. He has yet to stop and its been at least two weeks now. He has no visible issues. Hes eating, active, and is blowing bubble nests. I feed him new life spectrum betta pellets twice a day. Hes in a 2.5 gallon aquarium heated to 78 degrees. It is not filtered and he gets water changes twice weekly. I use stress coat as my water conditioner. I've tried a little aquarium salt and that didn't make a difference. Any ideas on what could be wrong?

[Myates]

He may need to work on his muscles there.. I would try showing him a mirror once or twice a day for 5-10 minutes at a time. It is what I do to get any new boys to spread their fins and keep them spread out all the time.

And sometimes they just like to keep them closed up.. it sounds like you are doing everything right, care wise; and if he has some plants and a hiding spot then he really has no excuse for being lazy lol :)

[BartTheFish]

One possibilaty is too much salt.

[Myates]

I don't believe Epsom would do that- as it's very gentle and they can be in it indefinitely. And the AQ salt came after.. why I believe the mirror exercise would be good to try, as clamped fins are a symptom- not an illness in and of itself. Unless there is an underlying health problem, he just may need to build up his muscles a bit more.