Raising tadpoles

[coquina]

Has anyone ever done this? My grandson found a bunch of them in a ditch that was rapidly drying up. We put them in a big plastic container with an aerator in it, and have been watching them develop. We've been feeding them cooked lettuce and fish food, and we put some objects in the tank barely above the water line so the little frogs would have something to hop up on. This morning, two little green frogs were perched on a limb and there are more about to make the final transition.

 

No, the question is - where can I release them that they will have the best chance to survive. There is a small pond nearby, but it is stocked with bass.

I hate to think that after we went to all the trouble to raise them that they will become dinner for a bass.

[Hellbender]

What type of frogs are they? I'm guessing you are talking about a more terrestrial type of true frog like a green, pig or bullfrog. At any rate my advice would be to release them into a pond not deliberately stocked with an abundance of fish such as bass. Some may get eaten no matter what, but my advice would be to find a shallow swamp or stagnant pond and put them in there. As an aside, your grandson sounds like a very good kid going through the trouble doing this.

[Bettina]

Has anyone ever done this? My grandson found a bunch of them in a ditch that was rapidly drying up. We put them in a big plastic container with an aerator in it' date=' and have been watching them develop. We've been feeding them cooked lettuce and fish food, and we put some objects in the tank barely above the water line so the little frogs would have something to hop up on. This morning, two little green frogs were perched on a limb and there are more about to make the final transition.

 

No, the question is - where can I release them that they will have the best chance to survive. There is a small pond nearby, but it is stocked with bass.

I hate to think that after we went to all the trouble to raise them that they will become dinner for a bass.[/quote']

 

What type of frogs are they? I'm guessing you are talking about a more terrestrial type of true frog like a green, pig or bullfrog. At any rate my advice would be to release them into a pond not deliberately stocked with an abundance of fish such as bass. Some may get eaten no matter what, but my advice would be to find a shallow swamp or stagnant pond and put them in there. As an aside, your grandson sounds like a very good kid going through the trouble doing this.

 

I do it all the time. We have a small pond (700 gal that we made) next to our pool and the frogs come every spring to mate. They know enough not to go to the pool with chlorine and settle in the pond. They scream all night long, then leave eggs everywhere in our pond. I feed them lettuce.

 

They look like little black dots when born, then get tails......and so on.

When they get kind of fat and show little legs, I scoop up as many as I can in a net and bring them to a swamp. They love algae. If I don't, we will have hundreds.

 

The ones that are left turn into tiny frogs and always go away into the woods. Look for a shallow swamp and dump them in. Good luck.

 

Bettina

[Mokele]

As the others said, anything with big fish in it means they'll get eaten (though, of course, this is natural, otherwise we'd be waist-deep in frogs). But, well, frogs aren't really at the top of the food chain.

 

As everyone said, a shallow pond or swamp would be perfect. They'll likely all disperse into the surrounding area fairly quickly, though.

 

Mokele

[coquina]

What type of frogs are they? I'm guessing you are talking about a more terrestrial type of true frog like a green, pig or bullfrog. At any rate my advice would be to release them into a pond not deliberately stocked with an abundance of fish such as bass. Some may get eaten no matter what, but my advice would be to find a shallow swamp or stagnant pond and put them in there. As an aside, your grandson sounds like a very good kid going through the trouble doing this.

 

There were too kinds of tadpoles, the smaller ones are turning into the green leopard frog. http://images.google.com/images?biw=&q=leopard+frog&hl=en

 

I don't know what the real large ones will be - they are just developing their legs. I suspect that they might be spade-footed toads. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=lang_en%7Clang_de&biw=852&q=spadefoot+toad because they are the most common amphibian we have.

 

I had read that frogs are becoming scarce, and that many have been born deformed. I suspect that this may be because the mosquito control people poison the water to get rid of mosquito larva.

 

I was going to suggest to them and to the school superintendent that it would be a neat project for the kids to raise tadpoles for release to increase the frog population. Since they eat mosquito larva, it would be a natural way of control. Before I said anything to anyone about it, I wanted to see how easy they would be to raise.

[coquina]

I do it all the time. We have a small pond (700 gal that we made) next to our pool and the frogs come every spring to mate. They know enough not to go to the pool with chlorine and settle in the pond. They scream all night long' date=' then leave eggs everywhere in our pond. I feed them lettuce.

 

They look like little black dots when born, then get tails......and so on.

When they get kind of fat and show little legs, I scoop up as many as I can in a net and bring them to a swamp. They love algae. If I don't, we will have hundreds.

 

The ones that are left turn into tiny frogs and always go away into the woods. Look for a shallow swamp and dump them in. Good luck.

 

Bettina[/quote']

 

I'm worried about releasing them anywhere stagnant, because the mosquito control people are going nuts spraying pesticides into any standing water because of West Nile. I'm really afraid they are going to kill the majority of the amphibians around here.

[des]

Just... build a little pond(s) for them, even out of old wine barrels, or something. I get frogs moving into mine all the time, anyway. Great project for kids; it's easy. Find one of those simple little, inexpensive, pond kits (solar powered, preferably) and before you know it you'll have to post "frog crossing" signs... another great project for kids. Frogs are fun!... not to mention great environmental indicators, as we've said.