Tiger Barb Behavior

Question
Yesterday we set up a 10 gallon tank for my daughter with three tiger barbs. Fish acted healthy until today where they seem to swim very near to the surface of the water fairly close to the heater, water appears a bit cloudier than yester day, any help would be appreciated as I dont want to have to explain fish heaven in the next day or so...

Answer
The main thing about keeping fish is that you never know when they will die and even when all the right things are done, there is not guarantee to survival. Thats what happens when we try to mimic God's creation! As for the water, I suspect the declorinator or any additional water treatments you have added as the source of the cloudiness. Did you add stress coat or any beneficial bacteria? If so, that is the problem. Even if you used a declorinator with so called beneficial bacteria, that will cause water to cloud. I personally never use the declorinator with anything but the essentials. Get a declorintor with only the essentials and no beneficial bacteria. Also, do not add any stress coat or added stuff to the water. Do a large 5 gallon water change now and then 2 gallons per day until it begins to clear and then leave the water fix itself. As for the fish, considering you just added them I would wait alittle and see what happens. Unless they have a sign of a disease or parasite it is likely from stress. If they have any bumps, fuzzy spots, swollen bellies, clamped fins, torn fins, not eating, cannot balance, or other odd symptoms they likely have a disease or parasite and will need to be treated. If they show none of these signs, they are likely behaving like this from the stress of the move and maybe even the cloudy water, which is a build up of bacteria. Do the water changes and keep a close eye on the fish to make sure they do not need to be treated. Do not treat unless they have something, treatment is not meant to be preventative. I hope this helps. Even when we do everything the proper way sometimes the fish are just not strong enough and sometimes they do not make it. Hopefully your fish will pull through. Let me know if you need anything else.