Tetras dying 1 after another

[apollo]

Hi Allen

Thanks. I am more concern with the main tank since i have already removed my tetras.

Need to clean the parasites in my main tank so tht i put the tetras in when they get better( If any left!).

Just to confirm, salt bath is just for awhile and the fishes are put back in fresh water agn?

Was thinking of keepin the fishes in salt bath for awhile! Anyway, my tetras are doin ok in 1 tablespoon of salt in the pail at the moment.

[Allen_1971]

Generally, when diseases are in advanced stages, we do a concentrated bath of the treatment, be it salt or some other treatment... This is considered quite a drastic approach, but fishes at this stage usually have quite a low life expectancy anyway.... so its do or die... Typically after that, the fish is returned to a tank with the normal medication levels.

If you like, the initial bath is to try and kill a huge bulk of the bacteria/virus/fungi/whatever, so that the fishes immune system stands a better fighting chance. But as these levels of meds are stressful to the fish, they are usually removed soon after and given standard medications. Kind of like how your doc will ask you to take 2 antibiotics to start followed subsequently by the normal dosage []

[DEA]

if all your fish are removed from the main tank, you can leave the main tank alone
no parasite will survive in the main tank without hosts for longer than their life cycle

i assume you are treating them in a hospital tank
you can go ahead and hit them with that much salt, no issues
if you feel leery, try maracyn
it's supposed to work

allen, i used that exact dosage in my 4ft tank to fight chilodonella
didn't kill off any plants
but tank did burst shortly after that
not sure if it's due to the salt