Sick axolotl? Tank crash?

[Kochebi]

So I went away for about two days and left my axolotls at my apartment. When I came home the first thing I did was do about a 20-30% water change and then feed them. When I fed them the younger one, Kenway, ate happily, but my older one, Ogo (who is usually a glutton) was refusing food. He's behaving fairly normally, hanging out in his tank as usual, and he shows no signs of stress, no hill curling, erratic behavior, or tail curling, not even floating. The only thing is is that he has strange pink freckles on his tail.

When I did a water test just now the readings were
.25ppm ammonia
~.5ppm nitrite
~10-20ppm nitrate.
Temp: ~65℉

So I'm thinking maybe my cycle crashed? Advice of what my next steps should be would really help a lot, I've never had this happen before. I'm going to do daily water changes, but I'm not sure if I should move them in to another tank, or if I should worry about Ogo not eating. I'm already really worried, so I would love any and all advice, thanks.

 

[Kochebi]

Here I've attached some pictures of his tail and the spots.

 

[Kochebi]

Here's another image of his tail. I'm not even sure if you can see the spots. There's also a pic of his belly which looks a little bloated, so I'm not sure if he swallowed something while I was gone. They're on a fine sand substrate, and they had a moss ball, but Ogo tore it up and has tried to eat it before. I'm really hoping he didn't try to do that again even though I removed all of the pieces smaller than his head.....

 

[Skudo09]

It does appear that your cycle has crashed at some point and is re-establishing itself. You will need to monitor the parameters closely while it re-cycles.

I can only just make out tiny pink spots in some of the photos. It may be that the ammonia and nitrite may have spiked and may have irritated his skin? Correcting the parameters will have helped this. You could offer a black tea bath to help soothe the skin? I can't really tell that he is particularly bloated but then you would know what he looked like in body condition before and have a better idea. I would monitor his poo (maybe keep him in the tub to keep a close eye on him and do 100% water changes daily). If he is not pooing normally he may be constipated? I don't think fridging is necessary at this stage but if you notice he is deteriorating and showing more signs it may be worth it then? I would also monitor his bloating very closely. If he continues to become more bloated, it may be worth seeing a veterinarian if you have one available as bloating can be a sign of a serious condition, maybe a bacterial infection?

 

[Kochebi]

It does appear that your cycle has crashed at some point and is re-establishing itself. You will need to monitor the parameters closely while it re-cycles.

I can only just make out tiny pink spots in some of the photos. It may be that the ammonia and nitrite may have spiked and may have irritated his skin? Correcting the parameters will have helped this. You could offer a black tea bath to help soothe the skin? I can't really tell that he is particularly bloated but then you would know what he looked like in body condition before and have a better idea. I would monitor his poo (maybe keep him in the tub to keep a close eye on him and do 100% water changes daily). If he is not pooing normally he may be constipated? I don't think fridging is necessary at this stage but if you notice he is deteriorating and showing more signs it may be worth it then? I would also monitor his bloating very closely. If he continues to become more bloated, it may be worth seeing a veterinarian if you have one available as bloating can be a sign of a serious condition, maybe a bacterial infection?

He's always been a little chubbier so he doesn't look severely bloated, just like he had a large meal recently. Thank you so much for your response though. I'm planning on testing daily until things get back to normal, and doing daily water changes of around 20-30% until it levels off and then going back to weekly. I did get him to eat a few worms, but after that he didn't want anything. I guess since he ate two days ago I shouldn't be too worried yet. I'll look in to giving him a tea bath and seeing if that helps the spots. I should also add that both of their gills are still very fluffy, as you can see in the pics. He's had short gills ever since I got him, but his gills grew fluffier in the time I''ve had him and are still looking very healthy so far.

I have a 10gal tank on hand that I can move him to in order to monitor him.

 

[Skudo09]

Sounds like a good plan Hopefully it all clears up quickly

 

[Kochebi]

So just a quick update. I'm prepping a black tea bath for Ogo today. I did a big water change already, and I offered food and he ate a small amount.

 

[Kochebi]

Another (hopefully final) quick update.

Still doing daily water changes as the tank continues to right itself, but Ogo on the other hand, is doing much better. I think the tea bath helped loosen him up a bit and he's taken a few good poos since being in there. I guess he must have just been a little backed up. He's doing much better now, showing no signs of stress and back to his normal behavior. Thanks for all the advice :3

A pic of happy Ogo and Kenway: