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[Misc] Tadpole advice needed
- Thread starter BrightonCottager
- Start date
sydney
tinky ****in winky
i was at a party in Steyning in my teens ....the parents were away and the dad had a huge fw aquarium in the lounge ....pleccos , axolotls and other comparatively large fw fish , some norbert decided to see if they liked luncheon meet.....it had killed everything in the tank by the morning , no one ever owned up.
Tokyohands
Well-known member
I remember falling in a pond when I was about 5 and swallowing a mouthful of frogspawn.
My grandma would always cook lamb chops with mint jelly when I visited her and it took me years to face eating the jelly, I couldn't even look at it.
My grandma would always cook lamb chops with mint jelly when I visited her and it took me years to face eating the jelly, I couldn't even look at it.
BrightonCottager
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #44
An update. Thanks to the advice on here I bought some English water violet pondweed and cleaned a lot of the gloop out. I now have a thriving aquatic ecosystem of froglets, tadpoles of various sizes and stages of transition into frogs, loads of water snails and even a newt or two. I'm guessing there must have been newt and snail eggs on the pondweed as I've never had those before. I spend my lunchtimes gazing into the shallows and depths of the pond. When I chuck a squashed snail into the pond, there is a tadpole feeding frenzy. The water flies / mossies keep on breeding. Thank you.
They used to do similar at school with spam fritters. Although most of us survived
sydney
tinky ****in winky
strangely enough i could deal with the spam fritters , unlike another weekly offering of liver and onions, mashed spuds and boiled beetroot , **** me them dinner ladies were ***** in the 70's.
and batten burg cake with semolina...
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I could murder a few spam fritters chips and beans right now thinking about it.
BoT, didn't we get warm frogspawn for dessert sometimes?
Glad to hear BC's pond is behaving, I just cleared ours a bit . . . then swiftly caught the blackbirds bathing. poor pic as its through the window.
BrightonCottager
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #48
Nice pond
Nice pond
under the duckweed ( or pond cress I call it) is crystal clear, so a rake out every few weeks in summer exposes all the action. better than TV most of the time.
Dick Knights Mumm
Take me Home Falmer Road
There was a lad round from the corner whose surname was Hoad. Of course he got called Toad.
His younger brother was, of course, Tadpole.
His younger brother was, of course, Tadpole.
highflyer
Well-known member
- Jan 21, 2016
- 2,553
Loving this thread
Ponds are great. We get millions of tadpoles each spring. Also in the past a lot of toadpoles as well. But not so much this year.
But virtually no frogs to show at the end of it. I am sure a few survive and that's all that's needed. If they all turned into baby frogs the first lawn-mowing of the year would be a bloodbath.
As someone said, almost everything else eats tadpoles - that is what they are for. I was blaming the newts and fish last year when the mass of black squiggles disappeared. And then, at the height of summer, we started to see creatures from your worse nightmare crawling up the reeds. Loads of them. Dragonfly larva. Horrible looking things, but the dragonflies that emerged were joyous. Newts also seemed to be doing well! I'm guessing the bumper crop of tadpoles turned into a bumper crop of other creatures.
Ponds are great. We get millions of tadpoles each spring. Also in the past a lot of toadpoles as well. But not so much this year.
But virtually no frogs to show at the end of it. I am sure a few survive and that's all that's needed. If they all turned into baby frogs the first lawn-mowing of the year would be a bloodbath.
As someone said, almost everything else eats tadpoles - that is what they are for. I was blaming the newts and fish last year when the mass of black squiggles disappeared. And then, at the height of summer, we started to see creatures from your worse nightmare crawling up the reeds. Loads of them. Dragonfly larva. Horrible looking things, but the dragonflies that emerged were joyous. Newts also seemed to be doing well! I'm guessing the bumper crop of tadpoles turned into a bumper crop of other creatures.
Wardy's twin
Well-known member
- Oct 21, 2014
- 8,866
Newts look quite placid but are really quite ferocious and will eat loads of tadpoles. I introduced newts to my frog pond and they pretty much eliminated the frogs , these days I take a couple of clumps of spawn out and bring them on in other containers. I do the same with the newts because they will quite readily eat the young newts if there is not enough food( first year i put a 100+ newts into the garden). I generally have damsel flies , red ones and blue which are brilliant to see. A few years ago I took note of where they laid their eggs and put some in a tank and got a fair number emerge later...
It keeps me sane though i suspect a few people think i am 'mad'.
*Gullsworth*
My Hair is like his hair
You are far from mad.....lovely way to help nature.
Wardy's twin
Well-known member
- Oct 21, 2014
- 8,866
Well i enjoy it anyway....
BrightonCottager
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #56
Following the advice on this thread, I removed lots of frogspawn from the pond last and this year to allow the tadpoles to hatch and grow away from marauding newts. I've read that you can feed them goldfish food, so I'll be getting some today.. At what stage do I reintroduce them to the pond? Should I wait for them to grow legs?
Sometimes NSC is like mumsnet. This weekend it seems to be more Countryfile
Wardy's twin
Well-known member
- Oct 21, 2014
- 8,866
I have been putting some back for a couple of weeks into my wildlife pond, difficult to know how many are surviving the gauntlet of the newts as its covered in pond weed. I have a separate goldfish pond which I won't put any in. I tend to keep a group completely separate , in a washing up bowl, which have a high survival rate as no predators and they are given fish food.
I work on the principle the bigger the tadpole the less they get eaten.
Over the last 5 years the amount of frogspawn has increased from 0 to 10 clutches (this year) which indicates its working at the moment.
The correct biological name, I believe, is Sago.