RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by martin g:

Hi

Well the newts have arrived,  havent found any spawn yet, but I have seen males and females in the main pond at night, not seen any courtship yet. 

All the frog spawn has successfully hatched, i have gazillions of taddies in the tiny pool.  I will have to set at least half free into the main pond, this should increase the chances for the rest and install the right balance of nature in the main pond.  As cruel as it seems, I also want the dragon fly larvae to grow and the newts to reproduce so some of those taddies will have to become 'colateral damage'.

I have fitted what is essentially a minature 'shark net' in the main pond, which sections of the shallow end.  This keeps the fish out and gives the newts a chance to lay at least without being eaten.  The entire pond bottom and sides are a rocks and boulders so once hatched any fry/tadpoles will have a place to hide away from most predators.

Its all going well, i just wish we had Cresties in the are (south somerset) they might have moved in to the little haven. The Perch will go soon, I may keep one which wont have much on an impact, I feel its the right balance.

M

Hi Im a new visitor here.  I have been rearing newts and frogs since i was a child, now all grown up and a homeowner I have a large wildlife pond.  My problem is I have been overun with the newts and I really need to thin out the population, i would transfer some to my mothers pond, but she had 130 odd in a meter square pond at my last count so she has a similar problem.  I cant really allow them to breed in the pond, as it contains perch who will dessimate the tadpole population hence I always remove all frog, newt and fish spawn in spring and rear them in stock tubs.  So..i need somewhere to offload a few dozen, they have mostly left the pond now until spring i believe so i cant find them all, but in spring i can net them (literally a 6 inch square net can grab up to 8 newts in a scoop sometimes)

Any advice on what to do? I have a feeling that the law may stop me moving such creatures??

thanks

martin

Ok, thanks, I didnt make clear that the success in the stock tub to young adult is probably just a few a year ( i only have about 4 or so inch long newts at the moment), so I dont think its my efforts that push them up too much. The main problem is that the newts eat the frog tadpoles in the shallows where the perch cant get at them. Anyway....i will take your advice and leave them to breed and take thier own chances, im sure a few will still make it.  I always thought they were scarce hence my help to them? 

The froglets done well this year, I think 50 or so hopped off into the garden to fend for themselves, and some seriously big dragonflies left the pond no doubt at the expense of a few missing froglets.

tjanks

ah yes good idea thanks!

thanks for all your advice guys

Hi All

I recently moved house, my new home came with a very well established garden pond, its is varying depth and is full of hide holes and vegetation.  This spring I had plenty of frog spawn and plenty of Palmate newts visit to breed, huge dargonflies emerged and returned to lay also.  But..my dear son (bless him) has introduced native fish to the pond, not a bad idea of a natural pond was my first thought. These  inlclude Rudd and 'Perch' there are just 3 perch up to half a pound or so, they are kept bellies full but it leads me to my question.

I read somewhere that the amphibians can 'sense' the presence of the predatory fish and may refuse to breed or even enter the pond now.  Is this true? will my Phibs return? will the Perch have to go? Perch are really good to keep as they quickly become tame and seem quite intelligent (for a fish) and like to be fed by hand, so much more interesting than Koi, so I dont want rid of them, but its them or the amphibians, who were there first.

Help?

Thanks Guys

Jon, I will have to live with the law now I guess, the perch came from a farm pond with permission, but if that is illegal, I am happy to face the consequences, as a British citizen I am accunstomed to being 'nicked' for something slight whilst I watch the crims run free :). I did do a quick search and from what I understood, the common Perch is the only member of the Perch family in Britian that does not require a license, I could be wrong of course, I am an Engineer who only dabbles with mother nature. Though I am becoming a little known refernence on the Perch, as many an Angler stops me at the shop where I get some food for them wanting to know when, where and the fish eat etc. Word has got around I guess.

The Perch are fantastic to keep in the pond, I keep the water quality very well and its crystal clear most of the time so as a mini observatory it is very good.  The Perch have become quite tame, as I approach the pond edge at dusk they come to greet me, by hanging vertically with mouth just millimeters from the surface.  They will take  offerings from my fingers, not gently of course, that isnt in thier nature, but I am never bitten, not that it would be uncomfortable if i was.  

 As for food, well, mainly frozen prawns supplimented with frozen mussels (both defrosted of course) maggots and worms are added to vary the intake as and when they are available.  Interestingly, the Rudd spawned this year and a shoal of up to two inch fish occupy the surface but the Perch do not bother them, I assume this is because thier bellies are full.  In all very interseting animals to watch, to see them stalk the other fish is wonderfull.  In my opinion it is Britains most interesting fish, both in its habits and its appearance.

Martin 

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/martingillman/IMG_096 5.jpg

the beasties concerned. Hope you like it.

 I popped into the garden today to clear fallen leaves from the main pond and the small spawning pool, despite netting plenty get thorugh.  To subtle shock i was met in the spawn pool by four frogs!! I thought these guys should be pretty innactive by now?  One looks distinctly fat (carrying spawn? surley not) they were all very active and one doen I returned them to the garden.  Is this normal?

I also found three palmates under a very shallw layer of leaves, these guys were very dosile but not really hiding well enough to avoid the frost.  Again i built them a proper refuge and left them to it. 

Any thoughts? some pic links attched.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/martingillman/frogsma ll.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/martingillman/spawnpo olsmall.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/martingillman/IMG_106 1.jpg

Was it a legless newt?? There is a saying that they are often in that state

Seriously, I am no expert, but I have spent my life around frogs and tadpoles and have never witnessed a Tad that big.  I found a frog in my mop in the utility room this week, I guess the frog knew that I didnt use that mop much?

HI

Well there is some news on this, I am very much the layman, but I think there is something to report.  The newts have yet to show but, the frogs have avoided the main pond and only spawned in the seperate 'spawning pool'.  Now this was only dug in the winter, and last season the frogs spawned in the main pond.  The preditory fish were not present last year either, so this leads me to believe that the amphibians so far have spawned outside the main pond for either one or a combination of the two differneces.

Either they can sense the presence of preditory fish and have refused to spawn in the pond, or they simply prefer the small pool.  Now the small pool is equal depth to the shallow end of the pond so I dont think that depth is the attraction, so my hunch is the presence of the Perch has been detected and the frogs have made a choice.  It will be interesting to see what the newts do later on.  The frogs have been very active in teh pond, including courting, but, decided to lay in the pool.

Any theories????

Wow, hundreds! of GCN.  Lucky fella, I just hope that blanket weed wasnt full of spawn.

I have thought about removing all fish from my pond, afetr all there is no shortage of fish in the UK, of the species I hav anyway.  Maybe that will attract cresties if there are any here, i am right on the edge of farmland and meadow so there must be a chance.

Well, as you can see, they returned, a very fat female, one of several I saw tonight, and a few males too including the very pale (albino?) male in the other pic.

Well there were at least 6 pairs courting this evening so there may be hope.  I didnt realise the newts ate the eggs, newts arent nice at all are they, they eat the taddies too.

I am going to seperate about a dozen and hatch them out of the pond, just to ensure a few make it to an inch, then they can go back. Noticed what looked like a few very young dragon fly nymphs around, i am lucky enough to get the huge dragonflies in my garden, big blue ones (emperors I think?) so i want to keep them too but there will be an almighty struggle in the little eco system that is my garden this year.