On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:12:31 -0000, Janet wrote:



Their first food is the jelly they hatched from. You'll notice them
hanging on it and they will eat the lot.


Janet

That's the problem. In previous years, the little wrigglies have
hatched on top of the jelly. But this year, and I've never seen this
before, several clumps have come together in a mass and all the spawn
seems to have moved to a ring around the outside. So the poor ones in
the middle don't have any jelly to hang on to.

And I think the (also unusual) mass hatching within a 24 hour period
rather than over a week or two might be a problem as the babies don't
have any unhatched spawn to feed on.

It may be because whilst the spawn was laid in its usual places, the
clear out last year means that there's more depth of water below the
spawn - it's not lying on top of planting baskets whose surface is
barely below water and so is more mobile.

At least I managed with some netting to stop the blasted magpies
pecking the spawn out of the pond before it hatched. Maybe that was a
mistake.

Still, I'll do what I can to give them (the taddies) a fighting
chance.

If I can get some decent photos later on I'll post them - so far I'm
getting too much reflection from that bright thing in the sky.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay.