On Sat, 1 Apr 2006 17:34:55 +0000, Lynda Thornton wrote
(in article ):

In article , K
writes
Lynda Thornton writes
Hello

I was given a small container full of frogspawn by my little boy's
nursery as they had loads spare from their pond and we have a barrel
type pond in our garden. I wasn't sure how deep it was OK for frogspawn
to be?

snip


Also, when/if tadpoles appear will they need feeding and what's best?

They'll start by eating the remains of the jelly and then move on to
anything they can find in your pond, probably algae, though they are
omnivores. If it is a reasonably established pond, they should have no
problems.

Thanks for any advice - from an anxious frogspawn carer!

Don't worry too much. The frog population can maintain itself if every
pair of frogs manages to get two tadpoles to maturity. They lay hundreds
of eggs. It doesn't matter if a few don't make it.

Hi

Thanks for that, it was helpful and I won't worry so much, I'll just
keep an eye on them. The spawn is at the stage of small black shapes
rather than tiny dots in the jelly, and hopefully the mini-tadpoles will
be emerging soon. The pond has been outside here since we moved over 18
months ago and has a miniature water lily in a basket on the bottom and
quite a lot of blanket weed growing on the sides as well - do they eat
that at all? I cleared loads of it at the start of the winter but it's
growing back rapidly now I assume with the warmer weather and more sun.
I hope they will find enough to eat in there - someone else has
suggested goldfish flakes once there is no jelly left to eat and if
there are loads of tadpoles, but I don't want to foul the water or cause
unwanted bacteria etc.

You are probably not going to need to feed your tadpoles if you have plants
and blanket weed in your pond - they do eat blanket weed, which is why it is
so difficult to physically remove it once the tadpoles have emerged. The
only time we have fed them was when we had to make an emergency temporary
pond when the frogs spawned in the hole that was about to be attacked by a
JCB! There were no plants at all in this temporary pond (just a bit of
blanket weed which appeared from nowhere - as it does), but we didn't feed
them until they were quite big; see:

http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk/images/tadpoles.jpg

This picture was taken at the end of June that year, and we used goldfish
food, and also very small quantities of ham fat (which they loved). Don't
overdo it, though, or you will pollute the pond.

Don't forget to put some large stones in for them to sit on, and to provide a
ramp for when it's hop-it time g. It's a good idea to put an old towel or
something on the ramp with one end in the water, so they don't get fried as
they walk to freedom if we get a hot summer - or even the odd hot day.


--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk