RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by janew:

I had brief communication with Gemma yesterday about this, but really need more information please!

My sister's garden pond became home to frogspawn for the first time this year, and she was horrified (she's not interested in active conservation). She has koi in the pond and was going to clear out the spawn and dump it.

When we went to look at the pond, the spawn had hatched, and the tadpoles had gathered into a mass of jelly and weed in the middle of the pond.

I contacted froglife (on Gemma's recommendation) and was told not to relocate the spawn to a nearby woodland pond because of the risk of redleg, but to remove it from the pond and grow the tadpoles on a little before returning them to the pond (once they were grown big enough to better avoid the fish). I was told that they would eat the algae from pondweed for a while, then to feed them fish food until they had grown.

Gemma replied to my pm while I was "rescuing" the tadpoles from the pond, saying that they will need large amounts of livefood (somewhat contradicting froglife on the fishfood issue!). 

I now have about 10 litres of hatched spawn in netting-covered bowls in my back garden, with a plentiful supply of algae-covered weed in with them.

Ok, now to the questions!  I am aware of the problems of deoxygenated water, so am intending to refresh the bowls regularly. Would boiled/cooled tap water be sufficient for this? How often will I need to add/replace water?

What sort of livefood will I need, in what quantities, when will they start needing livefood, and how often will I need to feed them?

And my biggest problem now is this - my sister has been told that the frogs will grab onto the gills of her fish and suffocate them, and despite my reassurances, she now flatly refuses to have the grown-on tadpoles back in her pond.  What on earth am I going to do with any of them that survive and grow?  I'm beginning to wish that she hadn't told me about them at all!

Any advice will be VERY gratefully received!

Thank you, Gemma!  You've certainly reassured me a little now, I'm sure I can cope with the feeding issue, as I feed the wild birds in my garden with livefood at this time of year anyway, I can always appropriate the earthworms for the tadpoles!

My sister is adamant that they are going nowhere near her pond anytime in the future, so I have to work on that reality. I do not have a pond in my garden, although it is a mature garden with plenty of shrubbery cover. Would I be able to release them here? Hmm... maybe I'll build myself a pond!  I am concerned with the redleg issue, if I can't release them where I am, what are the risks of releasing them into a woodland nearby me (about a mile away, maybe 2 miles away from their original location)?

Yes, anyone else please chime in too! I'm open to any and all suggestions/advice!

Thanks Mervyn, I will probably be able to make the pond over the next few weeks, so hopefully in enough time to be useful to the tadpoles! 

I'll keep you updated, and I'll definitely shout if I need any further advice.

Thanks David, I'll be at the supermarket tomorrow to get a stock in!

Quite a lot of them are free-swimming now, I'm going to get a baby-bath to replace the bowls I've got them in now, I think that will be easier to manage until I get the pond sorted, and have a larger surface area than the bowls too. (Thanks to Martin for that suggestion!)

As I posted a while ago, I have a temporary pond full of common frog tadpoles "rescued" from my sister's fishpond.  They have been there two months now and are growing well on a diet of spinach, none have metamorphosed yet.

This morning, when I went to feed them, I found an enormous (around 9-10cm) common frog in the pool!  It does not want to leave (I tried to coax it out but it wouldn't go). 

Will it eat the tadpoles? As it is only a temporary pond, I cannot see there being enough food in there for it, other than cannibalising! Will it see the pool as a ready food source, or will it be satisfied finding other prey around my garden?

Excellent, thanks a lot, you've put my mind at rest now! 

It is by far the biggest adult I've ever seen though, absolutely beautiful!