Axolotls whole body turned red, not a tank crash.

[Jordygeek]

My 6 year old male Lucy Axolotl (axolittle) body has turned completely red seemingly over night. I say seemingly because I haven’t noticed it happening gradually at all. He has bumps all over his face. The red colour he has gone covers the entire body, with darker spots on his tail. (The areas where he would normally colour up when active) He has shown no visible signs of fungal infection. He has no cuts, no patches apart from the darker pigment on the tail. No peeling skin and still slimey. He is all one very sunburnt looking shade of red/pink.

The tank has been established for a long time. I have checked the tanks parameters with 3 different liquid test kits and they have been near perfect. No ammonia at all, no nitrites and slightly high nitrates as it was due a water change the day after I noticed. As expected and as always is. I’ve been continuing to check hoping my cycle had crashed but the tank is running perfectly. It has an internal electrical filter as well as a sponge air filter. The only thing that has been done differently in the last year is introducing frozen shrimp once as a treat. This was around 2 weeks ago.

There were two axolotls in the tank. The wild one (axolottle) seems completely fine. He is however dark so it’s not going to be as obvious as with the Lucy but he does not any bumps on his body.

They were both removed from the tank immediately. And put in a large polly box after a tea bath.
Since, I have treated with axocare once I was sure my tank hadn’t crashed. I made the decision to treat both. As if it is some kind of infection it’s likely to have affected both.
His red colour has not faded.

After a huge deep dive on here and Reddit I have found 1 case where the Axolotl looked similar to mine. But not 100% the same. In that case people seemed to think it may have been sepsis. Which is why I have been hoping my tank had crashed and it was fixable. I work with a fish store and have access to antibiotics but do not want to make any moves until I am more confident about what is going on.
Still happy to try eating, still moves around.
Any advice massively appreciated.

(He as always only had two fingers on one hand that is not new)
(He is reder than he appears in the photos)

Thank you!

 

[Jordygeek]

Comment to add, he has had short gills his entire life, whereas my wild has huge gills. They are however normally a beautiful bright red colour as you’d expect. They have dulled to the exact same colour that the rest of his body has turned.

 

[wolfen]

it does look like septicemic infection (red plague/legs syndrome), which bacteria is causing it would have to be determined by a vet.
both axolotls would need to be treated.
worse case scenario is that the infection is lethal.
chances are that the infection is also contagious which means that they will both require treatment, also using gloves whilst handling them would be advisable.
housing them in 100% holtfreters or A.R.S. is advisable, if possible gentomycin injections or other broad spectrum antibiotic, acriflavine/methylene blue baths can be given.

 

[Jordygeek]

Thank you so much
They are on antibiotics and the swelling is decreasing. The colour has stayed the same currently.