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Indoor taddies, other questions: |
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Cavy Member Joined: 22 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 5  View other posts by Cavy |
Posted: 22 Apr 2006 This forum looks terrifc & I only just found it, so apologies for the deluge of questions. Last year I scooped some frogspawn out of a neighbour's pond (else he was just going to flush it down the loo), and put it in my (very new) pond. 1) The taddies hatched ok but most didn't turn into froglets by end of the summer, is this because the pond didn't have enough food in it? I fed them apple cores, carrot peelings and some meat. This year I went back and got neighbour's frog-spawn again. I put most in my pond but it mostly sank (dammit)... 2) How could I fix spawn to plants near the surface, will it hatch from the bottom of the pond? I put tap water in an indoor aquarium and added the stuff that is supposed to take chlorine out instantly to make tap water ok for aquarium fish. I then put some spawn in an indoor aquarium. Most of the taddies hatched quickly & instantly died... 3) Is this because of the chlorine? Should I have just used tap water & let it stand a week, instead, before putting spawn in? Thankfully, about 26 of the aquarium taddies survied and are growing well. The water is currently very green, though. We bought an aquarium pump to aerate the water. 4) Is there anything I can safely do to reduce the algae? I read that taddies want to start eating meat about when legs appear. 5) After legs appear Should I still offer goldfish food/veggies, too, or just a little fresh meat every day? What kind of meat is best? 6) I'd like to keep the indoor taddies indoors as long as possible; how can I do that? They have some bricks/other things they climb out on as nearly-froglets, but I don't know about feeding them . I also took wildlife from another neighbour's pond which was being filled in, as a result we have newts in the outdoor pond (sorry, I can't figure out which kind of newt! Probably smooth, I guess). 7) Is there anything I can do to help the newts thrive? thanks! I'm partly asking because I know other people who have tried to raise taddies in buckets, aquariums, too. |
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herpetologic2 Senior Member Joined: 15 Jun 2004 No. of posts: 1369  View other posts by herpetologic2 |
Posted: 22 Apr 2006
Well I can describe how I used to keep tadpoles when I was younger - it is always best to collect rainwater if you can - I used bacon rind, ham etc tied onto string so that any rotten meat can be removed to prevent fouling the water. I remember using small pieces of tuna fish in my garden pond to supplement the taddies diet - I also used the slugs killed by my wife around the garden (nice hint eh) we do not use slub bait or any other chemicals - we hand pick slugs off plants, the lawn - my wife usually stabs them with a spade - so I placed them into the pond and the tadpoles went mad over them - of course you have to keep an eye on the bodies to prevent fouling the water. When the froglets emerge in the captive tadpole situation I remember cutting off pieces of plant which were infested with blackfly or greenfly and the frogs loved these - eventually we would let the frogs go into the garden in the late summer after they have grown a little and had snaffled all the greenfly! The newts will thrive on the tadpoles!
Regards Jon Vice Chair of ARG UK - self employed consultant - visit ARG UK & Alresford Wildlife |
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Suzi Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 No. of posts: 860  View other posts by Suzi |
Posted: 22 Apr 2006 I too used to rear a lot of taddies when I was a kid. I used all sorts of containers and they did OK. One year I had a bit of a disaster when the container was in full sun all day and the water got hot and deoxygenated and I lost a lot - so watch out for that. Yes I fed raw meat on a lump of string and they went mad for it. When it turned white (blood sucked out) I removed it as they had lost interest in it. Make sure you have something for the froglets to climb out onto early enough. Some of mine drowned once as they couldn't get out. My neighbour today told me that boiled lettuce leaves are good early food for legless taddies. Not heard that before. Suz |
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Peter Vaughan Senior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2005 No. of posts: 170 View other posts by Peter Vaughan |
Posted: 22 Apr 2006 I have successfully (and separately) reared frog and toadspawn through to metamorphosis into froglets and toadlets using, initally pond water and some pond plants placed in a small aquarium (an added bonus was seeing green hydra appear on the walls of the tank). That seems to provide all the food they need at first. Later on when they've grown a bit and lost their gills I feed small quanities of a good quality flaked aquarium fish food - which they take readily. They do need something to crawl out of the water on when they start to lose their tails as otherwise they will drown. And once they do start to crawl up the sides of the tank they need to be released back to the wild (or the garden if that's where they came from). Peter Peter Vaughan |
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JohnDuffield Member Joined: 23 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 2 View other posts by JohnDuffield |
Posted: 23 Apr 2006 Cavy: Maybe you're putting too much into the indoor aquarium. If the water is green there's too much nutrient in solution. Did you leave the frogspawn in? A couple of pounds of rotting jelly might be too much for the little ecosystem in there. If it smells clean it'll be OK, if it smells rank the tadpoles will have trouble. I'd say clean it all out and start again with sand on the bottom, plenty of plants, pond water, and a modest number of tadpoles. I've dug a pond in my back garden recently, and a month or so ago got some frogspawn off a neighbour, and shortly thereafter had hundreds of tadpoles. Now I've got hardly any. The reason? Newts. They've found my pond. Last night I had a look around with a torch, and counted 8 in there. They eat the tadpoles.
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Ladybird Member Joined: 29 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 3  View other posts by Ladybird |
Posted: 29 Apr 2006 Hi, I'm looking for tadpoles, to raise them (just for fun), but I can't find any ponds that have them!!! Does anyone know if there are taddies around the Strathearn area (Scotland)? Thanks! Stacey |
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GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090  View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 29 Apr 2006 David Bird gave some very useful advice on raising common frog tadpoles a couple of years ago. Can't find it now but it worked for me and I got some whopping froglets Containers were litter trays, shallow but with a large surface area - goes a long way to solve deoxygenated water. Have several so you can separate taddies. (see below) Grade the tadpoles, keep large with large and small with small, else you will loose a lot to cannibalism. (Evidence also that large taddies chemically inhibit the growth of smaller ones.. the little devils) Food - spinach. There is a risk that protein rich diets produce fast developing but small froglets. I kept them on boiled spinach throughout development and they were huge. Change part of the water occasionally to reduce chemical inhibiting and keep it fresh. Don't use water straight from the tap, it can be lethal in some areas. Best let it stand for 24 - 48 hours in a bucket first. All the above should be credited to David, it really works well. Difficult to keep them for long once they metamorphose, best to release them fairly soon though you could try aphids and graded 'sweepings' or newly hatched crickets for food if the frolets are big enough. Its more fun to release them and see them find their own food around the margin of a pond, before they disappear into the vegetation. As for the newts, some additions to the garden could be a hibernation bank, leaf piles and some nice untidy areas to give cover. Don't mow all your grass, leave some to become nice tussocks. A log pile is usually good too. Many well established gardens don't need much in the way of enhancement to support small newt species though. Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
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fafniar Member Joined: 11 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 1  View other posts by fafniar |
Posted: 30 Apr 2006 i get thousands of tadpoles every year.  i usually remove most of the spawn and put into loads of buckets/bowls with rain water. when the taddies are hatched and move to the surface i remove them and put them back in the pond, this saves the jelly making the pond go smelly.  this keeps the newts happy  but not the frogs  so i also keep several tanks with taddies and bring them indoors where i feed them mainly on fishfood flakes. the water temp makes them grow faster. when too big to be eaten by the newts i put them back in the pond. this really gives them a flying start. mind you i do still get quite a few with lumps taken off the end of their tails by the newts  dont know if this has any serious long term effects. does anyone know |
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Ladybird Member Joined: 29 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 3 View other posts by Ladybird |
Posted: 30 Apr 2006 Does anyone here live in Scotland, who knows where there is a pond with taddies or spawn? I can't find them anywhere! |
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Cavy Member Joined: 22 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 5 View other posts by Cavy |
Posted: 19 May 2006 Sorry Ladybird I can't help you, have you asked around anyone who has garden pond (maybe?). Thanks for replies to everyone. I wasn't feeding our taddies at all; I tried goldfish flakes but they didn't like 'em. they were evidently growing well on whatever else was in the cloudy water (I keep changing it, but it's still very cloudy). They all sprouted legs in last few days and were seeming quite aggressive towards each other. We dropped a worm and some flies in there, but they weren't impressed, so I tried beef mince this morning -- WAY HEY! Group pig-out and they're quite lethargically happy, now. I finally got a decent head-count (very close to 50 of them in there) because they all had a binge... as did at least 4 worms and the two snails (we also have a waterlouse, lots of tiny things that flit around on top of the water, and an unindentified green aquatic insect in there). I'll try to post a piccie later! |
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Ladybird Member Joined: 29 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 3 View other posts by Ladybird |
Posted: 04 Jun 2006 Yay! I managed to find some taddies at last! Is it ok to feed them boiled lettuce? What else should I feed them? They're still legless, by the way. |
- Indoor taddies, other questions |