Derek Broughton wrote:
Altum wrote:


Rach wrote:

I have a ton of what I think are Toad eggs in my plant in my pond.


It does sound like toads - though iirc newts' are also in strings.


(Long strings of tiny black dots,after I "walked in" on the act
yesterday) I want to Have my kids see them grow into toads, should I
turn off my pond filter to prevent the tadpoles from getting sucked in?


Your tadpoles need filtered, moving water.


But the eggs don't - I remember starting them in any old container as a kid.
Tadpoles will survive in worse water than most fish, too.

If you want the kids to see them develop - and I agree it's well worthwile -
I'd suggest collecting some and letting them develop in an aquarium. The
one year I had a really good collection of toad tads, I didn't really get
much of a chance to see them develop. It seemed like one day I had
hundreds of tads with hind legs and tails, and next time I looked they had
all left the pond (and I'd find the little guys every time I disturbed a
rock).

My only proviso with that is not bringing the spawn into a warm house
too soon, IME, makes them hatch too early...better to wait until the
spawn is a little better developed...it broke my heart when I was trying
to show the development of tadpoles to the kids but brought the stuff in
too early - they "hatched" way too early and did not survive :-(

Gill