Water feature creche

[lavertera]

Hi Everyone
I am a newbie and I have a dilema. We are adoptive parents to tadpoles/baby frogs which is nice but scarey, don't want them to die because I am not doing things right for them. We have a fair sized water feature with water fall over stones. I have not had the water pumps on since seeing the spawn. I was fine till I saw the taddies then eek, what will they feed on, we have no plant life in there, only the fallen leaves from last year with silt but, plenty of bugs swimming around, well there was. Without another thought I went and got fish flakes and the taddies turned into piranahs. Great they were thriving and growing at a pace. I looked through all the web sites I could fine and took on board various bits but, the water is smelly, murky and I have 7 buckets at any one time, standing for above 3 days before I add to the pond.

Sorry about the epic but, I needed to tell you a little before I ask, do I really have to do that? I would really like to replace at least half of it to give them a good chance, or, do they revel in it? I have been stimulating the surface with sticks to encourage oxygen.

Also, I am still feeding the pond fish flakes and even tried uncooked bacon but, I reckon a cats had that. They are now nearly all with legs and a couple are jumping about like idiots, what can I give them?

Thank you for reading this post.

Pam

[healfdan]

Seems to me you are over feeding and the surplus food is what is causing the foul water. Suggest you scoop out as many tadpoles as you can and put them in a bucket of part tap water part pond water. Feed them on fish pellets but only a few and place a bit of lettuce in the water. Keep them out of direct sunlight and place a piece of wood in the water to allow the maturing frogs to climb out when they are ready. As soon as possible address the problems in your pond. deciding if you want a bog garden or a fresh water environment. There are plenty of reference books to help you.
Healfdan

[Dillybythesea]

I do sympathise - it's hard to know what to do for the best. I agree with Healfdan that it sounds as though you've put much too much food in the water. Perhaps it's quite a small area of water? I find with our nature pond (about 4m x 2m) that, despite what they say about tap water, I can regularly top mine up with the hose, with no apparent ill effects, and it means you can jet the water hard into the pond if you feel it's getting short of oxygen. I do feed our tadpoles, but only occasionally, and very sparingly, and only because I don't want them eating all my nymphs, or each other. They wouldn't get such help in a ditch, would they! Good luck, Dill

[lavertera]

Thank you for the good advice, Dill and Healfdan, I will take it all on board. It is a fountain featured pond, with a cascading water fall of stones of different sizes. They go into the water at the base so they have plenty of landing strips and platforms to dive from ha ha. It is edged with stone and the little darlings use this area to shade/hide etc. The water was actually green before the spawn was there and I only gave a little of the flakes but, there were 4 huge rounds of spawn and the taddies had half "hatched" before I realised they were there. I just didn't want them to ail before I found the correct way to look after them. I am glad about the water though, I now can at least do that, thank you. It's just another site had said to leave for at least 3 or more days because of chemicals???

There are no taddies left now and only a couple with a bit of tail. I have found 3 x dead ones today and I think they have prob been got by horse-flies? Don't know if I am right about that though as they were still in the water. We also have some other preditors, ones that would eat them, Magpies and Wood Pigeons?? Magpies I know will eat the little frogs. Fingers crossed that at least some will make it to adult hood.

Again thank you

Pam