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Frogspawn 2015

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  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    My spawn is now hatched and swimming, probably be gone by tomorrow, they say you are lucky to survive one frog from a hundred spawn.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • JoneskJonesk Posts: 205

    Oh no!!!!!!

    I went out this morning to see if there was any more spawn and what was there was all gone image

    The spawn only lasted 1 night, I think it was the newts that gobbled it all up image

    There was a splodge that had sunk to the bottom and that was also gone. With the safety grid over my pond I doubt cats, birds, foxes, ducks, hedgehogs etc would have been able to access the bit that had sunk. Perhaps the heron may have been able to reach it but my moneys on the newts.

    Circle of life and all and I know I should feel blessed to have newts but a little sad.

    Gemma - I read you wrote earlier that nearly all ponds eventually turn into newt ponds - is there anything I can do to help the spawn survive the newts (plants etc?)

    Lyn - you are bang on with lucky if 1 in 100 make it - hope the boys are enjoying watching it change!!

  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    Hi Jonesk,

    Just caught me before I go out and move a load of compost.

    You can get a balance with newts and frogs. What seems to work is making it hard for the newts to get at the spawn. One way is to have a very shallow area of the pond that catches the sun. The frogs will generally lay the spawn there. Only one side (like a thin edge) is exposed to the newts, so it slows them down. Some of the best mixed populations I know in the wild have plenty of shallows and deeper troughs, so attempting to replicate that is one way to go.

    The other is to collect the spawn and grow it on artificially out of the pond, releasing the tadpoles when they are large enough to escape the newt's attention. 

    Plenty of plants will help, anywhere the tadpoles can hide will help them too, but the key is to stop the newts eating the fresh spawn. I've seen them polish off several clumps in a night many times. 

  • JoneskJonesk Posts: 205

    Thanks Gemma,

    There is certainly a lot I need to do to improve the pond. Its very basic at the moment. So far all I have done is add the safety grid. I doubt I will get around to make any major structural changes to the pond this year but can certainly add plants. I'll keep checking for any fresh spawn which i'll pop into a bucket and consult further advice if I do find any more image

  • Frogspawn in my pond is often late, mostly due to trees shading the low winter sun that can see the pond frozen through much of February (Central Scotland). About a dozen male frogs appeared 10 days ago but no spawn has arrived. They seem to be giving up on the females as there are typically only 2 or 3 visible when I look in now. Winter weather was pretty average so I can't understand why the females would have perished. Never had a year without frogspawn in the 16 since moving here so it would be a bit worrying to find such a decline. Maybe it will still happen but I think this is the latest yet. 

  • StagbeetleStagbeetle Posts: 174
    I have loads of tiny tadpoles image I'm so pleased, not sure how long they will last though.
  • JoneskJonesk Posts: 205

    We have more spawn!!! image

    Now in a clear plastic storage box in the shed!!!

    I just popped out to bring in some plants and noticed a small freshly laid clump of spawn that was not there earlier today. I scooped it out and popped it into the storage box in about 15cm of pond water (has a good surface/water ratio) I left the lid off and put it in the shed.

    I'll leave any more laid in the pond for nature to take its course (had a few previous vanishing batches that I presume are being eaten by the newts!) but thought I'd give at least 1 small clump a chance to become tadpoles.

    Is there anything I need to do now? add fresh water? feed them at all?

  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    Hi Jonesk I've been posting updates here on some I'm bringing up:

    http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/talkback/frog-spawn-in-east-london/616849-2.html

    Here are the main bits from it about care:

    If growing them on in trays now is the time to think about providing food. Most of the jelly will be eaten up and they will feed on whatever algae is growing in the water.

    However they need more food.

    At this stage the tadpoles are vegetarian, the best way to provide food is to chop up some lettuce, boil it for 10-15 minutes and liquidise it.

    A few drops are added to the water just to give it some colour, not too much. More is added only when the water clears. One can make up a batch of it and freeze it in ice-cube trays. Defrosting a cube for future feeding when needed.

     

    If you are rearing tadpoles at this stage it becomes noticeable that they are not all born equal. Some are obviously larger, most are medium sized, some seem tiny. 

    It is not quite as simple as their genes make them that way. Something, that to me seems almost a little sinister, is going on.

    The largest tadpoles are secreting chemicals into the water to suppress the growth of their siblings. 

    There are lots of theories as to why (and more than one chemical mechanism has been identified), but keeping the others down, lowers the competition that the larger tadpoles have to face, so they can get even bigger at the expense of all the others.

    With captive rearing the general aim is to produce as many froglets at the end as possible, in the hope of starting a population or maintaining an existing one. We want to avoid just having one very big tadpole at the end of the process. We want lots in the hope that at least a few live to become adults.

    The easiest way to help them is to segregate them. With three trays or bowls, one can be for large, one for medium, one for small.

    It will always work out there are plenty of medium ones and less large and even less really small. This works well. The mediums won't affect each other much, the tiny ones will get on better with less competition in their own tray. The bigger ones are best kept away from everyone else apart from ones that are around the same size, because sooner or later they will start to get a taste for meat and an obvious source that is available is the smaller tadpoles.

    There is also a great summary from Will posted yesterday on the www.herpetofauna.co.uk website:

    http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/forum/advise-regarding-frogspawn_topic4901.html

    His description of care is more outdoor orientated, I mostly bring them up indoors. image

     

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Last year I just bought flaked dried fish food and frozen daphnia (sp?) I survived loads of them, there were tiny frogs everywhere, but that was in a tiny pond I dug especially for them, there were no preditors in there, I dont know how this new lot will fare as I have beetles and other creatures in the new pond.

     

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Gillian53Gillian53 Posts: 112

    I went to a friends yesterday in Doncaster. She was very excited to show me a lump of spawn that had been laid overnight. So far, I have only seen one frog. Jealous! 

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