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Tom Omlette
Senior Member Joined: 07 Nov 2013 Location: Stoke on Trent Status: Offline Points: 449 |
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Posted: 22 Mar 2015 at 1:29pm |
...the prize for least amount of frogspawn? this is literally absolutely everything:
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GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
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Nope because I had none at all for years. Miraculously my pond is now teeming with taddies.
Does look a bit lacking Tim, did you get to do a head count of adults?
Edited by GemmaJF - 22 Mar 2015 at 1:34pm |
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Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
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Well I don't get any (although did years ago), but I know my ponds aren't shallow enough. The other thing is my ponds don't get the sun till mid-Feb which is maybe a bit late for warming up. I have lots of frogs in them most of the time, but they all migrate to spawn elsewhere.
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Suz
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Tom Omlette
Senior Member Joined: 07 Nov 2013 Location: Stoke on Trent Status: Offline Points: 449 |
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only seen one adult this year although the pond looks disturbed every morning so i suspect there are more. the newts have been taking over these past years and frog numbers have steadily declined. its only a very small pond. in fairness though it can be april here before frog action peaks so there's still time.
tim |
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Iminei
Senior Member Joined: 08 Aug 2012 Location: Dorset Status: Offline Points: 51 |
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the prize for least amount of frogspawn?
Nope, cos i had absolutely none!!! I had to resort to 'borrowing'...yes, I know what you think... some of the over flowing spawn from my FiL's pond. We bought it back here (150+ miles) and under torch light.....after turfing out 2 newts...shheeesh!... put the spawn in the newly installed nursery pool which is shallower and apart from the main pond, which is very deep as the vegetation hasn't yet kicked in and has lots of newts! Anyhoo, every day I looked in on them......yup! newt free and spawn full.....until a day or two ago when all the spawn seemed to have disappeared and all that left were little lifeless black lines on the tile I put in the pool for extra shallowness and warmth. Hubby and I looked glumly down at this disaster for a couple of days...then today I noticed the small black lines were ..bigger...fatter...and some were moving!!! Yippeee!!!We have tadpoles!!! I check the nursery every day for newts.....but have found none since I turfed out the two interlopers that first night so am hoping that at least some of these taddies achieve frogdom!
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GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
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Ah they do that, fall out of the jelly and lay on the bottom pretending to be dead. It something you don't usually get to see in a pond but with your tile you observed the 'I'll just fall out of this jelly and pretend to be dead' stage of development. If I had the space in the right spot I would do a nursery pond too it is a great idea, as it is I'm stuck with rearing them in trays.
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Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
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I went to my local garden centre few years ago to buy a nursery pool. I
knew exactly what I wanted, and had seen, but they'd stopped selling
them. I've not looked on the Internet since, but I expect I could get something suitable. As it is I have an array of containers ...
The round tub just contains pond water and weed to top up the containers. They all seem to be doing OK. I know that sickening feeling when they come out of the jelly and lie doggo on the base of the container. I would think that is a very vulnerable stage for them, unless in the wild they sink into mud. Like Gemma I've fed them boiled minced lettuce. It seems to disappear but I've never seen them thronging round it. I scoop out algeous lumps from the ponds and chuck those in for food. They are growing, but when I've cheated and brought them on in the greenhouse they certainly develop very quickly - like Gemma's central heating, but not quite as good! Here's just a few swimming about. I've got hundreds. |
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Suz
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Iminei
Senior Member Joined: 08 Aug 2012 Location: Dorset Status: Offline Points: 51 |
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Wow! I didn't think they would actually thrive in a small tub...that would have sorted my problems out years ago!
I must admit i have in the past.....and today when i discovered that in fact a disaster hadn't in fact happened.....I slipped in an algae pellet that usually gets fed to the fish in my trop tank.. In years past when they have been as you would expect, ie wriggling swimming taddies, they have attacked it with a vengeance! I have a greenhouse...maybe I should have raised them up a bit there first....Still what's done is done. Next year maybe!
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Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
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A salutary tale...
Or maybe not if you aren't as stupid as I was. I had a very large plastic box (Curver type) which I filled pretty full with pond water and collected rainwater. I thought it would be good for tadpole rearing. Sadly the surface area to depth ratio was inadequate and often the tadpoles would be gasping. I had an electric pump so I thought I would put that in to aerate the water. Gradually the tadpoles seemed to be disappearing. Eventually I took it out of the box and discovered a black paste of tadpole corpses inside. They had been sucked into the pump! I should have had it tucked under gravel or similar. You live and learn - sadly the tadpoles didn't. |
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Suz
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Tom Omlette
Senior Member Joined: 07 Nov 2013 Location: Stoke on Trent Status: Offline Points: 449 |
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well definitely don't win now. i should know by now that its always april before i get any proper spawn Edited by Tom Omlette - 05 Apr 2015 at 1:55am |
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