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#1
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Unidentified in my pond
I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs.
Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and having looked around I see other people have frogs now. I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome Thanks. |
#2
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Unidentified in my pond
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:18:05 -0000, "sweetheart" hotmail.com wrote:
I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs. Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and having looked around I see other people have frogs now. I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome Thanks. It may be a little early to panic. Different people in this group are reporting different levels of frog activity - some of us are now over-run with spawn, others have yet to see spawn at all and some haven't even seen frogs. One possibility though is that if you had a lot of sludgy leaves at the bottom of the pond and removed them all, you also removed the habitat in which frogs might spend the winter and even, possibly, the frogs themselves if any were in that sludgy stuff. Every so many years I have to clear out the pond a bit and I always have fewer frogs visiting the following year but things recover the year after that. As to what you've found in the pond, I have no idea. If you're able to take a pic and upload that to a photo sharing site and then link to it from a message here we can have a look. Cheers, Jake ======================================= Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay. |
#3
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Unidentified in my pond
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:18:05 -0000, "sweetheart" hotmail.com wrote:
I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs. Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and having looked around I see other people have frogs now. I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome Thanks. My garden wildlife records show that the first signs of frog activity can vary considerably, from 16 January to 8 March here in South Devon. Two frogs have only just arrived in our pond and we now have 4 newts visible, so I suggest that there is still plenty of time for more of them to arrive. In the event that you were a bit over enthusiastic with your pond cleaning it is possible that you removed some of the layer of mud and detritus at the bottom of the pond that amphibians and invertebrates like to hide in. As to the tiny fish-like things a photo put somewhere on the web would help considerably. Given your description, the only thing that I can suggest without an image and bearing in mind that your pond is fish free, is late developing newt larvae - have a look at http://tinyurl.com/72fk7no for an example. As with tadpoles I have spotted them over winter in this 'legless' state and in slightly later stages of development, with front legs only and then eventually with all 4 legs. -- rbel |
#4
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Unidentified in my pond
On 26/02/2012 09:18, sweetheart wrote:
I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs. Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and having looked around I see other people have frogs now. I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome Thanks. I'm wondering if your unidentified and uninvited visitor could be a dragonfly larvae. At a stretch of the imagination they might be likened to a fish, colouring sounds appropriate, and they are voracious feeders. -- Spider from high ground in SE London gardening on clay |
#5
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Unidentified in my pond
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:37:32 +0000, Spider wrote:
I'm wondering if your unidentified and uninvited visitor could be a dragonfly larvae. At a stretch of the imagination they might be likened to a fish, colouring sounds appropriate, and they are voracious feeders. From memory a dragonfly nymph has visible legs on hatching as do other invertebrates such as the great diving beetle larva (these are really voracious, even tackling small fish). -- rbel |
#6
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Unidentified in my pond
"sweetheart" wrote ...
I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs. Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and having looked around I see other people have frogs now. I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome They could be fish but there would be no doubt about it, they would look like little fish. Fish eggs are often sticky and cling to the feet of wading/swimming birds which is how they can get transferred into new environments. They could also be introduced with water plants. Suggestions for fish, sticklebacks (maybe the ninespined) and minnows are the most likely but there would be no doubt in your mind you had fish. -- Regards. Bob Hobden. Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK |
#7
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Unidentified in my pond
On 26/02/2012 11:01, Jake wrote:
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:18:05 -0000, "sweetheart"hotmail.com wrote: I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs. Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and having looked around I see other people have frogs now. I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome Thanks. It may be a little early to panic. Different people in this group are reporting different levels of frog activity - some of us are now over-run with spawn, others have yet to see spawn at all and some haven't even seen frogs. I don't have a pond, but there are still a few frogs and toads in my garden and sometimes the odd grass snake. The nearest pond is a fair way away and the nearest beck about 400m. They seem to live under shady hedges and near the compost heaps where it is usually pretty damp. Every so many years I have to clear out the pond a bit and I always have fewer frogs visiting the following year but things recover the year after that. As to what you've found in the pond, I have no idea. If you're able to take a pic and upload that to a photo sharing site and then link to it from a message here we can have a look. A picture is very helpful. Our previous house had a pond and sometimes spontaneously gained new full grown goldfish when expat neighbours returned home. This was somewhat surprising the first time it happened. -- Regards, Martin Brown |
#8
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Quote:
Quote:
Newts will happily gobble up all available frog spawn, but that doesn't explain absence of adult frogs. Apparently about half of male frogs overwinter in the pond and the rest on land - better survival on land, but the pond ones are first in the queue for the females.
__________________
getstats - A society in which our lives and choices are enriched by an understanding of statistics. Go to www.getstats.org.uk for more information |
#9
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Unidentified in my pond
In article ,
"sweetheart" hotmail.com wrote: .... I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. It looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . That sounds exactly like a baby newt, to me. J. |
#10
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Unidentified in my pond
On Feb 26, 9:18*am, "sweetheart" hotmail.com wrote:
I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs. Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and *having looked around I see other people have frogs *now. *I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to *take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. *I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest *baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome Thanks. Leech? |
#11
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Quote:
So, we are left with either immature newts or damsel fly larvae which are much smaller than dragonfly larvae and thats what I think you've found ! Also, I notice that frogs in lots of ponds are now only just spawning, so dont give up just yet. As I thought might be the case (from an earlier post) the frogs which normally spawn on the first full moon of the year, knew it was going to stay mild, knew there was no rush to enter the water at their normal time and this year are incredibly late spawning ! Lannerman. |
#12
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Unidentified in my pond
"sweetheart" hotmail.com wrote in message ... I have a "problem" with my pond. I used to have a large colony of frogs. Last year they didn't come. This year it seems they are not coming. I live in Cornwall - so no bad weather this year and having looked around I see other people have frogs now. I did have newts last summer. Not too many. So I decided to take a look at what might be in the pond. I found one frog ( he/she seems to have gone now) one newt last night and a net full of something I cant identify. I looks like a fish . Its about half an inch long - some slightly smaller , greyish brown translucent . I have no fish in the pond and never have. I have trawled the internet for something like it to no avail. Any suggestions? PS - I don't want any false trails but if I didn't know better I would suggest baby sticklebacks but I don't have any fish in the pond, nor could they have got in ( nearest river 2 miles away). Also - anyone suggest what might have caused the demise of my pond since I I seem to have lost everything in there? Its smallish but I keep the area with long grass and a rockery for habitat and only strim once a year. I have lilies and oxygenating plant and it looks clearish , although it was full of stinking tree leaves until I set to last year. Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome No idea on the fishy things. With regard to the stinking leaves - not nice. I neglected our medium sized pond and it went more or less anaerobic So we decided to clean it out. After carefully removing most of the water, and the plants in their baskets, we started removing the muck from the bottom. We then set up two muck buckets with water to keep any frogs or newts we found. We thought we might have a few frogs, and perhaps about four newts as we had seen a couple swimming around the previous year. We stopped counting after about 50 frogs and a similarly large number of newts (can't remember how many). So ponds have hidden depths :-) Also, stinky leaves don't seem to cause frogs and newts any problems, just fish. Your frogs and newts may just be hiding. If the pond looks clearish and doesn't smell bad then it is probably O.K. Cheers Dave R -- No plan survives contact with the enemy. [Not even bunny] Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (\__/) (='.'=) (")_(") |
#13
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Never seen a translucent leech
__________________
getstats - A society in which our lives and choices are enriched by an understanding of statistics. Go to www.getstats.org.uk for more information |
#14
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Unidentified in my pond
"harry" wrote in message ... On Feb 26, 9:18 am, "sweetheart" hotmail.com wrote: Any suggestions to a healthy pond ( and about my unidentified) would be welcome Thanks. Leech? You mean put leeches into the pond or the unidentified was a leech? I have had leeches in the garden, well one , once in my greenhouse to be precise. Never found out where that came from either. I have been working hard on the pond and I still think the unidentified looks like a stickleback. I need them to grow a little to decide . |
#15
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Unidentified in my pond
"kay" wrote in message ... Timings can vary a lot even within the same garden - my front garden pond usually gets spawn about a fortnight later than the back. I have kept a weather diary for the last 30 years. My frogs have arrived every year on or within a couple of days of 14th Feb , except when they havent arrived at all - last year and this year. As to the tiny fish-like things a photo put somewhere on the web would help considerably. I know it would but I dont have a camera nor do I have a web page. Given your description, the only thing that I can is late developing newt larvae - I am wondering about newts, although I didnt see any of them last year either. I know I have opne adult newt in the pond because I scooped him/ her out when clearing up the debris yesterday. I put him/her back Apparently about half of male frogs overwinter in the pond and the rest on land - better survival on land, but the pond ones are first in the queue for the females. That I can believe, I have one frog who may have over wintered. I certainly do not have a companion for him it seems. Thanks -- kay |
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