Red patches; losing filaments; potential parasites?

[ArloAxolotl]

Hello,

I was hoping not to post here, but here I am

I've had a beautiful leucistic axolotl for the past 8-9 months now. I got him when he was just a baby, right after his legs grew in. I've noticed recently that he was losing the 'fluffiness' of his gills, and I feel simply awful. It's finally starting to cool off here in Texas, so today I moved him from the absolute darkest part of my room to near the windows so he'll get the cold draft this fall and throughout the winter (curtains are pitch black and always drawn - he isn't in the sunlight whatsoever), and noticed just five or so minutes ago that upon really staring at him close up, he has reddish patches along his beautiful tail, tummy and some sore patches on his little toes. I hadn't noticed before, with him being such a pale pink and the red patches being only a few shades darker than him.

Uhg, and with that...

I also realized that the turkey baster I used to use to give him blood worm treats (he gets a couple cubes of bloodworms every time I give him a water change as a once a week treat) may have been cross contaminated on accident with my pea puffer tank (who recently passed away from what I know now was internal parasites. I knew puffers tend to have parasites, but it took up until the absolute very end for me to have noticed he had them after the 6 months+ I had him).

I just need to know what to do to help him, if there is anything at all that can be done. I feel so awful for him. He seems completely unphased though; he's a very active axolotl and is constantly waddling around his aquarium or crawling through or on top of his hides. I hope that's a good sign that little Arlo will be a fighter and pull through. We went through some trial and error in the first month I had him and he's been fine always. He's my first axolotl if you weren't able to tell just yet. :')

Arlo currently lives in a 10 gallon (will be bumped to a 29 gallon as soon as I move, which is coming up) by himself. Sand substrate. He has a hang on the back filter with fake plants tied around it to buffer the current. Currently waiting on my sponge filter to arrive, I was going to have a filter on either side. People were absolutely right when they said these little guys poop nonstop He gets 100% water changes once a week and is currently fed an axolotl/newt pellet (can link; the seller is on ebay and could very well be on this website) with weekly bloodworm or brine shrimp treats. He gets a good feeding of those every/every other day. He's probably about 7 inches long or so, but he has a narrow head and I'm nervous to feed him live worms in case they don't go down. The water had unfortunately been on the warmer side through some of the summer despite my best efforts (69-70 degrees is what it had been wavering on - was cooling with a combination of 3 fans and ice) until recently. Right now he's at 67 after a 100% water change, but it'll drop into the 50s tonight and he should get the draft from that.

Any help and suggestions are so appreciated. I know these guys are hardy, but I don't want to take advantage of that. I just want him in great health.

Thanks guys,
Wish you the best.

-Arlo's Mom.

 

[Hayleyy]

Post some pictures if you can so we can see the patches. Also what are your water parameters (temperature, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate).
100% water changes weekly is probably too much, you should only have to do up to around 20% a week in a cycled tank.
Lots of people cut up worms when they're too big for axolotls to handle. Though, my two easily eat whole nightcrawlers so it is possible

 

[ArloAxolotl]

https://imgur.com/a/BCrHnU4 Here's a link to an album of photos I just took. I can provide pictures of him when he was looking better, if you'd like a reference.

I just tested his parameters and he's at: 70 temp (lowering more now with frozen water bottles since the fans just make it hotter for whatever reason). Ammonia is 0ppm. Nitrite is 0ppm. Nitrates are at 10 ppm.

 

[ArloAxolotl]

And thank you so much for helping

I'll have to get him some nightcrawlers. There's a bate shop not too far away.

 

[Hayleyy]

He doesn't look too bad at all in the pictures to be honest. There's redness in the tail but I believe this is normal in light coloured axies when eating and/or being active. I can see the filaments are very small, I would take a guess that the 100% water changes weekly is adding too much oxygen into the water so you should see improvement if you do smaller amounts. When there is too much oxygen in the water they don't need big gills so this does happen. The sponge filter might help the filaments grow too.
Your tank is cycled so changing 20% a week is perfectly fine Before a water change test the water and let that determine how much you take out.
Keep us updated!