the online meeting place for all who love our amphibians and reptiles |
|
Frogs spawn |
Post Reply | Page <1 910111213> |
Author | |
Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Oh no what a sad ending! Have you laid a new liner?
|
|
Suz
|
|
lalchitri
Senior Member Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Status: Offline Points: 160 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Last year was a disaster for me.
Probably the most spawn I’ve ever had (roughly 100 clumps) yet not a single tadpole survived as the pond lining split and the pond leaked. |
|
Reformed Teetotaller
|
|
Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Went out this morning as the sun started to shine on various refugia. The slow worms only needed fifteen minutes warm up and then they were off. I even spotted a large slow worm just about to go under one of the Coroline covers as the sun started to hit it (nothing underneath at the time). Temperature up to 29 deg here today.
I tried to get a few froglet/taddies but not too successful... This evening I saw about a dozen palmates but discovered wearing a head torch and working a camera is tricky as I created shadows and wasn't sure if to use the flash or not. Edited by Suzy - 26 Jun 2018 at 12:01am |
|
Suz
|
|
will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
It will be interesting to track their progress - maybe they'll keep growing and become neotenous!
|
|
GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
I would guess they were this years Will, but only from the fact that I saw none at all when torching earlier in the year. It is a real mystery as I have seen smooth newt larvae very often and nothing even approaching the size of these. Some have lost their gills and are swimming about with the adults. There are no normal sized ones I've seen either!
Edited by GemmaJF - 30 May 2018 at 11:33pm |
|
Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Well Lalchitri how did your frog spawn do? Hardly space to swim I should imagine if all the spawn developed!
|
|
Suz
|
|
Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
I have seen a few overwintering palmate larvae in my ponds. I don't have smooth newts. As I said previously I spend hours pond watching and seen ne'er a sign of any GCNs surfacing. I don't think they're in the big pond this year. The small pond is covered in duckweed and other weeds so not sure what's in there newt wise, although have seen palmates for sure earlier in the season before the duckweed took over.
How pleasing Gemma that you've now got froglets. Makes it all worthwhile. I'm guessing palmates are a bit too small to grab froglets. The tadpoles are on the hefty size so I'm hoping they're safe too.
|
|
Suz
|
|
will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
could they be last year's larvae overwintered, Gemma?
|
|
GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
Brilliant Suz, been a while now since ours were released and we have plenty of froglets, just have to be careful at the moment not to tread on them! Was quite surprised to see an adult male smooth newt the other night with frolet legs hanging out of its mouth! Knew they took tadpoles but first time I've seen one eat a fully emerged froglet. Not seen any GCN larva, but oddly the smooth newt larva have grown huge this year. I'm use to seeing quite small ones but they look more like sub-adults with gills this year. Was a bit confusing as I was half hoping for GCN larva that I would expect to be large, but all definitely smooth newt larva that I have seen so far.
|
|
Suzy
Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1447 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
This past week I've put about 90% of my container reared taddies back in the pond. I had been putting about 20/30 a day in the small pond until last Friday when I saw a herring gull stood by the containers and worried it was going to start going for them. After that I released the entire contents of five trays and put a metal grill over the remaining container. It would have been tricky to cover all the containers and as they had good sized taddies in it prompted me to release them. I also released about 30 into the larger pond to see how they fared. My worries about the larger pond are that it is not where the spawn was laid (do mother frogs know what's best?) and there are lots of back swimmers which I've seen in other ponds catch taddies. I would think this is one of my most successful years for hand rearing. I had the containers placed to receive a maximum of just over an hour's sun a day. I didn't change the water at all and although it got green it didn't seem to bother the taddies. There were rafts of duckweed in the containers and some small emerging plants of frogbit. I fed lettuce puree to them but it wasn't as popular as previous years so I went on to fish pellets. They liked those, and I hope weren't detrimental. They got a good size and the containers were probably overstocked really. I expect they will be developing legs very soon. The ones I released in the larger pond seem to be surviving. I do spend hours pond gazing and have seen good numbers in there. So am hoping to see froglets soon.
|
|
Suz
|
|
Post Reply | Page <1 910111213> |
Tweet
|
Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |