They seem to be coming along OK in my two London ponds, though I did
see one fish snatch a tadpole. Have seen some medium size newts, which
probably came out of hibernation somewhere, but the tadpoles seem to
be taking forever to develop.

I have read this, can it be true?

"The length of frog development from egg to tadpole to frog usually
takes between 6 to 12 weeks.
But it is also temperature dependant, so during cold spells it may
take a bit longer or even be suspended till the temperatures go up.
For example, eggs laid towards the end of summer may hatch, but
tadpoles may stay tadpoles until the Spring/Summer period. So if it's
cold and your tadpoles don't seem to be growing up very fast, it's no
reason to panic."

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/index.html

Its fairly cold just now.

Anyway, I have had to stop using my fountain to avoid tadpoles being
sucked into the filter but the oxygenating pond plants are coming
along nicely so may be providing enough oxygen for the time being, or
else must I buy a bubble oxygenator?

Doug.

On Fri, 6 Apr 2012 00:19:49 -0700 (PDT), Doug
wrote:

They seem to be coming along OK in my two London ponds, though I did
see one fish snatch a tadpole. Have seen some medium size newts, which
probably came out of hibernation somewhere, but the tadpoles seem to
be taking forever to develop.

I have read this, can it be true?

"The length of frog development from egg to tadpole to frog usually
takes between 6 to 12 weeks.
But it is also temperature dependant, so during cold spells it may
take a bit longer or even be suspended till the temperatures go up.
For example, eggs laid towards the end of summer may hatch, but
tadpoles may stay tadpoles until the Spring/Summer period. So if it's
cold and your tadpoles don't seem to be growing up very fast, it's no
reason to panic."

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/index.html

Its fairly cold just now.

Anyway, I have had to stop using my fountain to avoid tadpoles being
sucked into the filter but the oxygenating pond plants are coming
along nicely so may be providing enough oxygen for the time being, or
else must I buy a bubble oxygenator?

Doug.

12 weeks is about right if temperature etc., is right but I've still
got taddies swimming around from last year's batch. Like you I keep
the pump off for a while when they're small and find that the plants
provide enough oxygen and, for some reason, the water nearly always
stays really clear.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the hardly damp east end of Swansea Bay.

The taddies will be OK if you have a reasonable amount of weed. Only one of my ponds has a filter, and the pump has been off all winter. But you mentioned fish - my impression is that they're more fussy than tadpoles. Depending on type of course - any fish that can survive in a canal is going to cope with almost anything you can throw at it.

Though the pond with a pump is having blanket weed probs at the moment, a result of that sunny spell in March. I introduced water forget-me-not as a more attractive alternative to watercress for mopping up nitrogen, but unfortunately I can't harvest it as every single sprig of w-f-m-n seems to have a newt egg attached! And of course, the blanket weed has anchored itself to the w-f-m-n, so removing it will take too long to be practicable.

Does anyone have any ideas? My local garden centre has "barley straw extract" but at a price where I'd have to be pretty sure it worked (it's a biggic pond). RHS recommends barley straw with added lavender. And the garden centre also has algae removing chemicals and pads, but I know that some of the algae killers sold for fish tanks also skill snails, so with the amount of wildlife in the pond I'm apprehensive about using these.

On Apr 6, 9:32*am, Jake wrote:
On Fri, 6 Apr 2012 00:19:49 -0700 (PDT), Doug
wrote:









They seem to be coming along OK in my two London ponds, though I did
see one fish snatch a tadpole. Have seen some medium size newts, which
probably came out of hibernation somewhere, but the tadpoles seem to
be taking forever to develop.

I have read this, can it be true?

"The length of frog development from egg to tadpole to frog usually
takes between 6 to 12 weeks.
But it is also temperature dependant, so during cold spells it may
take a bit longer or even be suspended till the temperatures go up.
For example, eggs laid towards the end of summer may hatch, but
tadpoles may stay tadpoles until the Spring/Summer period. So if it's
cold and your tadpoles don't seem to be growing up very fast, it's no
reason to panic."

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/index.html

Its fairly cold just now.

Anyway, I have had to stop using my fountain to avoid tadpoles being
sucked into the filter but the oxygenating pond plants are coming
along nicely so may be providing enough oxygen for the time being, or
else must I buy a bubble oxygenator?

Doug.

12 weeks is about right if temperature etc., is right but I've still
got taddies swimming around from last year's batch. Like you I keep
the pump off for a while when they're small and find that the plants
provide enough oxygen and, for some reason, the water nearly always
stays really clear.

Cheers, Jake

Thanks Jake. Its amazing that those little things can survive for so
long without growing.

Doug.

On Apr 7, 5:34*am, Doug wrote:
On Apr 6, 9:32*am, Jake wrote:







On Fri, 6 Apr 2012 00:19:49 -0700 (PDT), Doug
wrote:

They seem to be coming along OK in my two London ponds, though I did
see one fish snatch a tadpole. Have seen some medium size newts, which
probably came out of hibernation somewhere, but the tadpoles seem to
be taking forever to develop.

I have read this, can it be true?

"The length of frog development from egg to tadpole to frog usually
takes between 6 to 12 weeks.
But it is also temperature dependant, so during cold spells it may
take a bit longer or even be suspended till the temperatures go up.
For example, eggs laid towards the end of summer may hatch, but
tadpoles may stay tadpoles until the Spring/Summer period. So if it's
cold and your tadpoles don't seem to be growing up very fast, it's no
reason to panic."

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/index.html

Its fairly cold just now.

Anyway, I have had to stop using my fountain to avoid tadpoles being
sucked into the filter but the oxygenating pond plants are coming
along nicely so may be providing enough oxygen for the time being, or
else must I buy a bubble oxygenator?

Doug.

12 weeks is about right if temperature etc., is right but I've still
got taddies swimming around from last year's batch. Like you I keep
the pump off for a while when they're small and find that the plants
provide enough oxygen and, for some reason, the water nearly always
stays really clear.

Cheers, Jake

Thanks Jake. Its amazing that those little things can survive for so
long without growing.

Doug.

Alas I am having to face up to the fact that most if not all of my
tadpoles will be eaten by several types of predators, including newts,
or so I have read. I will try to rescue a few and place them in
virtual isolation, where they can only eat each other.

Doug.

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:12:24 -0700 (PDT), Doug
wrote:


Alas I am having to face up to the fact that most if not all of my
tadpoles will be eaten by several types of predators, including newts,
or so I have read. I will try to rescue a few and place them in
virtual isolation, where they can only eat each other.

Doug.

Don't worry too much. The mortality rate of taddies is naturally very
high. You may notice that as a general rule, nature ensures high egg
laying rates in species where the survival rate is low: around 0.25%
of eggs will become frogs - that's about 2-3 in a thousand eggs!

OTOH, there is some evidence of tadpoles getting revenge on fish and
attacking small ones. If you have small fish in the same pond as
taddies you should check the fish occasionally for small sores that
may develop where taddies have tried to have a nibble.

If you have things like pebbled areas or planting in your pond where
taddies can hide, that will be enough.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the sunny and refreshingly green
east end of Swansea Bay.

On Apr 12, 8:08*am, Jake wrote:
On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:12:24 -0700 (PDT), Doug
wrote:

Alas I am having to face up to the fact that most if not all of my
tadpoles will be eaten by several types of predators, including newts,
or so I have read. I will try to rescue a few and place them in
virtual isolation, where they can only eat each other.

Doug.

Don't worry too much. The mortality rate of taddies is naturally very
high. You may notice that as a general rule, nature ensures high egg
laying rates in species where the survival rate is low: around 0.25%
of eggs will become frogs - that's about 2-3 in a thousand eggs!

OTOH, there is some evidence of tadpoles getting revenge on fish and
attacking small ones. If you have small fish in the same pond as
taddies you should check the fish occasionally for small sores that
may develop where taddies have tried to have a nibble.

Interesting.

If you have things like pebbled areas or planting in your pond where
taddies can hide, that will be enough.

Cheers, Jake

I have a lot more than that, reed and other plant roots, fishproof
containers with slots in and clumps of algae. However the tads seem to
prefer to expose themselves in open areas where there is no
protection, especially in sunlight. Anyway, my tad population has now
become drastically reduced, or either that or they have gone into
hiding or maybe developed gills and are breathing at the bottom of the
pond somewhere?

Cheers,

Doug.

They start off with gills so being at the bottom is no problem for them.

In my experience, they start by eating all the remains of the span jelly, then they have a phase when they disappear to the bottom of the pond, and you don't see them for a while.

On Apr 13, 11:20*am, kay wrote:
'Doug[_10_ Wrote:

;955856']
I have a lot more than that, reed and other plant roots, fishproof
containers with slots in and clumps of algae. However the tads seem to
prefer to expose themselves in open areas where there is no
protection, especially in sunlight. Anyway, my tad population has now
become drastically reduced, or either that or they have gone into
hiding or maybe developed gills and are breathing at the bottom of the
pond somewhere?

They start off with gills so being at the bottom is no problem for them.

In my experience, they start by eating all the remains of the span
jelly, then they have a phase when they disappear to the bottom of the
pond, and you don't see them for a while.

Ah! Thanks, so the situation might not be as hopeless as it seems.
Mine were very evident and crowded onto the shallow edges of the ponds
to begin with but have since virtually disappeared, apart from the odd
solitary swimmer/survivor now and again.

Doug.