I went to a large pond in my area today. It's about two blocks down from me, and I've last visited it last summer, but I love it. There's ducks, birds, frogs, everywhere! Today I went and a lot of the trees are missing, there was a lot of mud and the water level had risen. I saw no frogs. Last year, there were loads of very tiny frogs around and I brought two home. They both died within a month... Today, I found nothing except dirty water and lots of black stuff... turns out that black stuff was probably thousands of tadpoles!!! They were tiny and I got some along with water. Does anyone have any idea what kind of tadpoles they may be? There were no eggs around but they are pitch black, they don't swim very well. Could they be the tadpoles of those little frogs? The frogs were a light brown with some brown markings, but I don't remember them too well. Anyone knows what they might be? I'll try to get some pics up as soon as possible.

mariaelena

They could be either frogs or toads. When the first hatch both are tiny and black. I don't know of any way to tell tadpoles apart. I'm sure someone who specializes in amphibians could tell you. I can only tell the difference between frogs and toads in the egg stage and the metamorphosed froglets and toadlets.

Don

Try and get a pic, When frogs or toads first hatch they look nearly the same but then about a week later they will show differences

If you can identify the adult frogs you saw, those could be the parents. I've found that right after hatching, it's normally the toad tadpoles that lay around doing nothing longer. But, some frog tadpoles do too.

Alright, thanks for your help! I've got some pics, but I don't know if they'll do any good. Now that they're in a bigger tub, it's easier to look at them. Should I get a larger space to put them in? I can finally see their eyes, they're clearer than the body. Most of them lay at the bottom. I thought they were dead but when they bump into each other they move, and I placed the container they were in in the tup and now most of them are out, they must have gotten out some way... there's still some in the container, wriggling around, I tried to get them out but they stay in there. They stick to the walls of the tub, but a couple of them are swimming at the top almost all the time. If the whether is good, I'll go back to the pond tomorrow, look for eggs/frogs, and perhaps gather some plants and rocks to put in their tub.
By the way, what should I feed them? I've hear lettuce is good... I gave them finely crushed fish food I used for my fish fry (they were smaller than them) but they don't seem to have eaten it. They mostly stay at the bottom and I think they'd like some sinking food... should I give them algea pellets?

Ok, here are some pictures of the tadpoles..

This is the picture of the tub I have them in right now, there's a rock, my mom made me put it in, she thought they needed some kind of decoration... and there's the container I brought them home with.

This is the most crowded corner, you can see them sticking to the walls.

More pics soon, photobucket is going a bit slow :rolleyes:

They're cute little tadpoles. They won't eat much at first. If you can put in some rocks with algae, they can nibble on that. Aside from that, they will eventually eat fish foods (sinking algae wafers or flakes) as well as some green leafy vegetables (lettuces aren't the best, perhaps try kale for more nutrition) or even Cheerios cereal.

They will eventually need more room but keeping them in a smaller space at first makes it easier for them to find food. As long as the water doesn't get polluted (remove uneaten food within a day), they should be ok. The sooner they can get into a larger pond (without fish to eat them), the faster they will grow. If your pond is full of fish, consider setting the tadpoles up in a tub pond or kiddie pool until they're larger or big enough to not be eaten readily.

I think I may be able to get them a 20 gallon rubbermaid tub, maybe next week. Tomorrow I'm going back to the pond and getting some of the plants around there, some rocks, and other stuff from there... Do you think I should get some water and put it in? The water there is pretty dirty, but did net a small twig from the water and a couple of them are around there... perhaps eating something from it? There were some older tadpoles in the pond, I saw a couple that where whizzing by really fast, I think they were tadpoles, they were too far though, I couldn't get a good look at them. How old do you think they need to be until I can see some changes (different color, bigger size, maybe leg growth)?

Honestly since we dont know what it is- could take months to years before till complete change.

Color- that depending what it is weeks, should turn brown

More tadpole food


I'm keeping a few recently hatched toad tadpoles in a small container for my granddaughter to watch develop and I found that a stick of Reptomin (turtle food) when allowed to float for a few minutes becomes very mushy and when squeezed makes a very fine, silty cloud of nutritious stuff that the tadpoles seem to like. One of the ingredients in Reptomin is algae, so it contains their natural food.

Don

You can put in twigs, rocks, etc. with some algae from the pond. If the water is really dirty, I wouldn't add that. How long it takes to see changes depends on the species and more so it's hard to guess. Tree frogs and toads will change in two months and be gone fast while aquatic frogs like green frogs take a year to morph and bullfrogs take two years (the longest).

Here is an interesting Canadian website to help ID a few common tadpoles:

http://landscape.acadiau.ca/herpatlas/Larv...eggs/larvae.htm

The tadpoles shown may or may not be found in your local area.

We have a few tadpoles that just finished morphing into little micro baby frogs and I am still not sure what kind of frogs they are. LOL They are just too tiny to ID. I am hoping they are leopard frogs but my tadpoles didn't look like the leopard frog tadpole pictured. It took them two months to develop from egg to baby frog. The first little guy just ate its first ant today.

Good luck with your tadpoles :)

Jennifer

Thanks Jennifer, that's a great web site you shared. I have bookmarked it for future reference reading. I have Bullfrogs but only from adding Tadpoles in the past and hope I can get some natural reproduction going some day. I was never aware that Bullfrogs can take up to 3 years to morf into frogs. :huh:
I thought two was the max.
Fm3

Mariaelena:

I'm guessing they're common green frog tadpoles, only because I have tadpoles that are just that size in my pond right now, they're a few weeks old. My toads haven't come out and laid eggs yet, I think they like it a little warmer than it has been. Do get them some algae to munch on and hide in. Have fun!