Juvenile post-salt bath

I gave my small axie a salt bath after noticing a progressively worsening white fuzz on its gills. I've had the babe about a month but its definitely not much older than that by a few weeks. I used sea salt and did 1tsp salt to 1L dechlorinated water since its so young.. I left the babe in the salt sol for 10ish minutes and then put it back into a clean dechlorinated and 65temp tub. I'm sure that the process is distressing for them, but how much is normal? It keeps swimming up to the top of the tub for a gulp of o2 but like 10x more often than normal.. how long will this go on, did I do something wrong or is this stress normal? This is my first axie and I'm an anxious parent

If you want a less stressful fungus treatment try tea baths. How often have you done salt baths, and is the behaviour still happening now or has it gone back to normal?

I have done one salt bath a day for two days, at 1tsp/L concentration for 15 minutes..

The stress definitely calmed down, but I'm not even 100% sure its a fungus..the left gill
that had a white fuzz looks better, but nothing has come off in the water and it was my understanding that fungus should float off in salt baths? I really can't tell if it's helping.

The left gills are bright and fluffy and his right gills are fluffy on the back side, but still white and short on the tops and front. It's been over a week.. (I started salt baths after a white fuzz on the left gill but that's gone now) Healthy appetite and movement, and he comes up for oxygen relatively regularly but he is in a Lg still tub at the moment w a 100% water change daily. I've read that it could be growth but I'm not sure. I just haven't seen any pictures of other juvenile axies with such uneven gills, and they weren't that way when he was a baby...

One gill side is always bright pink and very fluffy and the other side on the tips is short, white, and doesn't have many feathers.. Going on week 2 with no improvement really These pics are from 5 days ago, now the bright side is growing and fluffy and the other side is still the same little stumpies

Looks like new growth to me, a way to tell if its fungus is to look for where it meets skin. if its new growth the white ends fade out from the pink gills in a gradually fade maybe with some veins showing in the white tips, fungus will be on top of the skin and tends to clump together to itself with no fading at the transition.

I would second the recommendation to switch to tea baths, if it is fungus you will still be fighting it but if its new growth you will just be giving them a sweet spa treatment.

Thank you SO much!! I really appreciate it!!

How is this one doing?
Also I think it might be a little small to be on sand. Anything under 5 inches should be barebottom because sand can cause impaction in their little bellies.