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Help needed with frogs

Hi everyone,
I am going to get some frogs(or it might be toads eggs, not sure) from the local pond and put it in a plastic bottle with pond water and I will raise some frogllets. I have a plastic tank outside where I can put them in when they get a bit bigger.
Mya I ask, what do I feed them? And what should i put in the water with them?plants?snails?
Please help,
Dino
 
Amphibians are getting rarer and rarer by the day. Taking out just one batch of eggs can greatly hurt the local frog population. The best advice I could give you is to not take any at all, but buy them from a pet shop (not wild collected though). However, if you feel you must have some, take only 5 or 10 eggs. Do NOT feed them the pet store flake tadpole food (and no pellets either). Do you know what specie it is? That would help me give you "cultivation" tips as we horticulturists call it
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really? here we are encouraged to take some and raise tedpoles untill they are baby frog size, because out of like 300 eggs only 4 or 5 survive.
But if I put them back when they are baby frogs, say I took 300 eggs(which I wont lol its too much)then at least 50 will survive.

well I dont know how to feed them or what to feed them lol preferably natural foods like pond weed
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Starman @ Mar. 15 2005,10:27)]really? here we are encouraged to take some and raise tedpoles untill they are baby frog size, because out of like 300 eggs only 4 or 5 survive.
But if I put them back when they are baby frogs, say I took 300 eggs(which I wont lol its too much)then at least 50 will survive.

well I dont know how to feed them or what to feed them lol preferably natural foods like pond weed
They'll probably just eat algae at first. Get a tank going and let the algae grow until it covers the glass, then get yourself some eggs. What specie is it? I am not familiar with the species in the UK. If it was the USA I would guess a leopard frog
 
well I dont know what species but the pond is very close to my house

I have a tank which will be perfect for them Il fill that up with rainwater and let the algea grow for a bit before getting eggs
 
OK. You'll also need to have a little "dry land area" for the froglets to climb up on, once they are done morphing.
 
I was thinking about that actually.....thank you
 
How much surface you have will dictate how many tads you should attempt to raise.  I have a 250 gallon herp pond here. It was created for the sole purpose of relocating tads from naturally occuring vernal ponds in the local vicinity. One addition you might want to seriously consider would be an air pump and an air stone. The rain water is very good however the water must be able to retain its oxygen levels.  Regarding what you can feed tads, small portions of frozen spinach will be a start in addition to any algae that may be in the tank. Remove what spinach the tads do not eat in 10 minutes to reduce waste. Regarding lighting, if this tank is outside that will not be an issue. If it is inside, proper lighting will be every bit as important as a place for them to crawl out.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (LauraZ5 @ Mar. 15 2005,1:16)]How much surface you have will dictate how many tads you should attempt to raise.  I have a 250 gallon herp pond here. It was created for the sole purpose of relocating tads from naturally occuring vernal ponds in the local vicinity. One addition you might want to seriously consider would be an air pump and an air stone. The rain water is very good however the water must be able to retain its oxygen levels.  Regarding what you can feed tads, small portions of frozen spinach will be a start in addition to any algae that may be in the tank. Remove what spinach the tads do not eat in 10 minutes to reduce waste. Regarding lighting, if this tank is outside that will not be an issue. If it is inside, proper lighting will be every bit as important as a place for them to crawl out.
Hmm.. Let me add to that a lil
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If it's outside, be careful of the water overheating. And birds. The air stone is a good idea. Also, they love frozen bloodworms.
 
  • #10
frozen bloodworms, right, Im off to the pet shop a.s.a.p
 
  • #11
what about an oxygen plant?

edit: there was a lid for the tank I gotta find it, if I cant Il have to find something else to cover the surface to stop bird invaders. any ideas?
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Starman @ Mar. 15 2005,1:20)]frozen bloodworms, right, Im off to the pet shop a.s.a.p
Wait a minute before you go to the petstore. Here's a longer list of items
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I have heard that if you run out of food, goldfish flakes can be used as an emergency food.

Be careful of dragonfly larvae, they nibble on tadpoles.

The bloodworms are for a later stage. At first they eat greens and move on to meat.

They also love daphina. Get the kind in little packets at the fish store (not frozen, but in packets, wet)

When the eggs hatch, don't remove the egg cases, because they'll eat them for their first meal. Not sure why but I think they have a lot of important nutrients they need for starting off.

Don't use tap water, use spring or distilled.

They like lettuce. Boil it for 15 minutes and freeze it.

They like pond weed

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/conker/pond-dip/pond-making.htm

I just read online that this is a good tadpole food recipe:

Crushed algae tablets; fish flake; cuttlefish bone; and pollen.
 
  • #13
Lol. Dino if you start those waterlily seeds now maybe by the time the froglets are ready they`d have floating leaves for them to grow on. I actually recomend an african clawed frog,Xenopus laevis,wich are completley aquatic and will live in a fish tank under water there whole life. I have a young male albino and he`s so funny! I put an earthworm or 2 in the tank and he grabs them in his hands and shubs them down his throat! So cool! They also come in the wild grey color,golden,and pied. There are also other species of Xenopis too.
 
  • #14
Not too sure how many eggs you plan on getting but if your plastic tank is the size I think it is bigger would be nice. You might be able to get a 10gallon tank cheap somewhere. This would help keep the water clean. Change water often, and feed with fish flakes and similar things. When the front legs show(seems the right one always comes first)lower the water level to a few inches and add some rocks or similar for a land area. You could then release the froglets after they morph. Raising them unless you happen to have a constant supply of small live food is impractical.
 
  • #15
I have a little bit more time now.  What you are doing sounds like a lot of fun.  Good for you!

I keep overlooking that you are planning on raising your tads in an aquarium.  What size aquarium do you have? The reason I ask is that I have a very small whisper pump for oxygenation in my pond.  This type of a bubbler might create a problem in a smaller habitat such as an aquarium. Bubblers can result in death of older metamorphosing tadpoles.  Tads can become bloated with air. They then float on the surface and die. It’s a type of gas disease. You might be better off hooking up a pump and a filter and forgoing a small bubbler. My other thoughts are that tads/frogs produce considerably more waste than a few goldfish so you will need a way to keep the water clean. I am really sorry but I missed the obvious which is that you are planning on doing this in an aquarium. I really think you’re going to have to hook up a pump and filter to keep their water clean because the water has to be changed to insure the health of your tads. I use biofilters but you don’t have time to get one of those up and running so perhaps you can seek help choosing a very basic filtration system from a local pet shop.

SunDoode reminded me of something.  I forgot to mention that the spinach is offered out the gate.  I add other food as the tads develolp.  After about a week I add Wardley gold fish flakes. At about the 2nd to the 3rd week,  I then purchase brine shrimp and begin offering that. My tad pond is outside in a woodland setting and my tads are treated to all kids of critters that go bump in the pond in addition to the algae. Most notably, mosquito larva. You might want to do a little research on the Internet and see what’s out there for aquarium raised tads.  "More captive amphibians die from food-related problems than for any other reason. The most common problem is failure to offer suitable prey items, which vary from species to species. Lack of variety in the diet leading to metabolic deficiencies is also a common problem. Living prey should form the bulk of the diet for most species. Non-living "convenience foods" can form a useful part of the diet for some species but should never for the bulk of the diet for any species.” The boiled lettuce above sounds interesting, I'll have to try that.

Don't be worrying about dragonflies or damselflies. Your aquarium wasn't sitting outside last year. Me, I have to worry as I saw a few dragonflies ovipositing in my pond.

Later on after your tads morph please keep this in mind, frogs will eat smaller frogs just like some fish eat smaller fish. Heck, even smaller frogs will try to eat larger frogs. Frogs are a lot like dogs only they are more aggressive about “marking” their territory. There is a certain amount of hunting space that a frog will claim and if other frogs invade that space; they will be chased away, eaten, or beaten until they die or go away.  It’s a frog eat frog world out there. I add these comments in the event your chose let them go their merry way.  If you attempt to keep them all, you might have a froggie genocide on your hands.

If it is any consolation to you, I have had tremendous successes with tads. Mine all hop away though to "bluer pastures".

My single greatest struggle is keeping a big bullfrog from another pond of mine out of my tad pond. Big Bertha the bull frog likes to hang out around that pond waiting to see what hops out in front of her face. What an opportunist she is!  

Here’s a neat link to a person who kept a journal.
http://aquaticfrogs.tripod.com/id30.html
I had saved this link for my kids but found that I thoroughly enjoyed it myself.
 
  • #16
more importantly, are you sure they're anuran (frog/toad) eggs and not salamander eggs? salamander larvae are a pain to keep so if they are salamander eggs I'd just leave them alone or just keep them long enough so they hatch. the tadpoles i've raised were even disappointing at how easy it was to take care of them... but the salamander larvae didn't survive very long. what really made me mad was the big one that somehow climbed up a vertical plastic wall during the night (unless it teleported or something :p) and I never saw it again. it was almost a salamander! AAAAHHH!
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what do the eggs look like? you can tell the species by where/how the eggs are (not that I'd know... I basically only know how to ID toad, spotted salamander, and chorus frog eggs)
 
  • #17
Frogs (Ranidae) tend to lay their eggs in clusters while toads (Bufonidae) tend to lay their eggs in strings.

This web page will probably have photos which will hep with the ID-
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/frog3.htm

Salamanders (Sirenidae, Cryptobranchoidea, and Salamandroidea) also lay eggs in clusters.  Have fun with identification. Out your way, try this organization-  http://www.thebhs.org/ might be able to help you out.
 
  • #18
i would greatly discourae u from raising african clawed frogs if ur planning to relese them into the wild
 
  • #19
Perhaps I misinterpreted what Dino is doing. It was my impression, he was attempting to give an indigenous species a helping hand after which he would release them back in the area of the pond from which he took them. No mention of an exotic species as a pet was ever mentioned by Dino.
 
  • #20
no no the idea was to take frog(or toad)spawn from a local pond and release them back in the pond when they are froglets, although I may keep 1 or 2, but it doesnt look likely.
 
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