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Help with frog spawn: |
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GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090  View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 05 May 2004 Our garden pond is about 12 years old and was designed with frogs in mind (no fish) and over the years has raised hundreds of new frogs. The Summer of 2002 was the best I've seen, our garden was alive with baby frogs. But last year (2003) was a disappointing disaster, over sixty adult frogs visited our pond in the early spring and clump after clump of frog spawn was laid but not one tadpole emerged. I had hoped that this was a one off, but this year it happened again (less adult frogs) and we haven't got one single tadpole. Because I suspected a problem with the pond water I removed two clumps of spawn and placed it in a bucket with clean water, to my amazement the spawn over a two week period dissolved into nothing. The remaining clumps of spawn which were left in the pond suffered the same fate. Please have you any idea what the problem can be, is there a disease or virus which the frogs may be carrying that may be the cause of our dying frog spawn ?
From David Atkins, anyone any idea? David has also asked me if it would be worth introducing new blood to the population. I would consider this a possibility just incase for some reason the population has become infertile. Thoughts anyone?
I should add that David has told me that the population originated from just 2 clumps of spawn introduced to the pond. Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
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Alan Hyde Senior Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 1416  View other posts by Alan Hyde |
Posted: 05 May 2004 Hi David , What Area of the UK are you in ? I'm in Ash Hants and have seen similar with the frogs in my pond. Like yourself 2002 was a great year for our frogs. But last year we had little spawn and very few tadpoles. This year all my early march mating pairs were found dead at the bottom of the pond for no apparent reason . However , a few weeks after this there were many more frogs in the pond but they produced hardly any spawn . Most Odd, Alan O-> O+> |
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dave atkins Member Joined: 05 May 2004 No. of posts: 2 View other posts by dave atkins |
Posted: 05 May 2004 Hello Alan, I'm in Derby, this has been a strange Spring when ever the weather was mild the frogs started to mate then there would be a cold snap and they would stop, if I remember right this happend on two or three occasions. I wonder if the weather could be the cause of your dead mating pairs ? I did not see any dead frogs in my pond but it sure effected their natural beeding clock and the spawn came late in comparison to previous years.
Dave Atkins |
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Alan Hyde Senior Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 1416 View other posts by Alan Hyde |
Posted: 06 May 2004 Hi David, Yeah, you could be right there . Though I did notice that this first batch of frogs were not the healthiest looking . Many were skinny , and two had missing limbs .They probably were not strong enough . Cheers, Alan O-> O+> |
- Help with frog spawn |