Frogs and Frogspawn

[dalomesser]

Hi my name is dale,

Im woundering if anyone could tell me how to protect frogspawn from predators such as birds and fish.

Thanks.

[speckled wood]

I would think that moving it to a large water barrel and covering it with wire netting would solve the two problems. Really though it might be better to either get rid of the fish or make a separate fish fre pond, as to protecting from birds I don't think that there would be a real need to do this in such a pond as more than enough spawn would survive anyway.

[nightshade]

My pond regularly (this statment could change all that ) has hundreds of frogs and toads
spawning,few seem to disappear through predation by the incumbant fish(20+) magpies eat
them in fact all the local corvids have a go and blackbirds but at the end of the day there
are still plenty of froglets and toadlets
At one time I had a separate shallow pond (about a spades depth) lined with a pond liner
offcut and spawn was placed in it to keep it safe from the fish but the effect was negligable

[smartie]

I've got about a dozen fish, with newts and frogs, and the balance seems to work out reasonably well - some of the spawn survives every year and the frog/newt population is growing slowly. The newts have been seen nibbling frog spawn - can't say whether the frogs reciprocate.

My neighbour, who doesn't have fish, is completely overwhelmed by the frog population in the spring, since there is little to predate on the spawn and the frogs tend to come back to their own spawning place to breed. It looks a bit like one of the 10 plagues of Egypt when it's going on. Her pond gets so choked with spawn now that she has to export some.

[Dogghound]

The best way i can think of is to use marginal plants to cut of a small area of pond where you can put the frog spawn, away from the fish! iv never had frogs breed in the pond but there's plenty about in the surrounding vegetation!

[JohnKitching]

I have a smallish pond with maybe 10 - 12 small goldfish and perhaps half a dozen large frogs. The frogs produced a football sized mass of frogspawn which hatched and the tadpoles were seen in a big mass in mid April. After maybe two days there was no sign of the tadpoles, is it likely the fish ate them? I'm sceptical about it being the fish as they don't appear to be eating anything else (I try a handful of pellets every few days but they show no interest)

[Red Robin]

I introduced some frogspawn from about 50 yds away - A practice which most WABers frown on. I then discovered that about 5 Palmate Newts had invited themselves to the party and the tadpole population nose dived! I also found the discarded skin of a Dragonfly nymph in my pond and that suggests I've got one. It also means that lots of things will get eaten by it. My pond is quite small but I still haven't managed to spot it.

I don't think you should try and protect one wild species from another - It's all part of nature's food chain. However, I will protect everything I can against cats and will chase, frighten, and harrass them if even near to my property.

[NYBraby]

I have only been in my current house for under a year and not a single frog in my refurbished pond. Although I have lots and lots of Newts, can't have it all I suppose, watching newts is my new favourite pass time.

[Red Robin]

Originally Posted by NYBraby

I have only been in my current house for under a year and not a single frog in my refurbished pond. Although I have lots and lots of Newts, can't have it all I suppose, watching newts is my new favourite pass time.

....I find watching newts far more fascinating than frogs. Also, frogs are likely to eat the newt tadpoles < Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by JohnKitching

I have a smallish pond with maybe 10 - 12 small goldfish and perhaps half a dozen large frogs. The frogs produced a football sized mass of frogspawn which hatched and the tadpoles were seen in a big mass in mid April. After maybe two days there was no sign of the tadpoles, is it likely the fish ate them? I'm sceptical about it being the fish as they don't appear to be eating anything else (I try a handful of pellets every few days but they show no interest)

Oh yes without a doubt your fish ate them, frog tadpoles are very tasty! They probably didn't eat your pellets because they were full (both of tadpoles and other visiting invertebrates) Its very difficult to have a successful population of breeding frogs and goldfish in the same pond unless there's lots and lots of vegetation for the tadpoles and froglets to hide in. Toads fair better because the tadpoles taste bad.

Frogs are better in the sort of natural pond that dries out periodically because these ponds generally don't support fish.