Hey Everyone. New here. I live in an apartment complex and today, the maintenance men were cleaning out a newly vacated apartment. There was a nasty aquarium on the front porch. I asked them if I could have it and they said sure, they were just going to toss it. Once I brought it inside, I found a red-eared slider about 2 inches long, covered in scum, algae, and whatever else.
I need to get a set up immediately and am overwhelmed by what I"m reading. Right now, I've cleaned Millie (that's the name my kids chose even thought i don't know the gender yet), with a soft cloth as best as I could. Her scutes were shedding when I used a soft bristle. I don't know how serious this is, if it's an illness, or what. My girls are dying to play with it but I won't let them yet. Right now, it's still a bit scummy looking but is happy to be swimming and crawled up to bask a bit earlier. I did go buy turtle pellets and tried giving it some of those and some arugula and spinach, a bit of banana. It won't eat.
My set up right now is nothing more than filtered water in a Tupperware cake topper with a large smooth rock and a desk lamp shining on it. I'm taking the aquarium to the car wash tomorrow to try to power spray it clean.
What is absolutely a necessity at this point? The tank....filter....is the gooseneck lamp I have fine for now? I'm in no position to spend a huge amount on this right now. Any help is greatly appreciated. We've never had a pet (long story, we can't have anything with fur bc my oldest has a hair-pulling disorder) and everyone is so excited for the Christmas Turtle. I don't want it to die.
