Flatworms and tadpoles

vole-woman · #1 (**permalink**) 06-04-2011, 07:30 AM

Just a quick question: I've accidentally brought in some flatworms with my bowl of tadpoles - will the flatworms eat the tadpoles?

The Woodman · #2 (**permalink**) 06-04-2011, 07:43 AM

I doubt these lowly creatures are quick enough to get near a tadpole!

They feed on worms, snails, crustaceans and other organisms, usually on injured or dead individuals. They secrete a mucus to help hold their prey.

The pharynx protrudes and the food is sucked through it into the simple gut.

vole-woman · #3 (**permalink**) 06-04-2011, 08:22 AM

Ah, thanks. So ideally I should be feeding them as well?

The Woodman · #4 (**permalink**) 06-04-2011, 08:29 AM

I see no problem with that or return to them to source.

I think a little food would go a long way. Perhaps a tiny bit of liver or catfood. The tadpoles will eat that as well though. Don't know if they eat the resultant jelly after the taddy has hatched.

Last year I fed my tadpoles for a time on dog food pellets as a result of a chance observation. I use one of those complete pelleted foods and found that tadpoles love eating a floating pellet. They would surround it and nibble away until it was gone.

Could make an interesting observation.

vole-woman · #5 (**permalink**) 06-04-2011, 08:49 AM

OK. Tads are eating boiled lettuce at the moment, so that'll be no use to the flatworms. I don't have dogs or cats myself but I could go beg a pellet or two from a neighbour. Mysterious little animals, aren't they?

Adam Cheeseman · #6 (**permalink**) 06-04-2011, 10:25 AM

Could you not just let them find their own food? Adding food to the water will, to some degree, raise the nutrient levels of the pond.

Cheers,

Adam

vole-woman · #7 (**permalink**) 06-04-2011, 10:35 AM

These are in a bowl inside the house. I've got maybe 40 tads, 7 or 8 flatworms, a length of Canadian pondweed and some boiled lettuce, plus whatever microscopic wildlife came in with the garden pond-water.

(I always bring in a little clump of spawn so the kids can watch it develop. Then we put the froglets back in the garden pond.)

Kayleigh · #8 (**permalink**) 07-04-2011, 07:28 PM

Can you fish them out and put them back in the pond as I am worried about the food they will find if they dont eat the tads they might starve so I think they would be better off in the pond.

vole-woman · #9 (**permalink**) 07-04-2011, 08:14 PM

OK, I'll have a try tomorrow.

vole-woman · #10 (**permalink**) 07-04-2011, 09:09 PM

I dropped a bit of meat in and now all the flatworms are on it feeding. Tomorrow I can either lift out the meat and return them to the pond in a cluster, or if they've dispersed, use another piece of meat to gather them the same way.

It's a relief: I was worried that if I tried to pick them up with my fingers I'd damage them and they're too stuck to the bowl to use a little net.