Frogspawn!

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Cussypat1974
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Frogspawn!

Post by Cussypat1974 »

We have a pond, which has been sadly neglected. It is a breeding ground for frogs. It had almost dried up so I scooped the spawn into a bucket and am cleaning the pond this week. Is anyone a frog expert? Most of the eggs have white nuclei so are infertile........
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Lilith
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by Lilith »

Hi there again - if you've had to disturb it it might not be viable even if there are fertile eggs in there; it tends to rot, but you're having to do your best, don't be disheartened, the frogs will come back next year.

One thing you might need when refilling and replacing the spawn is some gunk called 'tapsafe' - available from petshops or amazon I expect and neutralises tap water (unless you can obtain water from a natural source such as a stream.) Otherwise, leave tap water for 24 hours for the chemicals to disperse.

I once heard of someone who filled in their pond. Come spring, zillions of reproachful eyes peered out from the long grass. The frogs. 'Where's our pond gone then?'

My mother once moved to a house with a pond and had hysterics in the spring - 'I've got tadpoles!'

The reason was frogs. Toads, she said, go down to the bottom of the pond to...do it. As she put it. This is true. Frogs mate at the top...and at the tops of their voices! How embarrassing! She had to go away every spring to escape the marriage of Frogaro! :lol:

Good luck!
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nannymcfee
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by nannymcfee »

We used to have so many frogs in our pond , due to my son keeping ever tadpole he could rescue from anywhere,( have a few neighbours who used to just dump frog spawn as they don't like frogs) after initial food of pond plants,watercress etc and a few rabbit pellets , when their legs begin to change and start to become froglets they need shallower water ( as breathing changes and could drown ) and feed them on small chunks of fresh meat on string and 'proper' fish food, this is if you are keeping them elsewhere from the pond for time being, but change water often as the bacteria thrives from any left over decaying meat ,...ours were all named george about 500 of them !

But then he decided to rescue 2 newts, called jimmy, and these have multiplied and munch their way through most of all the young frogs, i didn't realise they are quite vicious !,

Hope you manage to find a few fertile eggs/spawn that develop.
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Crewella
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by Crewella »

Sorry, never had to deal with frogspawn, though we are planning a pond here some day.

We used to have lots of frogs and toad in our last garden, even though we didn't have a pond. We were, apparently, on their direct route from woods to lakes (there was an official 'toad crossing' on the road outside), so every March we'd get toads trying to take a shortcut through our house - they'd be queueing up at the back door!
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claire_lee
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by claire_lee »

We have 2 ponds one has fish in the other doesn't. We dug the non fish one in the summer of 1992 and by the following spring we had dozens of fornicating frogs resulting in loads of frogspawn. Until this year. We saw very few frogs this spring and we only have one batch of frogspawn as far as I can see which is a bit of a shame. We love frogs as they eat slugs and anything that eats slugs and snails is my friend - there is a hedgehog that visits the garden too. The cats love the frogs too as they are highly entertaining bouncing around the lawn and squealing like something five times the size!

So I guess that its just been a bad year for them - what with the late cold weather. Its possible the frost may have got yours. But don't be too down as they will come back along with who knows what else - maybe newts too !

My mum had a fairly large pond which she filled in a few years before she died. The frogs still came back in the undergrowth where the pond was but they had to find other places to spawn.

Also found a toad in our garden last year for the first time - have never found any toadspawn in our ponds though.
Cussypat1974
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by Cussypat1974 »

I think a few eggs are possibly viable, and am not chucking the buckets just in case! We have well water, not mains treated water so our water shouldbe fine according to the pond lady at the garðen centre. I really just want to keep that end of our garden as a wildlife zone...... So leaving it natural, but it does need some maintenance. Like the pond!!!!!
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by Cussypat1974 »

Well..... I now know a heck of a lot more about frogs than before! The spawn hatched before I had the pond ready (Holmsey the cat was I'll, I had a sick hen too, plus a coop to build and exams to study for, so the pond got delayed!)
I now have tadpoles in my kitchen.....! I also have special-needs tadpoles in another container in my kitchen.....!
Did you know that tadpole life is all a bit "Game of Thronesey"??? The first guys to hatch are a tad (excuse the pun) bigger than the later ones. Fine? NO!!!!! The big dudes pooh, and in their poo are GROWTH INHIBITORS to stop the smaller lads from developing!!!!!! It is terrible!!!!! The hormones spread in the water, and the smaller guys eat the bigger guy's pooh! This is why I have two separate tanks now. I separated the big bitch hormone guys from the smaller ones. 2 of the small ones have crooked tails, but this should be fine when they absorb their tails at metamorphosis. For now they just swim in circles.....
I am feeding them stuff from the pond as that is what is natural, but I supplement it with lettuce. I also put some (tadpoles) in a paddling pool outside, and the indoor ones seem to be doing better, but it is hard to tell. I have only named some of theindoor ones.... ;-)
I think 2 small ones will die...... They are very inactive and I honestly do not know what I can do to help them apart from taking them away from their hormone producing siblings and providing plenty of food. One has a weird looking bubble on him (his name is Bubbles lol) but is flying around and seems in great form, thou tiny. They can be infected with parasites so maybe he has some awful thing growing inside him, like a wasp in a caterpillar....... I hope not!
You'd think I would cop on and stop putting myself through this hassle wouldn't you? Frogs aren't even endangered in Ireland...... I will actually cry if either Bender dies (crooked spine guys). But they are so fascinating, and I have learned, and I am hoping most will make it to froghood! They are my current babies as I am avoiding kitten season entirely!!!!!!!
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Lilith
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by Lilith »

Happy days!

I too have indulged in taddies at all ages...sadly, there is a high mortality rate no matter what the conditions and of course in the wild they're part of the food chain; huge amounts of spawn are laid to compensate for this, and as for the adults...near me is an area of lagoons and wetlands where the frogs and toads spawn; they have to cross a road and during that season it's covered with flattened bodies...but still they come (errm I'll rephrase that!) they arrive every year.

I didn't know that about the first hatched inhibiting the growth of the younger ones. Always did used to wonder why some were more massive than the others. Conversely, apparently, by adding a solution of iodine to the water, you can inhibit normal development and end up with tadpoles as big as frogs...this is just too Frankenstein for words and I never tried it, not even as a child. Horrible!

Good luck with them :)
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nannymcfee
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by nannymcfee »

Can you get some rabbit pellets and add a few to their tanks/bowls/buckets/paddling pool( although the ones in there are easy prey for birds) and water will warm up too much with sun.They do really well on them,but change water often inside, and don't forget they are carnivorous when they start to develop back legs...so a little liver .will help them thrive.

I have hundreds again this year now! ...see if the newts ,the little blighters eat them all .
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Mrs Kane
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by Mrs Kane »

A bit late to the party on this one but my parents used to get newts and tadpoles in their pond, and they used to keep 2 old wheelie bins (the kind you buy in stores, although I think the council ones would be cool too.) and when they thought the pond was getting low they'd fill up the bins from the hose and just decant it all, after a few days of it sitting, through the spare water hose in the garage. It saved them a lot on buying tablets 4 to 5 times a year and the spawn didn't seem to be affected.
Cussypat1974
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Re: Frogspawn!

Post by Cussypat1974 »

Thanks for all the advice and input folks! Sadly the two teeny ones have died..... :-( but both Benders and Bubbles are still with us, and the big BUTCH guys (I just now noticed the typo in my last post, sorry for that!) are just zooming around.

I was going to buy rabbit pellets, or maybe try the chicken pellets I have for the hens, but when I added some of the pond algae they actually went into a feeding frenzy, so I am sticking to their natural food (also it is free!). There are midge larvae in the algae, wriggling around, which will make a natural food when their digestive systems change. A ðead slug accidentally mad it's way in with the algae, and one big dude was hanging off of him, but I think he was just sucking the algae off him?!?

They have no legs of any description yet, so I think they won't be carnivorous for a good while..... The last thing I want is them eating each other! Apparently, the bigger ones get eaten first!!!!! Revenge for those hormones eh? I actually found out about the hormone inhibitors as I was looking into mini cats.... Of which I have had many (the kittens from the Walking Dead Poet's society were all stunted, as were others). We covered the pituitary gland in college, and basically you get stunted if your pituitary gland is impaired in some way. From tadpoles to cats eh? And back to Game of Thrones, as the dwarf character Tyrian (sp?) is a dwarf due to his pituitary gland.

As an aside, those cats don't have normal lifespans..... Which I knew from experience before going to school to learn it officially. RIP teeny kitties.....xxx
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