Where have the taddies gone.......???

haven't seen them for about 3 weeks now.... they were HUGE, so too big for fish food - plus there is so much insect life, they don't need to snack on taddies....

cleared out loads of blanket weed yesterday, thought that may have disturbed them, but not a sign.... its far too early for them to have turned into frogs and gone, so I'm at a loss!!!???

Any ideas???

 

HB too big for fish food depends on how big are your fish are anything over 3" would find taddies very tasty my Koi will eat full grown frogs, they were pulling at a drowned starling fledgeling the other day had to net the pond to keep things out.In my other pond some taddies have moved out already.

 

think you are right Walnut - the fish are about 4" and growing fast...... must be the high protein diet!!! I only have 6 fish - and started off with 100's of taddies..... I hope a handful have survived and in hiding. I bought some fish food today in the hope the fish will eat that and not any remaining taddies... time will tell.

 

My larger tadpoles seem to have disappeared over the last few days, apart from a couple of sitings of one or two of them - they got their back legs a week or so ago. I'm hoping it's just that they're lurking about under weed and plants and things, in a sort of grumpy teenager "stage" - I don't have any fish so it can't be that with mine. Hope yours are just hiding too Honey Bee!

 

I'm a bit worried now - my smaller taddies developed into nearly-froglets, with just a bit of a tail left, and have now nearly all disappeared. They may still be around and just shy, or lurking in my neighbour's very overgrown garden - but I saw a water-boatman attached to one of the baby frogs yesterday, and found a dead baby frog floating in the pond this morning - so I fear the worst (my pond is absolutely heaving with water boatment). Hope I'm wrong - I know the boatmen need to eat too, but I was very fond of the frogs :(

 

Don't worry Claire some will be out and about in the surrounding undergrowth they will come back when they mature to breed(they usually take 4yrs to reach maturity)you will occasionally see them on damp evenings in the garden hunting down your slugs.

 

Thanks Walnut - for the reassurance and the info, I didn't know they took so long to grow to maturity! I'll look forward to seeing them about, and they are more than welcome to the slugs :D

 

.... just watch out when you are mowing the lawn!!!!!!!

 

:D i don't have a lawn, so that's one less worry!
The jungle next door has been sold (STC) though, so i hope the toads (turns out that is what they are!) have the sense to get out of the way if the new neighbours go out with a strimmer (although a flame thrower might be more appropriate at this stage...)
I did indeed see a baby toad the other day, sitting on the stones under some lobellia next to the pond - i'm not sure who was more surprised! So hopefully there are some more about, and they will quickly grow to slug-eating size!

 

Toads.... You are so lucky!!!!

Hope the new neighbours don't 'nuke the garden - or use slug pellets!!!! Maybe you'll have to run round there and turn them into organic gardeners.... (and they may think you are a nutty neigbour!! )

We haven't seen any baby frogs from our pond, so perhaps all the spawn did die, but we have got one frog still - the pond has struggled this year big time, and we haven't had enough time to tend to it, maybe next year.... and maybe we may even get toads.... (otherwise, I'll be doing a midnight raid on your garden!!! ;o) )

 

Hi Honey Bee,

I know where my are, I was in the garden yesterday nasty and murky weather, but everywhete I looked there was movement. They were really enjoying the dampness. I even found one resilient soul in my garage, so don't despair.

 

Hi Honey Bee,

I know where mine are, I was in the garden yesterday nasty and murky weather, but everywhete I looked there was movement. They were really enjoying the dampness. I even found one resilient soul in my garage, so don't despair.

 

We've had several 'plagues' of froglets during this damp weather.

I've also re-discovered a toad (huge black one) lurking in a garden I work in. I found it earlier in the year when I took a trailer load of rubbish to the recycling depot and had to rescue it out of the composting skip. Put it in a bucket and took it back to its home ground and freed it under a large shrub.

Toads are slow moving and tend to just sort of waddle off rather than jump. Hedgehogs can also be slow on the uptake so if your clearing out undergrowth always check for any critters sheltering there.

 

Good point frogesque! I will probably offer to help the new neighbours if they show any signs of clearing their garden (although the sale's not completed yet, so it'll be a while before that happens) and will bear that in mind. It's so overgrown I wouldn't be surprised if there were lions and tigers and bears in there, let alone hedgehogs and frogs - but it'll be worth pitching in if it means i'm not constantly fighting off invading brambles, thistles and exploded spurge seedlings, and of course it'll mean i can help make sure the wildlife is looked after.
Honey bee, i've only seen toadlets twice - I don't know, i don't think you should give up hope though especially if your garden is a bit, errr, lush (i've had terrible trouble keeping on top of mine, combination of lots of rain, not much time, and not really knowing what i'm doing, i think!) means they've plenty of places to hide, and everything's nice and damp so i guess they don't need to go back to the pond that much... might make your toad-stealing expedition a bit tricky too! If they have disappeared, i'll keep my fingers crossed for you for next year

 

I have 2 ponds, one ornamental with several koi and a smaller wildlife pond. We only made them this Easter and I scrounged a bucket of frog spawn off a neighbour. Blimey I fussed over the little chaps as they grew and kept transferring taddies into the other pond when we got the fish. I saw one or two (out of hundreds) crawl out but otherwise was disappointed. Around the wild pond we've grown ferns and even made a rather bijou hidey hole out of a pile of logs. Today to my delight (maybe the weather was perfect) I've seen 3-4 large frogs plus lots of little froglets! I'm as happy as Larry!!(whoever he is) Just shows...survival eh!!