Baby painted turtle

Question
We just got a baby painted turtle 5 days ago. I changed his water in his tank today and also installed a filter but when looking at his feet I noticed a clear film on them, is this normal and is there anything I can do for it? His shell was also a little slimy in some spots but I wiped it off. I also put in his aquarium turtle health conditioner. What is this stuff and is there anything else I can do for him?

Answer
Hi Shannon,

I would suspect a fungus infection, since you didn't have a filter until recently.  Water quality is very, very important to turtle health, and that means using a really good filter.  You didn't say what size of tank you're using, but if it's only 10 or 20 gallons, you'll need to be planning for a bigger tank soon.  An adult painted turtle needs at least a 75 gallon tank, and you'll be better off just getting that size instead of moving up in stages.  A big tank is fine for a hatchling or juvenile turtle.  Then you'll need a filter rated for more than the capacity of the tank--an external canister is best for maintaining the highest water quality.

You didn't say how you have him set up, and the pet store may not have given you very good information, so I'll just go over some basic care information (I'll also link more information for you at the end).  Aside from the tank and filter, you need to provide a basking area with a temperature of 85-90 degrees; the water temperature should be roughly 70-75 degrees.  It's important that the water temperature be at least 10 degrees lower than the basking temperature, or the turtle will remain in the water and not bask sufficiently.  This can also lead to shell problems.  You also need a good source of UVB, and this is especially important for a hatchling.  I'd recommend getting a combination heat/UVB bulb such as the ZooMed Powersun or a T-Res Active UVheat.

Make sure you feed a good, varied diet.  Pellets are fine as part of the diet, but also offer meat items such as worms, fish (guppies), gutloaded crickets, boiled chicken, etc., along with some daily greens (avoid lettuce, but try turnip, dandelion, collards, kale, etc.; some romaine is OK but not exclusively).  Also put a chunk of cuttlebone in the water for extra calcium if the turtle needs it.  

Here's a link to a forum thread that shows a picture of fungus on a young slider--the pictures are blurry, but you can see the fungus pretty well.  http://www.turtletimes.com/forums/topic/49408-for-those-confused-fungus-vs-norma...  That may help you identify if that's the problem with your turtle. If you scroll down, you'll see information on how to treat fungus using aquarium salt and dry docking.  This should work for your turtle, because it doesn't sound too bad at this point.  If it gets worse, you may need to take him to a reptile vet for treatment.  Above all, make sure you have him set up correctly so that this doesn't happen again.  Good luck!

Here's some care links for you:

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-eastern_painted.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/emergencies.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/care.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/waterquality.htm
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/housing.htm