rescuing frogspawn

[mart_d50]

A couple of days ago I rescued a lot of frogspawn, probably about 5kgs worth. I found it whilst walking the dog at a house about 300m away which backs onto woodland, and the owner had dumped the frogspawn over their back fence. I looked through a hole in the fence into their garden and it would appear the owner has a large pond full of koi, and for whatever reason obviously doesn't want natural wildlife in it.

I've brought all the spawn home and it's now in a large plastic container, filled with a mixture of rain and water from my own pond. My own wildlife pond is in it's 4th year and has never had any spawn in it until recently, produced by a single pair of frogs. I have collected this spawn in a separate container keeping it in the house at the moment to avoid the snowy spell, there is not much of it, perhaps 500 or so eggs. The spawn I rescued must have probably 10 times as many eggs.

I am in a dilemma as to what to do with the rescued spawn after reading about the frog viruses (ranavirus ?) etc. and what the chances are of it infecting my existing spawn and pond. That is IF it contains the virus, I don't suppose there are any tests you can do to see if it exists ? otherwise it would really hurt to have to dispose of it

[Ukwildlifeo]

Got to love some of these koi owners sometimes , thank god most people with koi/ponds tolerate/enjoy our native amphibians.

Anyway back to your question if the spawn was 300m away from your pond I would imagine your frogs may be from the same population as them. HOWEVER im not an expert on this: You best bet ti to contact some like froglife and ask them for advice

[mart_d50]

thanks

it is about 5 minutes walk away although there are 3 side roads to cross in a modern housing estate

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by mart_d50

thanks

it is about 5 minutes walk away although there are 3 side roads to cross in a modern housing estate

Have you contacted froglife They are very good with advice. They will say weather it is safe to let the spawn be put into your pond after the bad weather. There is also a very bad fungus/virus from abroad going through the amphibians at the moment..you can do a swab test but frog life will advise you about this..I think it was on countryfile last Sunday.

[Dan Salter]

Hmm this is interesting and a bit worrying.

The Koi owner is either clearly just an idiot...or ...im wondering wether the recent tv reports on the amphibian virus/fungus have caused some kind of scare and people with "prized exotic things" in their pond think it may be a threat to their fish so are getting rid of the spawn/frogs?...i do hope not but it would not suprise me one little bit these days.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

Hmm this is interesting and a bit worrying.

The Koi owner is either clearly just an idiot...or ...im wondering wether the recent tv reports on the amphibian virus/fungus have caused some kind of scare and people with "prized exotic things" in their pond think it may be a threat to their fish so are getting rid of the spawn/frogs?...i do hope not but it would not suprise me one little bit these days.

Interesting point Dan

[witham]

we have Koi in our big pond but I recently 'rescued' half a bucket of frogspawn from a 'dip' in the field we rent that fills with water when the water table's high or after a heavy shower, the froggies had obviously decided to stop and do their thing there rather than carry on a bit further to our pond as at that time we'd unusually had no spawn at all. If left and all the spawn had hatched there would have been little or no water left for it to survive or the wild birds would have found it or worse the sheep or our pony would have paddled through it and mushed it all up.

[Digifrog]

I'm apalled at the behaviour of this Koi owner. Does he not realize that our frogs are a protected species? People like that make my blood boil. If it were me I'd have words with him and ask the idiot that if he feels the need to dispose of frogspawn so insensitively then he should contact me so that I can collect it from him and care for it myself. You might want to do this as I'm sure he'll just do the same thing next year.

I would have no qualms adding 'local' frogspawn to a large container & keep them there until they metamorphosize and then let them free in the garden.

Still, some people

[Purplepixii]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

...have caused some kind of scare and people with "prized exotic things" in their pond think it may be a threat to their fish so are getting rid of the spawn/frogs?...i do hope not but it would not suprise me one little bit these days.

Don't tarr all us Koi owners with the same brush Dan or I'll personally beat you with it!

[mart_d50]

to tell the whole story I have seen frogspawn dumped over his back fence for the last 2 years, this year I made a point of going past his garden every day seeing if he would do it again, and sure enough, he has !

his fence actually backs onto a bit of a woodland path, and some of the spawn was mushed by an early dog walker, but a lot of it I managed to save before any further damage

none of the spawn has any sign of developing yet even though my own frogspawn has just hatched hundreds of taddys

I will keep the spawn in the large container and also see what froglife think about it

many thanks
Martin