The Lemon Fool

Last Spring I made a small pool in the garden for the first time, and this year I have a super abundance of tadpoles. I mean the little pool is absolutely heaving with them. I have transferred some into 2 new very large containers to mature, but there are still so many left. I assume only a few will eventually survive to transform into frogs. Any idea what I can do with them to improve their chances?

Nimrod103 wrote:Last Spring I made a small pool in the garden for the first time, and this year I have a super abundance of tadpoles. .... Any idea what I can do with them to improve their chances?

Great.

Net over the pond or better still put a tripwire around it to fend off Mr Heron.
Pond vegetation is good for tadpoles to hide in.

And try to keep the pond newt-free; our pond has been almost denuded of frog spawn in recent years by Mr & Mrs Newt, so much so that there are now few frogs to make the annual return and I fear that eventually we will have none.

V8

88V8 wrote:

Nimrod103 wrote:Last Spring I made a small pool in the garden for the first time, and this year I have a super abundance of tadpoles. .... Any idea what I can do with them to improve their chances?

Great.

Net over the pond or better still put a tripwire around it to fend off Mr Heron.
Pond vegetation is good for tadpoles to hide in.

And try to keep the pond newt-free; our pond has been almost denuded of frog spawn in recent years by Mr & Mrs Newt, so much so that there are now few frogs to make the annual return and I fear that eventually we will have none.

V8

I saw quite a few newts last summer, so they are around. I didn't realise herons went for tadpoles - they are hard to see being black against a black pond liner, though because there is still such a heaving mass of wriggling tadpoles, I can see where they are. Should I transfer some of the tadpoles to other ponds in the district, or is that a risky thing to do?

Well done on such a good yield of tadpoles. All I can add is to watch out for blackbirds too as they (or maybe it was just one) cleared out the tadpoles we had in an old bath tub a few years ago. I think they would transfer successfully to somewhere suitable as it was actually a neighbouring farmer who added ours to our bathtub when we weren't looking.

you are very lucky...we have none and although I have asked locally if anyone has too many most have none

if you in south Bucks??

88V8 wrote:

Nimrod103 wrote:Last Spring I made a small pool in the garden for the first time, and this year I have a super abundance of tadpoles. .... Any idea what I can do with them to improve their chances?

Great.

Net over the pond or better still put a tripwire around it to fend off Mr Heron.
Pond vegetation is good for tadpoles to hide in.

And try to keep the pond newt-free; our pond has been almost denuded of frog spawn in recent years by Mr & Mrs Newt, so much so that there are now few frogs to make the annual return and I fear that eventually we will have none.

V8

Indeed.
Top marks for getting them to this stage!

Once you've addressed the pond with netting (and training any newts!) you'll need to think about the others in buckets.

I'm not sure if all of them do but I know some tadpoles are happy eating lettuce (if you've got some spare) otherwise there might not be enough food in a bucket.
(The missus once had to look after the school frogs for a holiday - but they were the green "eat live crickets rolled in calcium" "double your electric usage" type. Cute but not worth it)

You could consider donating some to where there are kids; primary schools, libraries, etc. That should give them a home and food till they hop off and hopefully encourage a couple of wee oiks to look at the world beyond an Xbox for a while?

-sd

I seem to recall that during their early life they eat algae. I take the point about making sure there is enough rotting veg and algae to eat. The pool is in the sun so algae should grow well. When they grow legs, don't they need a more meaty diet? I recall my brother as a kid putting tiny bits of meat into the tank we had at home.

When I was young and easy under the apple boughs, and the village cattle pond was full of newts and other fascinating stuff, we used to go fishing for tadpoles with a net and a jamjar. Our mum would tell us to take them back to the pond, but usually we forgot, and in time the tadpoles would eat each other. A few survivors which developed legs would be returned to the water, with an apology.

Nowadays, the village pond is somewhere underneath the M25. We shall not see its like again. Although I hope that some of the froglets we released may have managed to make their mark on posterity?

BJ

Nimrod103 wrote:I seem to recall that during their early life they eat algae. I take the point about making sure there is enough rotting veg and algae to eat. The pool is in the sun so algae should grow well. When they grow legs, don't they need a more meaty diet? I recall my brother as a kid putting tiny bits of meat into the tank we had at home.

A couple of years ago there was a telegraph letter from a tadpole lover who claimed great things for toast with marmite spread on one side.
The very next day there was another letter "What do you do for the tadpoles that don't like marmite?"

Amused me.

Sorcery wrote:

Nimrod103 wrote:I seem to recall that during their early life they eat algae. I take the point about making sure there is enough rotting veg and algae to eat. The pool is in the sun so algae should grow well. When they grow legs, don't they need a more meaty diet? I recall my brother as a kid putting tiny bits of meat into the tank we had at home.

A couple of years ago there was a telegraph letter from a tadpole lover who claimed great things for toast with marmite spread on one side.
The very next day there was another letter "What do you do for the tadpoles that don't like marmite?"

Amused me.

A bit sad to reply to my own quote some may think but there is a news development. Having "promoted" marmite here, thought I should make some marmite on toast. Marmite is not my thing, I might have had a cup of bovril in my time which seemed ok, but have not tried Marmite, yet. Nor did I want to now, so it went in the pond where I had seen some spawn, luckily(?) marmite side down. Anway the seagull sisterhood woke up and had a few fighting for it, within 5 minutes. Doesn't help the case for Marmite, seagulls are not fussy.

bungeejumper wrote:When I was young and easy under the apple boughs, and the village cattle pond was full of newts and other fascinating stuff, we used to go fishing for tadpoles with a net and a jamjar. Our mum would tell us to take them back to the pond, but usually we forgot, and in time the tadpoles would eat each other. A few survivors which developed legs would be returned to the water, with an apology.

Nowadays, the village pond is somewhere underneath the M25. We shall not see its like again. Although I hope that some of the froglets we released may have managed to make their mark on posterity?

BJ

There be loadsa village ponds up round here. There is a cracker in the village of Wilton just up the road from me here, full of frogpoles, toadpoles and newtpoles. Proberbly...

My pond has millions too. Both the spawn and the tadpoles are good eating for pigeons, crows, magpies, thrushes, sparrows, robins and just about anything else with feathers. I don't see a piece of string much use against the smaller birds. A net could trap and kill the birds Anything you try and feed the tadpoles will suit the birds too.

My pond is over a foot deep (at least, at this time of year with all the rain recently), and has plenty of vegetation. There seem to be plenty of survivors despite the birds. I suppose they'd be more exposed in a white bathtub. I figure it's just nature innit. Help one, you help them all.

gryffron wrote:My pond has millions too. Both the spawn and the tadpoles are good eating for pigeons, crows, magpies, thrushes, sparrows, robins and just about anything else with feathers. I don't see a piece of string much use against the smaller birds. A net could trap and kill the birds Anything you try and feed the tadpoles will suit the birds too.

My pond is over a foot deep (at least, at this time of year with all the rain recently), and has plenty of vegetation. There seem to be plenty of survivors despite the birds. I suppose they'd be more exposed in a white bathtub. I figure it's just nature innit. Help one, you help them all.

I have all the above listed birds, but have seen no sign they are even interested in eating tadpoles, let alone taking any. Plenty of other stuff to eat in the garden, I guess.

Others may already be aware of this but it was a complete revelation to me. Whilst out walking yesterday I crossed a small wooden bridge over a spit of a pond and when I stopped to look into the water there were tadpoles in it. Most with no legs, some with the first tiny signs of legs.
When I got home I asked Auntie Google about autumn tadpoles and discovered that it is indeed a thing that when the stars align some tadpoles overwinter until before maturing the following year.
Or maybe it's just as a friend of mine keeps telling me "the whole world's going nuts right now"