Dead Frogs

[Stefan]

Hello all,

Today whilst taking out our food waste I walked past our pond, took a look in it to hopefully see some early frogspawn, as I had seen frogs mating over the weekend, only to see 3 dead frogs at the bottom of the pond. 2 looked like they were half way through mating and the third looked like it had "latched on" as well. This happened last year with a frog and a fish aswell. Has anyone heard of this happening and why has it happened?

Photo soon - I only spotted it today in the dark.

Thanks
Stefan

[Kayleigh]

Yes, the males can drown the females in the process of mating..
Sounds like this has happened here..I cant say for sure as I have not seen them for myself.

[Dogghound]

As Kayleigh says mating puts alot of pressure on the females and males can damage them or drown/kill them in the frenzy. As for the fish this happens in the same way, males are in a breeding frenzy and grab anything that comes near including fish, other amphibians, other males etc. Naturally this causes damage to the fish if it clasps onto its head and gills stopping it from breathing. Interesting how you say they are frogs, this is much more common with toads and fish.

[Stefan]

I will get some photographs of it, I suspected as much - they could be toads, the pond is a metre deep and I didn't fish them out, not in the pouring rain. Sad, but relieved it doesn't seem to be anything else

Thanks
Stefan

[Stefan]

Went out to see the pond yesterday, fished the three supposedly dead frogs out, only to find all three alive and well, the third frog jumped away

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Went out to see the pond yesterday, fished the three supposedly dead frogs out, only to find all three alive and well, the third frog jumped away

Glad they were all OK...I fished a dead looking Frog out of my pond only to find it clinging onto a dead looking young tench.
both fish and frog was alive glad to say..
I didn't know I had young fish in the pond we put 2 adult tench in about 4 years ago not seen them since till this young one turned up.

[Stefan]

Yes, they seem to be alright - checked yesterday and counted 35 frogs in the pond.

Off topic a bit but we started out with around 10 or so goldfish, all were eaten within a month or so by a heron, but we had them spawning so now we have around 40 odd 3-7 inch fish swimming around.

[dampflippers]

It's important (from the female point of view) for there to be a shallow area in the pond, and/ or pond weed close to the surface for them to rest on.