tadpole project update

Just in case anyone was wondering how our tadpole project was coming along, I figured I'd toss out an update and some photos. We've made a lot of discoveries about tadpoles and frogs while raising these guys.

First, we discovered that tadpoles MUCH prefer eating their natural foods (water plants) than commercial goldfish flakes (which is what all the helpful books suggest feeding them). We have observed a few of the tadpoles munching on the flakes, but we've seen all of them nibbling at plants, like this one is doing. They also seem to be most active and most hungry early in the morning, and when their water is warm but not too warm. (Our tank is in a window so their water temperature varies a bit throughout the day. We pull the curtains in the late afternoon so that the sun doesn't beat too strongly through the window at them.)

The next thing we learned was that back legs take a long time to grow in (at least for the species of frogs that we have tadpoles of). They start as little useless nubs on either side of their tail, as in that first picture. After a week or two, they start to grow and little by little they start using them to propel themselves while they swim.

Another discovery is that around the time their back legs are really starting to get some use, this species of frog suddenly seems to spring fully formed front legs overnight. By the end of the day when we first notice front legs, they are already starting to practice climbing out on rocks and breathing air, even though they still have a very noticable tail (as in this photo) and still spend the majority of their time in the water. Our books say they don't eat during this time of transition, instead living off the fat stored in their tail, and we have not observed any of the front-legged tadpoles eating, so we assume that's what is going on with them.

It only takes a day or two for that tail to dissappear completely. At that time, these froglets emerge from the water and don't go back. And they need to start eating insects. The froglets are only about half a thumb's nail long, so we can't realistically find food for them. So the only choice is to let them go at the nearby frog pond. We have come to believe that we are growing Gray Tree Frogs, since they easily cling to the glass on the side of the aquarium tank. We could be wrong -- the books we've read say that Gray Tree Frogs are emerald green when they are froglets, and these guys are definitely darker than that. But they do have a green cast to them, and maybe that brighter color comes in once they get a few meals of bugs under their belt. They certainly have no interest in being in the water once they emerge, and we unfortunately had one froglet drown accidentally when we inadvertantly scared him back into the water (for some reason he never turned around to climb back out again, clinging precariously to a water plant instead, and eventually drowning overnight).

One of our froglets, released on the banks of the frog pond. He'll hopefully find his way to a tree or wherever else young Tree Frogs go when they are this small size. He's got a lot of bug-eating and growing to do yet, and there are some dangers that he may meet, including this next fellow:

A nice young bullfrog. Who would be more than happy to make a meal out of our little tree frogs. Maybe he has -- we've released about a dozen froglets by his pond. We've hunted for bullfrog tadpoles in this pond to no avail, despite finding plenty of evidence in tadpole-nibbled pond plants.

We've still got 9 Tree Frog tadpoles yet to finish developing into froglets, then we'll have a choice -- we could keep hunting for tadpoles hoping to capture some bullfrog babies. We could buy bullfrog tadpoles at the local aquatic garden store. Or we could try our hands at keeping something else for awhile, and save more frog-growing until next year.

I guess we'll wait and see what we're moved to do once our tank is empty! In the meantime, we'll continue to enjoy growing out our little Tree Froglets, and will continue to wish them well as we release them by the frog pond.