Strangely Marked Tadpoles

[Wynter]

Hey,
We have a wild pond in our garden and its about a year old. We have always kept tadpoles in containers though outside and most have grew into successful frogs. And this year the adult frogs have laid eggs and the tadpoles have hatched in the pond. But we have noticed that while most of them have grown into froglets by now. But their are a few stragglers left! Most of them have stunted tails and are light & dark in colour, but some are molted with black stripes on the sides, and some with black heads like hoods. The stripes also come from the corner of their eyes and along their backs. I haven't seen this before in any tadpoles we have had and I was wondering if its a diesease?.

We have minnows in our pond too and they are fine. Help please!

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Wynter

Hey,
We have a wild pond in our garden and its about a year old. We have always kept tadpoles in containers though outside and most have grew into successful frogs. And this year the adult frogs have laid eggs and the tadpoles have hatched in the pond. But we have noticed that while most of them have grown into froglets by now. But their are a few stragglers left! Most of them have stunted tails and are light & dark in colour, but some are molted with black stripes on the sides, and some with black heads like hoods. The stripes also come from the corner of their eyes and along their backs. I haven't seen this before in any tadpoles we have had and I was wondering if its a diesease?.

We have minnows in our pond too and they are fine. Help please!

It doesnt sound like a disease, can you get a photo? could be malnourished, is it the first year of tadpoles in this pond? is there lots of invertibrates in the pond and is there also alot of decayed matter in the pond?

[Wynter]

Hey, i managed to get two photo's of one of them. But it appears most of the worser ones have vanished! :S. Anyway, on these photos you can see the vertical band of black which runs down past the eye on both sides and some other dark speckles which I haven't seen before. This one isnt by far the strangest we have had. We had one who's head was completely hooded in black and the rest was the normal tan-brown colour. Odd.

[Dogghound]

Well first they appear healthy and a normal color, second they are common frog tadpoles Rana temporaria , just the strange black dots are abit odd, although tadpoles of all species do range in color, chances are your others have left the pond by now. the blackband is normal just these tadpoles are quite pale so it shows up, seem a little underdeveloped aswell. Is it the first lot in this pond? Is it a clean pond or is there plenty of debris etc?

[Wynter]

It is the first lot of tadpoles in the pond. And i don't know about the debris in the pond, we do try and take out all the leaves and stuff which get in there. But it could be possible that there are some that are decaying in there or something. Most have turned into froglets by now, but there are still a few left. And as i say, we have minnows in there and they are doing great. Its just the tadpoles seem a little off.

[Dogghound]

Perhaps there hasnt been enough food, often in a new pond its just not mature enough to support large amounts of invertibrates, the debris does help support wildlife, if you have had some success then thats great, as the pond matures im sure you will get far better quality tadpoles.