should tadpoles develop at a different pace

[danny boy]

hey, is it ok that the tadpoles in my pond are at completely different stages even though they hatched on the same day? some have turned into frogs and left, but some still arent even at full size yet, some are still quite small, and seen as there wasnt much frogspawn this year, id like as many as possible to survive. Oh and one more thing, do frogs come back to the pond they were born from more often than other ponds, or do they sometimes just forget about it, and never come back

[marvin]

hi

yes its quite normal. some tadpoles may even over winter in the pond before emerging as full metamorphs in the spring.

frogs don't always return to the same place they were born. some may but others will disperse to other bodies of water. this, of course, also means that new frogs will find their way to your pond too so don't worry.

tim

[shotski]

Originally Posted by marvin

hi

yes its quite normal. some tadpoles may even over winter in the pond before emerging as full metamorphs in the spring.

frogs don't always return to the same place they were born. some may but others will disperse to other bodies of water. this, of course, also means that new frogs will find their way to your pond too so don't worry.

tim

Hi Marvin
I have never known a 'common' frog tadpole to overwinter and emerge the
following spring ? Other species of frog tadpoles do sometimes overwinter
but I have not seen this (yet) in the common frog.

Shotski

[marvin]

hi

it usually happens in sub optimal conditions, e.g. too much shade, high altitude/latitude, insufficient nutrition, too many tadpoles, where larvae aren't always able to fully metamorph the given timescales. i don't think it's particularly uncommon.

tim

[GCN lova]

hi,

its very natural for them to develop at different paces as said allready because it might be that there isnt enough food or too much shade .

GCN lova

[Ladywell]

We have a series of spring fed troughs on our farm - frogs lay spawn in just one of them - the running water spills them over into the other troughs - then when we are fetching water we have to sieve it - to rescue the tadpoles & tip them into other troughs! We have big ones, tiny ones, and medium ones - but all hatched about the same time. I have never found overwintering tadpoles though.

[toadpole]

i have got tadpole at all different stages all from the same spawn ...and have had a few swimming about in oct -nov in previous years , that stayed very small and never developed legs ...but they were never seen after it turned very cold i dont know what would of happened if they had been inside in a tank over the winter ....i remember many many years ago when my son was small (28 yrs ago )i brought 2 giant bullfrog tadpoles from a local petshop (yes i know now !!) anyway we had just built my first pond in the house we had just moved into and put them in there ....well the first one changed into a frog that same year and next doors cat caught it and killed it ....and the second one developed back legs but not the front ones ...and winter came and went and we thought it had died ...but low and behold the next spring it was seen again in the pond and then went on to produce its front legs and climbed out of the pond to nearby stones where it was found dead and what looked like a bird had been pecking at it ...probably a good thing with hindsight as if they had survived and grown to full size etc well we wont go there ....but we will never forget having those GIANT tadpoles 5 inches long !!!! and still talk about them each time my son visits and looks at my pond ...but the pet shop had loads in there ...but i have never heard of them living wild in the uk ...so i would think they all perished ....obviously they cannot be sold like that anymore ....but they were in days gone by Marion

[shotski]

Hi ToadpoleThe bullfrog tadpoles did indeed survive in this country and got quite well established in surrey (I think). I am sure it was only one big site and they were desrtoyed by the enviroment agency.As for common tads over wintering, I have had a look(google) and it is very common in scotland and scandanavia and as marvin says altitude etc.I also had two bullfrog tadpoles as a kid but they both died when the pond froze over

[toadpole]

OMG i never realised that ....every time we saw an american wildlife programme with them on we allways said thank goodness they died as we moved the following year and would have feared for all the cats that lived in the vacinity !!!!!thanks for that info shotski ..Marion

[lovecrawlies]

..and I'm glad I checked before posting pretty much the same question. Have just released my taddlers from their aquarium asylum back into the pond. I was worried that something about the aquarium lifestyle had caused some to have arrested development, as they were at all stages from legless to tailess (all three photos below were taken this morning, and they all started in the same blob of frogspawn).






Now that most of the big beetles and beetle larvae seem to be less evident in the pond, I'm hoping they'll have a good chance of survival, assuming they're big enough to evade the newts who were eating the frogspawn in the first place...!