Oh dear dead tadpoles

hermoine_2

We got some tadpoles from a friends garden and put them in our pond. they were doing well and would go mental when we fed them.

Yesterday they were all dead when we went out to them!

The water had turned disgusting and stank - this happened overnight.

Anyone got any ideas what went wrong.



H

Robin_T_Cox

The tadpoles were probably asphyxiated through lack of oxygen in the pond.

Perhaps something dropped into the pond and rotted (thus using the pond's oxygen), or perhaps any plants in the pond died, so that without plants the oxygen supply was not renewed.

And then the dead tadpoles themselves rotted, giving the bad smell.

bagginslover

What were you feeding them? Taddies should be able to live off the weed and algae in a pond,if you add more food it will have just rotted, releasing toxins into the water.
The other possibilty is that adding the tads is what caused the pond to go bad-with fish tanks you have to add fish slowly,as they cause the nitrogen levels to spike.One it levels off again, you can add more. This will be the same in a pond that isn't well established enough, have you had it long? If it doesn't have many plants in, it won't be able to deal with the nitrogen spikes so effectivly, and it could be this that killed them.

mutter

Obviously, we don't know anything about your pond, but with the recent hot, dry, sunny weather, I know I'm struggling with algae at the moment.
An algae bloom can take over very quickly

Ponds can go from being ok to looking and smelling like a foul green soup in a matter of a day or two if they're not aerated in some way, especially if they're new or small.

hermoine_2

Thank you for the answers.

there was definitely a very large dead slug in the pond which is very small indeed. About 2 foot square.

We were advised to feed the tadpoles on aquarium fish food by the garden centre who successfully have their own taddies.

I think probably a combination, the plants were ok but the heat the dead slug - it was mammoth and possibly too much food.

Will try again next year.

H