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Our tadpole population has seen a mysterious and steady decrease as of late. I've been wondering if the bizarre looking water bug dwelling in one of the containers has been eating them, so today I took some time to catch him and get him out of there. But the horror I observed instead was shocking...
The bigger tree frog tadpoles swimming around the top will pause every now and then and oh so very gently nibble on another tadpole's tail. If the nibble-ee gets easily offended and swims vigorously away, all is good.
If the nibble-ee does NOT get easily offended and swim away, the nibble-er goes ahead and takes another nibble. And another. And another. Very soon one or two more of the larger tree frog tadpoles join him and sadly, that's all she wrote for the nibble-ee. :(
If the nibble-ee does NOT get easily offended and swim away, the nibble-er goes ahead and takes another nibble. And another. And another. Very soon one or two more of the larger tree frog tadpoles join him and sadly, that's all she wrote for the nibble-ee. :(
I went ahead and took the biggest tree frog tadpoles out and put them in an isolation tank...I mean, set them up with their own private and quite lovely habitat. I also relocated to another container all the toad tadpoles and the tiniest of the tree frog tadpoles as well. And per someone's sage advice I added some cooked bacon to all the containers - which seems to be helping a little.
Moral of the story and life lessons learned:
#1. If someone nibbles on you, get away from them super quick! Be annoyed, act offended, because your very life may depend on it.
#2. Apparently bacon tastes like tadpole.
We had 2 tadpoles named Jake and Elwood. We had them sent to us when we lived in Alaska. They were really people-focused. Wherever we walked, that's where they'd go. They grew back legs, but never anything more. We moved them with us to Califoria and they lived in the windowsill. But they never finished their morph. Weird. :/
ReplyDeleteLesson #3 could be: If someone is annoying you, toss some bacon at them!
Sue-curious...how long did they live?
DeleteAnd bacon in general is always a good solution. :D
I recently found some of your pins on Pinterest which led me to your blog! Recently mentioned you in my own blog, http://laundrytolollipops.blogspot.com/, and posted your link so that others could enjoy your "wonderfulness" as much as I have. Love your approach to education. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your sweet comment and the mention on your blog...which is lovely by the way! :)
DeleteThe bacon comment made me laugh. I wouldn't have thought of that!
ReplyDeleteThat bacon comment got me too! :)
ReplyDeleteAnnette @ A Net in time :)
How cannibalistic - well done for being inspired to separate them and give them bacon (lucky tadpoles). Thanks for sharing your knowledge with Summer Carnival.
ReplyDelete