I can't get pics of mine.. they are too small for my camera.. two more frogs showed up. now we have four the new ones are very small and fast - haven't identified them yey and hope they get along with the green frogs. . hmm. . tadpoles are doing well and starting to swim a lot more, the are spending a lot of time on the bottom as well instead of just floating around.
help.. we found tadpoles in the pond. !
So glad I found this thread today.
Yesterday we discovered a bazillion tadpoles in the middle of my Mom's yard! They were in a couple of deep tire ruts filled with rainwater. We scooped some up to take home and now I don't know what to do with them.
My pond is only a week old and while it has some comet godlfish, nothing else (plants are not installed yet. I'm concerned that if I put them in the pond they will get eaten or have nothing to eat. So I really don't know what to do with them.
Hi Mrs. Ed! What I would do is to put them in a bucket with natural water (not from the tap), and put in some leaves, and other debris from the yard. I've been looking at them in my pond and they seem to be nibbling on all the stuff that falls in the pond from the trees above. When they get big enough (and they still seem quite small now) you have to 'help' them get out. Put in a ramp or something. If the water is a bit murky, and if there's debris and stuff, I think it's better for them than it being pristine. I don't know if your fish would eat the tadpoles. I think they might. Maybe someone else has better knowledge of that... :) Have fun! And congrats on your tad babies!
I'll try and get some pictures... they are now feeding near the surface and the edge so I should be able to manage some.
comets and minnows will eat the tadpoles.. they are not too picky on food.. i've found that the tadpoles will go for the frozen bloodworm cubes from the pet store... not sure if they are eating them or playing with them.. kinda small still.. when you put them in a bucket, either partially submerge it in the pond or be sure to bring it somewhere cool. I left some outside (4 ) i had been watching grow, and it seems that i coked them, it was 70 degrees out but the water got to 95 on the bricks it was on.. still some in the pond though.. i will tell my daughter i put them back with their friends... good luck with yours G
-joe-
Joe, do you know what kind of frog the tadpoles are? Because mine survived in ridiculously hot water temp. I had left them out in an inch worth of water in 100 degree weather. Full sun. They should have been fried. But they were ok. I returned them to the pond. Whenever I want a close look at any of them, I can scoop them right up. They're right by the surface. Mine are likely Cuban tree frogs. Do you ever hear them at night? I would love to hear the call of your frogs. That was the way I identified mine.
By the way- I found a snake in my pond! Do you guys know what it is? It doesn't really show interest in the tadpoles as far as I can tell....
Mommy frog? Keeps hanging out in the garden...
we have green frogs. they usually don't call at night gets into upper 40's, still a little cool... i don't know that the tad poles were dead, water was warm and they were motionless, i checked the temp, and figured I should put them back in the pool.. maybe they are okay!. the snake is beautiful.. don't recognize him but you have different varieties down there.. i have a pic of our frogs, forgot the phone at home and will show you them tomorrow..
frogwatch.org/
this site isn't too bad to identify frogs. not sure what the small black frogs were.... too fast to get a look at.
thanks for the photos...
-joe-
either way not poisonous..
http://www.floridaadventuring.com/florida-snakes.html
Thanks Joe! Great website. I totally got lost in all the options, haha! I'll try again tomorrow. You know that snake has been hanging out all day long and hasn't gone under! I showed the neighbor's kids, they were very excited! It is beautiful, but you know how it is; we fear what we don't know... so I just freaked out because I have no idea what it does! :)
Today's update on tadpoles' growth:
eek! those are adorable! Ha. I can't see eyes on mine yet. So far they are still in the jar with the water they were in (in the ruts). there's also some mosquito larvae in there. joy. i dropped in a few pellets of fish food for now. I have a big black tub where my water plants are sitting right now to be replanted. Thought I might put them in there. until then, they are sitting on the table on the covered patio. All shade.
Not sure that's a snake....could be a legless lizard, skink, or glass snake.... All very common in Florida. There are only 6 poisonous snakes in Florida, 3 of which are rattlers....so not much to worry about... :)
Hey MerryMary, I just heard! Legless lizard.... WoW. I'm truly flabbergasted. Should I be happy? It sounds like it has similar habits......
Here are some very cool links
http://twurl.nl/ic862h
It is a Google for "how to attract toads to my garden"
Many neat sites with how to build toad houses, etc.
Cool! Now I want a toad house! haha!
this is one of the regulars.. been in the pond 2 years now. your tadpoles are getting so big so fast! mine are nowhere near that fast growing. I think it's because it's colder up here - frost warning tonight- but it will be 75 during the day? new england weather... I showed the snake picture around the shop most think it is a rat snake, but nothing like it up here..
is there really such a thing as a legless lizard? or is that the name of a snake..
Yep, it is a lizard, not a snake. See the thread here that flowerehj started here in Water gardens
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/987191/
Joe- glad to see your little frog friend! Could be that your frog has a much longer growing up period for tadpoles. I heard there are species where they stay in the pond 2 years! Here's a pic of today's waterlilies with some tadpoles swimming by the stems.
Oops, here it is
Close up of tadpoles- this time I didn't take them out of the pond. They are all crowding around the log I put in for the legless lizard! Isn't it strange to see the tadpole from aside?
great shot. they are growing up so well . glad the lizard didn't eat them up.
I am not sure how long the tadpoles take to mature. I was told by a neighbor it takes four months for the green frog tadpoles to leave the pond. Do you have an idea of what kind of frog was the parents of your little kids?
I think cuban treefrog. I've seen that one in the yard. But am not sure....
i looked them up and they are adorable little frogs..
If youre in Central Florida, most likely Cuban Tree Frogs (unfortunately)
Either that or toads, but most likely the CTF.
Yes, bummer. Non native. What do you have in your garden merry mary?
Well, I'm afraid I wont be able to stop the CTF invasion. With 3 small koi ponds, and lots of tropical plants like bananas and bird of paradise, it's just a happy place for them. I really wanted the green tree frogs, but with CTF's, fat chance. They eat everything in sight, lizards, other frogs, etc, which is why they are so bad for the state of Florida. I have more toads than I care the mention, and have occassionally been guilty of toad tossing over the privacy fence. Between the CTF's and toads screaming all night long, sleep deprivation happens! The long strands of toad eggs also start to clog the filters on my ponds. I scooped out 14 "pairs" of toads yesterday morning. I just put them in a bucket and take to my mothers lake and dump them around the edge.
Anything that holds water for more than one night is filled with eggs the next morning. Good news is, I have few mosquitos, bad news is the noise and invasive species syndrome. These are definiely not the happy Ba-rum kind of frogs!
So apparently the tadpoles have slowed down growing. Here is a picture of today. They grew allright, this one is about a quarter of an inch, but they look about the same. I think they look a little like mice at this stage, haha!
And I would love to have some of those green treefrogs as well! :(
This tadpole was one of many in the ponds at the Oregon Garden. He was about 3-4 inches head to tip of his tail. Looked very well fed. Water was murky so not the best picture.
Beahive- Holy Cow! I would be scared by one that size! I haven't even seen frogs or toads around here that size!
Beahive, that likely was a Bullfrog tadpole. They take 2 years to mature.
Yep..thats what it is I imagine. Here is my bullfrog who I call Big Mama! They do get very large.
That is one Fat mama!
Here's tiny (compared to Big Momma!)
What a sweet picture. She looks very sleepy. Cute!
Tiny is a tree frog
Cuban?
If she's like the rest of them noisy guys out here, she probably is a Cuban tree frog. But she's a lot prettier than the bigger one I see around here. I think there's one living in my gutter. I hear it croaking from that direction! haha!
Yep, Definitely a Cuban Tree Frog. They can get pretty big. The overly large toe pads are an indicator of it being a CTF...as well as their range of color from white to brown to slightly greenish. The can give off a liquid that will burn some peoples skin if they are sensitive to it. Their skin is fused to the bone on their head, which is another way to tell them apart from the native tree frogs, but usually anything over 3 inches is pretty much a CTF. The Ag Dept tells you to put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer as a humane way to get rid of them because they have taken over so many native species.
A frog in my freezer next to my fudgesicles, umm...probably not going to happen.
My tadpoles are growing in size, but only recently did I see a big development. Some of them have legs now but it makes them crazy fast! Haven't been able to catch them to photograph them. However, one was sitting on a lilypad and I thought maybe it was stuck! But when I went in close to take a picture, it jumped a huge jump into the water! I guess those hindlegs really have some power, eh? So this mediocre picture is all I got, but I thought it was fun to share!
