Not sure if she is sick??Fungus or pigment Discoloration?

[BaldMickey]

My axies are 3 years old to date. Im a bit concern about one of them. The name is Ballie. Im not sure if she have fungus or skin discoloration. There are white spot all over her body, but she been developes white spot/mark ever since she was still in juvenile state. Some of the white spots are 2 years old, but some of these white spot are kinda getting bigger over time or new one emerged. She is very healthy, eating right. I normally feed her night crawlers, and scallops for special occasions. I have a chiller so the temp always cool to cold, 20% water change every 2 weeks (50gal tank)

This is the current picture, below are picture from last year or the year before

 

[Calgarycoppers]

The pigmentation is totally normal do not stress about it. Enjoy your reverse dalmation.

There is a huge concern with your tank though.

That gravel will cause impaction and possible full blockage which could lead to death.

Please remove all the gravel ASAP - they will poop it out for about 6 plus months so be prepared to remove bits for months.
Fine sand is perfectly okay. anything that can sieve through a fine net is fine to leave.

Have you tested your water right before you do a water change? That seems like a low amount to do every 2 weeks.

 

[BaldMickey]

Thanks for the info, i was getting quite nervous about the discoloration
As for the gravel, I'm planning to rebuild the tank very soon, and i do notice them crapping out gravel at time, i saw a post last month about that.

The reason for the low amount of water change is to make sure there are enough algae growing to support the 4 apple snails, 5 zebra snails, and a couple dozen of ramshorn snails. They die off cause of starvation when i change water too much, I also have 2 pothos plant to helps keep ammonia lvl in check, i often do water test but mainly to make sure nitrite/nitrate lvl not too high (keeps getting the two name mix up so i input both)
They love to hang out on the roots of the two pothos, I definitely recommend this plant for aquarium, super helpful in maintaining ammonia level

 

[Calgarycoppers]

Snails are also a huge impaction risk and not recommended.

Plants only deal with nitrates.

Ammonia and nitrite should be 0 in a cycled tank.

Nitrates should never be above 40ppm or can cause nitrate toxicity.

After a water change you want 5-10ppm

 

[BaldMickey]

Yeah i did considered that about snails, that's why i pick zebra, apple, and ramshorn snails
Zebra n apple snails r too big to be swallow by accident, and ramshorn snails' shell r very soft and does break down quite ez

My ammonia n nitrite r at zero

Nitrate is a bit high, so imma do a water change tmrow

These are some of my favorite pictures, enjoy

 

[Calgarycoppers]

axolotls can and will eat zebra and apple snails. ramshorn shells get very sharp when broken. its an at your risk. Things are alwas fine until they arent.

 

[BaldMickey]

I see, thanks for the info, i haven't considered that about ramshorn snails.

axolotls can and will eat zebra and apple snails. ramshorn shells get very sharp when broken. its an at your risk. Things are alwas fine until they arent