Two days ago I bought some...

Question
Two days ago I bought some African cichild fish for our new fish
tank.  I went to Petco and the person helping me was Ok but he
did not tell me I needed to treat the water before putting in the
fish.  By chance, I went to Petland that same night and a person
there informed me I needed to do this and that ... and gave me
various things to treat the water.  

Today, I found my fish all swimming at the top of the tank as if
they were trying to breath.  I removed them because it seemed
the water was too warm - the heater had been running to long.  
I removed 3/4 of the water and replaced it with treated cooler
bottled water and they seem fine now.

Could that had been the problem?   I want to be sure.

     Thanks so much for your advice.

         Sincerely,

                 Cris C. Dean  

Answer
Hi Cris,
  You do not necessarily have to treat the water -- it depends on the quality of water that you get coming out of your regular water supply, i.e., your kitchen sink.  

  If that water has chloramine in it, such as the water in many major cities, then you do have to add a chemical to remove the chloramine.   If it doesn't have chloramine added, but only has chlorine added, then you can just let the water sit in a bucket for 24 hours and the chlorine will evaporate.

  You do need the tank to be at an appropriate temperature.  Somewhere between 75 and 80 is good.  You also need to have a good filter and a good airstone in the tank.  The fact that your fish were swimming at the top generally means that they aren't getting enough oxygen. This could be a result of not having an airstone, bad filtration or the water being too hot or any combination of these.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>