Illness/Sickness: New axolotl losing filament

[alexander2209]

Hey all,

I’m a new axolotl owner and I received my golden albino on Monday. He’s a juvenile. He arrived here with all filaments and gils. We use test strips to test his water daily. His ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels are all fine. He has a filter that cycles the water so I think the water has a good O2 level. We have been feeding him frozen blood worms. We fed him the first night we got him and he ate a whole bunch. We fed him yesterday and he ate a bit. We clean up the excess blood worms and poop daily. His water temp is 66F. Not sure what we’re doing wrong but I’m really worried about our little guy. Any ideas what we could do to help him?

Day 1:

Day 5:

Tank and filter:

Him in his rescue tub:

Liquid test results:

 

[wolfen]

use liquid tests as strips aren't very accurate.
due to using test strips most have kh gh, what is the level?
how long has the tank been cycled?
it is always advisable to have an air stone in the tank.
66°f/19°c is a bit warm, 59°f/15°c - 64°f/18°c are the ideal temperatures colder ie.. 59°f/15°c being better.

 

[alexander2209]

We bought the axolotl from the pet store. The lady said we just needed to change the water every few weeks. We should have researched a lot more but she assured us it’s easy to take care of. We have not cycled the tank at all. We went out and bought a test kit and the results are in the above post. I’ll include them here too

 

[wolfen]

use the high range ph test as the low range (normal ph test) is at it's limit.
unfortunately because the tank/filter isn't cycled your axolotl will need to be tubbed, during cycling the ammonia level is increased to 4ppm to ensure the filtration will be able to cope with an adult axolotl.

 

[alexander2209]

We tested again and the PH is 7.6 using the high range PH test. We also posted to the axolotl subreddit and the discord. The axolotl community is so helpful. Thank you for your response

Posting the reddit link just in case someone needs the same help sometime.

https://www.reddit.com/r/axolotls/comments/16106v2

 

[wolfen]

had a look through the post (also a quick look at cycling info..) most is correct and are normal guide lines, but.. the ammonia is dosed to 4ppm not 1-2ppm, 1-2ppm is for a fish tank and standard information given, axolotls once adults are equivalent to an over stocked fish tank and must be cycled as such (they grow and become adults fast so the filtration needs to cope), never let the ph get below 7, at low ph ammonium stops breaking down which will crash a cycle (even an established tank), use enough bicarbonate of soda to increase ph to 7.4-7.6, if the nitrites spike do not decrease ammonia, this can cause a see-saw effect between ammonia and nitrite spikes, ensure the filter is large enough (double tank size), make sure that you have adequate bio-logical filtration, make sure the water is highly oxygenated (biological filtration require oxygen as much as an axolotl does), do not do a water change unless the nitrates are 110ppm or higher or the cycling process has finished, do not stop topping the ammonia up to 4ppm unless the ammonia and nitrites are zero three days in a row, never do a water change larger than 50%.
if your axolotl continues to look pale test kh and gh.