Moving frog spawn!

[Bumderess]

Over the weekend we discovered that some kind little frog had laid some frog spawn in our sandpit (which is still full of water from the winter but no sand), my girls were delighted with their 'new pets'! This morning i discovered that the girls had divided the spawn into 2 seperate buckets presumably because they wanted to take ownership of their pets. We now have 3 grown frogs still in the sandpit and 2 buckets of spawn. My question is do i put the spawn back into the sandpit with the frogs or leave everything well alone? I don't want to risk any damage to the spawn.

Thanks

[Paul mabbott]

Unless your sandpit has turned into a pond, the spawn is safer in the bucket; it will dry out without water. Be prepared to move the spawn on into a bigger bucket or proper pond!. Good luck.
PS: re-reading I see that your sandpit actually is a pond: how long will it stay that way?

[nightshade]

The Frogs will shift for themselves, the tempory pond will not have a food supply, so as Paul says better in the bucket until a more suitable container can be found I had a small inexpensive aquarium tank for my childrens tadpoles but they will need some dry land to come out on later http://www.froglife.org/

[werdnal]

When you eventually want to re-home your spawn or any resulting tadpoles, ask around your immediate neighbours to see if anyone has a pond you can put them in. It is not advisable to move spawn too far as it can spread disease and viruses, but obviously at the moment you have no choice. Keeping it local will reduce the chance of introducing any "nasties" to an clean area.

I usually take a small tank of frogspawn to our village playgroup where I work, for the children to watch hatch and turn into tads. When they have finished with them I bring them back to my pond where they originated. You can keep some spawn for your girls to watch, but I wouldn't advise keeping too much in a small bucket. The water will quickly become polluted and the tads may turn cannibal if there are too many in a small space. Perhaps invest in a mini plastic pet shop tank or a large goldfish bowl.

You will need to change about 10% of the water every week. Try to use natrual water collected from outside (I use pond water, but water butt etc will do). If you cannot collect from outside, run some tap water into an open container (bucket etc) and leave for 24 hours and use this. This allows any chlorine or chemicals in the water to evaporate, making it safe for the tadpoles.

You can feed them a small amount of flake goldfish food, and they also enjoy lettuce apparently although I have never tried this. Be sparing with the food, a pinch a couple times a day, otherwise this can poison the water too.

[Bumderess]

Many thanks to you all for the advice. I think i will keep the sandpit as a pond for now and transfer the spawn back into it. I'll print the info off and give it to my girls and the care of the spawn and any future tadpoles can be their little project. Thanks again.

[dampflippers]

I was about to suggest keeping the sandpit as a pond.
Ask around to see if your neighbours with ponds can give you some weed. (oxygenating plant)

FAQs: raising tadpoles in captivity

You can make a really nice little pond with a sandpit- I did once while I was building my first pond.
A friend also had one on her allotment and it was amazing!

(Then look on freecycle for a replacement sandpit!)

[Bumderess]

Our tadpoles hatched 2 weeks ago, there are hundreds of them swimming around! I gave them some fish flakes today and they didn't seem particularly keen, i will try them with some lettuce tomorrow and see how they like that.

[Farplace]

You could try a cooked chicken leg bone - dangle it in the water with string. Don't leave it in long enough to go "off"

[Putorius]

The tadpoles will be herbivorous until the back legs develop. Herbivorous fish flake is freely available at aquarium shops, replace it with carnivorous fish flake once the back legs begin to bud.

[Bumderess]

The tadpoles love the chicken bones, the bones only have to be in the water for seconds before they are completely covered in tadpoles! It's amazing to watch. Thanks for all the advice.