shan384
New member
I have a 12 inch male wild type axolotl reared from an egg I rescued a lab back in September 2019. He has always been healthy up to this point but now I'm having some issues. He is losing pigmentation at the base of his gills, on his feet, and at his joints. His behavior remains entirely unchanged, he eats well, engages me when I walk up to the tank, and poops regularly after feeding.
Its a 40 gallon tank with a low flow tetra filter. Fine grit sand substrate that is primarily covered by large slate rocks so that there is low chance of ingestion. There are plenty of hides in the form of fake plants and some drift wood tank decor. The tank is kept at pretty low light the great majority of the time and I grow some sweet potato vines out of the tank water to help manage some of the water quality. The tank stays at about 62F consistently.
The water quality readings during this whole ordeal have been about as follows:
I performed an immediate 50% water change and overnight fridging. The depigmentation (which started on his right top gill alone) continued to progress over the next 48 hours, so I preformed a 75% water change. I continued to monitor for an additional 72 hours and saw continued progression. I ordered Axie Aid medicine from the website fantaxies. The treatment supposedly addresses any bacteria, fungus, or parasitic infection. I performed one full course of treatment, waited three days and performed an additional dose per instruction. After the final dose I preformed a 50% water change. I observed for about a week and still only saw progression of the pigment loss. While I do think it had slowed a bit at this point, I don't think it has anything to do with the treatment. However, I went ahead and repeated that whole process of axie aid medicine and ended with a huge 90% water change. It has been probably another 10 days since the final water change, and I am still seeing slow but consistent progression of the loss of pigment. I still don't notice any signs of changed behavior or discomfort, the affected areas don't have any unusual slime or sloughing, and the filaments on his gills look unchanged from how they have been for the last three years (though he's always had filaments on the shorter side).
If anyone has a diagnosis or suggestion for continued treatment please let me know- at this point I'm not sure what to do next. My immediate panic has kind of subsided since he still seems perfectly fine aside from coloration, but I also can't seem to find any explanation for this sudden depigmentation that isn't a sign of poor health.
Its a 40 gallon tank with a low flow tetra filter. Fine grit sand substrate that is primarily covered by large slate rocks so that there is low chance of ingestion. There are plenty of hides in the form of fake plants and some drift wood tank decor. The tank is kept at pretty low light the great majority of the time and I grow some sweet potato vines out of the tank water to help manage some of the water quality. The tank stays at about 62F consistently.
The water quality readings during this whole ordeal have been about as follows:
- pH 7.2
- alkalinity 80ppm (moderate)
- 0 chlorine
- 150ppm GH (hard)
- 0 Nitrite
- somewhere between 0-20ppm Nitrate (I would guess 5-10 but tetra tests strips aren't that precise)
I performed an immediate 50% water change and overnight fridging. The depigmentation (which started on his right top gill alone) continued to progress over the next 48 hours, so I preformed a 75% water change. I continued to monitor for an additional 72 hours and saw continued progression. I ordered Axie Aid medicine from the website fantaxies. The treatment supposedly addresses any bacteria, fungus, or parasitic infection. I performed one full course of treatment, waited three days and performed an additional dose per instruction. After the final dose I preformed a 50% water change. I observed for about a week and still only saw progression of the pigment loss. While I do think it had slowed a bit at this point, I don't think it has anything to do with the treatment. However, I went ahead and repeated that whole process of axie aid medicine and ended with a huge 90% water change. It has been probably another 10 days since the final water change, and I am still seeing slow but consistent progression of the loss of pigment. I still don't notice any signs of changed behavior or discomfort, the affected areas don't have any unusual slime or sloughing, and the filaments on his gills look unchanged from how they have been for the last three years (though he's always had filaments on the shorter side).
If anyone has a diagnosis or suggestion for continued treatment please let me know- at this point I'm not sure what to do next. My immediate panic has kind of subsided since he still seems perfectly fine aside from coloration, but I also can't seem to find any explanation for this sudden depigmentation that isn't a sign of poor health.
