Please advise me on frogs in the skimmer.

This is crazy. I always look forward to the frogs arrival after winter, but I know very little about them other than last year they left hundreds of tadpoles behind.

Last night for the first time this year I heard the frogs all night long. I was soo happy. Then this morning, while doing my normal skimmer check, I find 3 of them in the skimmer. Two doing the wild thing I think, a small one securely attached to a bigger one's back.

Not knowing weather or not frogs can get out of a skimmer I rescued them. (Yes, I left the lovers together). None of the frogs were in the skimmer basket itself like you'd expect, where leaves and debris collect, they somehow managed to get outside the basket yet still inside the confines of the skimmer. Unless they can climb the slippery skimmer walls and lift the lid, the only way back out is to get back into the skimmer basket, and swim upstream out the skimmer hole.

But the pump is 4500 gpm, so there's quite a bit of flow going into the skimmer. Making for quite an up-hill swim to get out. I know they have strong legs, but the question is how strong? and are frogs smart enough to know to get back in the basket first? Robyn????

Two years ago, just as winter approached (already had some freezing), I found another frog in the skimmer. He looked beat to me, liked he had fought for days. It was soooo late in the season I couldn't believe he was even still around. I "think" I rescued him too. Again, I'd really like to know are these guys okay in skimmers? or do folks take them out?

Thanks in advance
John

Does anyone have advice on this? Do you take frogs out of skimmers or leave them in? Flow rate 4500gpm.

Please advise.

I don't have any skimmers. One reason I'm not fond of them is that they do suck in plants and animals. I would check your skimmer daily and move any frogs or other things you find to other areas of the pond. It's not very likely they would find there way back out. We do have a skimmer on our pool. On the few occasions when frogs got in there, they drown as the pulling force is much stronger than with a pond skimmer.

Thanks Robyn. If they didn't have a chance in your swimming pool, doubt they'd have much chance in this case either. This morning I rescued three more.

My fish have learned not to get into the skimmer, but the frogs, hummmm!

Maybe I'll leave my skimmer lid open a bit during the season for them to get out.

There sure is allot of active frogs in my pond this year. I mean active, these guys are horny, play grab ass all night long. I'm wondering if I should harvest the tadpoles this year or leave them alone. Last year I left them alone, which is why I think I have soooo many frogs this year. Maybe they returned.

Cheers,
John

As long as the pond isn't overburdered, I would leave the frogs and tadpoles. If you have too many, and the ammonia spikes, etc., you can move some tadpoles to a kiddie pool or another pond. The frogs that morphed last year are still too young to breed and probably don't account for the extra frogs this year. Frog populations tend to grow high and then crash a bit and vary a lot year to year.