Transferring frogspawn

System

PANIC!, whilst loking down from patio window into the pond which is swirling with frog activity, we saw a frog swim by clutching and holding tight, one of our 4" goldfish. We then ran out grabbing the net and proceeded to locate this "couple" who by then had clearly gone to ground. Patience paid off and we managed to remove the bonded couple into a washing up bowl and both were still alive. My wife gave up trying to separate them but I succeeded and I dropped to frog back into to pond and monitored the fish which seemed no worse for it's morning ****.

We have now put the fish, plus one more we have netted, into the raised patio pond where there were three others. I think the plan is to catch the remaining five fish in the frog pond and introduce them to the patio pond which will then house ten 3" to 4" fish. We know this isn't ideal, but currently our options are limited. The pond is aerated, clear, plenty of weed and is above ground, so other than the fish being stunted from a reduced area, but it will do until we have thought this through.

Our neighbour has told us the frogs have been coming to the two ponds for years, so they're not likely to go elsewhere just because we've introduced fish which we did as for the remainder of the year, it is nice to watch them.

We could buy a larger patio pond, give fish away, or leave them to fight it out. What would you do?

Primrose

shegar wrote: »

No sign of frogspawn here either yet , ive been checking everyday for the past 2 wks now.....................last year we had a huge lump so I devided it in 2 left one lump in wildlife pond and brought the other lump indoors, which soon turned in to tads being nice and warm indoors......
I kept them in for about 3 weeks , when they were really free swimming and getting bigger I tranfered them back into the wildlife pond again.......................

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I might try this method this year. For some mysterious reason last year my frogspawn hatched but within 2 weeks I'd lost every single tadpole and didn't get any babies last year. Did you cook your lettuce first or give it to them raw, and did you put anything else in the water indoors like oxygenating weed, etc?

Primrose

islandman wrote: »

PANIC!,
We could buy a larger patio pond, give fish away, or leave them to fight it out. What would you do?

I think the worst of your problem protecting the fish is while the frogs are mating. In their mating frenzing they will cling on indefinitely to almost anything - last year I found a frog "humping" a grey pebble from which it absolutely refused to be separated. :rotfl: Once the frogs have produced their spawn they generally migrate from the ponds and spend most of their time out of water.

Of course the goldfish, if they're small, will eat the tiny tadpoles, but if you can keep them separate until they're bigger the tadpoles will stand a chance. The other thing to do, if your fish pond is too small is tobuy one of those jumbo sized rubber container garden trugs, and put some oxygenating weed and water in it and use it as a holding station for some of the fish until the tadpoles have become froglets and migrated end June / early July. You can't really keep the tadpoles in one of these containers indefinitely because as soon as they start developing legs they will need to be able to climb out so that they can migrate from the water into the garden, otherwise they will eventually drown if they can't escape as they need to be feeding on garden insects.

System

the latest in our saga is that my wife transferred eight frogs to the frog only pond and within the hour, they had started to return.

However, we are attempting to catch all the goldfish and ensure their safety by placing them, all ten in the patio pool. It isn't really big enough, but better that than being screwed by a frog (lol).



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shegar

Primrose wrote: »

I might try this method this year. For some mysterious reason last year my frogspawn hatched but within 2 weeks I'd lost every single tadpole and didn't get any babies last year. Did you cook your lettuce first or give it to them raw, and did you put anything else in the water indoors like oxygenating weed, etc?

If you had frogs that had spawn in your pond last year they will always come back to their original pond to breed again.......:D

No I ve never cooked the lettuce, they also like a very small amount of fish flakes, and also they are not meat eaters...........

Yes I did pull abit of oxygenating weed out of wildlife pond to go indoors..........go into petshop and you can buy a bowl, I do believe they are goldfish bowls, they are only plastic so be careful when you wash them out because they scratch very easily. Ive had same one for 4 yrs now and its doing the job every March...........:D Its so fascinating watching it turn from spawn to tads, my grandchildren love it..........well so do I....:jI gave all my fish to my son because I desperately wanted tadpoles 2 years ago, they never stood a chance with fish in the pond.:eek::eek: arr we had tiny little frogs about an inch long they looked so cute, fully formed but so small......I do so love wildlife.......:j

shegar

islandman wrote: »

Now that really is a good idea, especially as you suggest the changing of the water and temp. We have another lump today, so with the grandchildrens help, we might do it.

You said in your other post that you use a garden trug yes they are reaaly good for frogspawn, I have used similar but to help them in and out of the pond use a house tile,slate, or put some pieces of wood or logs in that way they can get in and out..........:D

aAso put wire mesh or netting on top because the blackbirds are partial to a few tads to eat and feed their young on........:eek::eek: Yes always make sure the water temp is the same cos they will go into shock and die pretty quick.......