Tadpoles - help

[Dillibags]

Due to a deprived child hood :) I have never seen tadpoles develop. So now, having at long last had a garden pond installed, my friendly neighbourhood lads obtained some frogspawn for me in April. I've watched in fascination as they hatched out, but was under the impression that round about now they should be becoming tiny little frogs! Some of them don't even have any signs of back legs yet.

Could this be due to the unseasonably cool weather?? I started feeding them fish food a couple of weeks ago, maybe I should have started earlier? Plenty of plants in the pond and I make sure that some algae is always left for them.

Any info gratefully received!

[Rita 70]

Hi diilibags
Tadpoles need protein, try hanging small bits of raw meat on string in pond. Change every day if not eaten. Rita 70

[Jandy]

That's interesting - what would they eat in the wild, small water creatures such as water fleas, daphnia, etc?

[Rita 70]

Yes, they'd eat anything smaller than themselves and are cannibals. If they've eaten all the small fleas etc in the pond then they need supplementing which is why I recommended the meat. worked for me, but I only have a tiny pond.

[Dillibags]

Well that's interesting! I'll try it, thanks Rita

[Dillibags]

:eek: :eek:

Wow Rita, have just hung some pieces of meat in my pond, left it for 5 mins and then went back to have a peep! They were well and truly tucking in, couldn't believe it..........poor things were obviously very hungry! Thanks for the tip.............

[tads]

Hello there, im a new one on here and my 4 tadpoles have eaten all my water fleas and there must have been hundreds of them! i dont eat alot of meat but i have ham in the fridge, will they eat that??

[Jandy]

I wouldn't think ham (relatively salty processed meat) would be very good for them. When we kept goldfish in the house, years ago now, we used to be able to get live daphnia from the pet shop.

[shirl]

I used to feed my tadpoles flake goldfish food, they go mad for it. and you will be able to see how many you have got as they come up!

[Nature__Lover]

try fish food, yes.

[DIANE]

Does anyone know what is happening in my pond? I still have tadpoles (large) but they have no legs at all. On the other hand I have some really tiny frogs fully developed-much smaller than the tadpoles. Can anyone throw any light on this please?

[Jandy]

I don't know, but could any of your tadpoles be toad tadpoles, or even newt tadpoles? That might account for the size difference!

[DIANE]

Thank you Jandy for your reply,but if they were toad or newt tadpoles, would they not have legs by now? I am ignorant on this subject!! Worried that they will still not have any legs by the time the weather becomes cooler and they die off!

[Nature__Lover]

are you 100% sure they are tadpoles of any kind?
I thought I had tadpoles and I in fact had huge insect larvae.
buy a book with the life cycle of a frog, and see if yours are late?
do you know, roughly , how many weeks they have been tadpoles?

[DIANE]

Yes am 100% they are tadpoles. They have been there since about April!! Really strange. There were three blobs of frogspawn on the pond then (well I assumed it to be of the frog variety). Maybe they do belong to the toad or newt. I will research the subject further!Thanks for your repy.

[Nature__Lover]

newts lay their spawn in a string.. not sure about toads.

[Jandy]

Hi, Diane - I've just looked up a toad website, and apparently they also lay their spawn in strings, so yours must have been frogspawn.

[DIANE]

thanks for your replies!!