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RAUK - Archived Forum - fat newts!

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fat newts!:

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kateatcrowlas
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Joined: 12 Oct 2006
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Posted: 13 Mar 2008

This has been a different year to last year in my pond (last year was my first year here).

Both years my toads bred very early but this year all their eggs seemed to go mouldy.  Then there was a lull and although female toads and frogs were around there seemed to be no actual breeding.  Eventually, in early March I found healthy looking strings and spawn.  Unlike last year however, there seemed to be no frogs 'looking after' the spawn.

I keep looking at the frog spawn and I have noticed that it is disappearing fast.  I know I have read that newts eat it and that is what appears to be happening in my pond.  I don't recall reading that newts eat toad strings though, but even they seem to be being targeted.  My newts are hugely fat and healthy looking and there seem to be an awful lot of them, and some of the males already have their black paddle feet.

Is this climate change/climate confusion in action, or is this a normal pond cycle?


Matt
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Joined: 09 Feb 2006
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Posted: 15 Mar 2008

Sounds normal to me, particularly in a smallish pond where the newts don't have to go looking for the spawn.  Frog spawn is the equivalent of a buffet supper for newts.   At one site I regularly visit, which has lot of Frogs and lots of Cresties the frogs lay vey few clumps of spawn in the main pond and I very rarely see tadpoles - I think the Cresties eat them all.  The frohs do much better in some of the smaller, shallower ponds and ditches nearby where there are no Cresties.

Matt


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Caleb
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Joined: 17 Feb 2003
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008
Has anyone actually seen newts eating frogspawn? I've heard it suggested a few times, but have never heard a first-hand report.

I know plenty of ponds with loads of newts where the spawn has a reasonable hatching rate- not sure how many survive to metamorphosis, though...

will
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008

all our newts love to suck out the embryos; in my experience they are beaten by alpine newts which I once watched clear all the visible embryos from a clump of frogspawn in minutes


Caleb
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008
Interesting to hear, I'd be intrigued to know more details.

Was this fresh spawn, or had it been laid some time before?
Could you describe how they sucked them out, and how they got to the embryos at the centre of the clump?
GemmaJF
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008
I've seen GCN eating common frog spawn. A little like watching mini sharks. The whole clump was gone by the following morning.
Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant
will
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008
Fresh and old spawn; they just stick their heads right into the jelly and start chomping at the centre which is obviously where the embryos are.   They really seem to relish it !   As Gemma says GCN do the same but being more noctural they come into the shallows at night for the spawn.   In fact you can sometimes find GCN in an otherwise turbid pond because they have been attracted to the spawn clumps in the shallows.
Caleb
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008
[QUOTE=GemmaJF]The whole clump was gone by the following morning.[/QUOTE]

Does that include the jelly, or did they leave that behind?

Thanks for the extra detail, Will- very interesting.

This is making me wonder whether the main function of newts' folding of leaves around their eggs is to protect them from other newts...
kateatcrowlas
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Joined: 12 Oct 2006
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008

Sorry forgotten how to upload  picture!

The spawn appeared about 5th March but I have had frogs in the pond since some time in Feb.  It took a few days for all the spawn to go, I was noticing the embroys disappearing at first, now they are all gone but the jelly is still here.  The newts were just crawling over the outside of the clump at first but then seemed to be inside it.

I remember last year that the spawn was laid very quickly after the first frogs appeared and developed into tadpoles very quickly, just not sure how quickly (new to this lark so didn't realise importance of keeping notes last year).  I'm wondering if the frogs left it so long to actually mate because they were waiting for favourable conditions where the tadpoles would develop quickly.  Looking at last years pictures compared to this, the clump of spawn last year looked much rounder and ball shaped, this year's looked flatter and more spread out, and as I said, last year the spawn was guarded by male frogs all the time, even in daylight, this year they seemed to abandon it.

The other thing I don't know is whether the tadpoles I had last year were toad or frog ones, I assumed they were a mixture of the two but haven't learnt how to ID them yet, so no idea if any frogs actually survived.

To Gemma, is it possible the newts are trying to protect their eggs from frogs 'getting revenge'?!!!


GemmaJF
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Posted: 17 Mar 2008

[QUOTE=Caleb] [QUOTE=GemmaJF]The whole clump was gone by the following morning.[/QUOTE]

Does that include the jelly, or did they leave that behind?

Thanks for the extra detail, Will- very interesting.

This is making me wonder whether the main function of newts' folding of leaves around their eggs is to protect them from other newts...[/QUOTE]

The whole clump was gone, they were just tearing into it and eating it, jelly the lot. I found it quite amazing as when I kept smooth newts when I was younger they only tended to eat things that wriggled even in the aquatic stage, so I was a bit suprised to see this first hand. It explains a lot regarding newly built ponds often having a fast growing frog population, only for this to crash a few years later when newts arrive. Part of natures system I guess.


Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant
Caleb
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Posted: 18 Mar 2008
[QUOTE=GemmaJF]

The whole clump was gone, they were just tearing into it and eating it, jelly the lot.

[/QUOTE]

Most interesting. I have known captive newts to take non-moving food- apparently smell is a major factor for food identification.

So presumably they're able to identify frogspawn by smell- I wonder if they smell the embryo through the jelly, or identify the jelly as food in itself?


lalchitri
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Joined: 06 Jun 2006
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Posted: 19 Mar 2008
this year i had 5 clumps of frogspawn.
1 was laid in the pond (which contains smooth newts), and 4 were laid on my garden lawn (which doesn't contain smooth newts) after a heavy downpour created a 3-4 inch deep large puddle.

-the 4 that were laid on the lawn were fine the next morning.
all that was left of the one laid in the pond was 4-5 individual lumps of 5-10 eggs, half of which had the embryo missing.

-there were 3-4 smooth newts lurking directly in the area, on the surface, which they generally don't tend to do in daylight hours.

-this is the first year this has happened and the first time i have had newts in significant numbers (20+ in a pond 3m*2m*0.5m). the pond is 2 years old and last year also had spawn but only 1-2 newts. the spawn developed fine.

when i first found the spawn, my first thought was fox, etc. but then the 4 clumps on the lawn would have been easier bait for a fox. it was only the pond clump that was devoured and the only other animals larger than a mayfly larvae in there are the newts.

Reformed Teetotaller

- fat newts!

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