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Tadpoles seem to be very big this year?

madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
in Wildlife gardening
My frog spawn this year was brought from a friends garden and put in my wildlife pond where it promptly sank to the bottom and resisted all efforts to retrieve it!
It was then forgotten about and assumed no tadpoles would be forthcoming but six weeks ago there they were against all the odds!
The tadpoles seem to be much bigger this year,no legs or anything yet.
Has anyone else noticed this?

“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
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  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    No-one else with big tadpoles?
    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Tadpoles do funny things apparently,  they grow on but hold back from the legs stage, can be even next year. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    So you are saying I might have 'funny' tadpoles!!!!  ;)
    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Have you got rocks so they can get out, if conditions aren’t right they hang back with developing. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    Lyn said:
    Have you got rocks so they can get out, if conditions aren’t right they hang back with developing. 
    Plenty of places to get out.
    Still early days as they are only 6 weeks from hatching.
    Just never seen tadpoles this big before at this stage.
    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • matt_fendermatt_fender Posts: 169
    Funnily enough I was just reading about overwintering tadpoles. It seems they can "decide" to do it, but no one quite knows why - so could these be from last year?
    Other than that food availability and water temp makes a huge difference to development rates. We took 5 eggs indoors for the kids this year, about two and a half months ago, and fed them nothing but boiled lettuce. They were grown with all four legs (and big) within a month. Most tadpoles in the pond still don't have legs..
  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    Definitely this years tadpoles.New pond this year!

    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    Ours seem about the normal size, though they're wolfing lettuce down. And one or two are showing back legs.
  • madpenguinmadpenguin Posts: 2,543
    I don't feed mine anything,they just graze on the algae in the pond,must be good stuff!!
    “Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    As soon as they get legs they turn into meat eaters. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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