Tadpole Hunger Games

Before we left on vacation, we released the tree frog tadpoles we'd been raising into the sort of finished mini-pond we'd been working on out by our nature garden. (Finding a tadpole sitter seemed a tad ridiculous...even to me - though to be honest, the thought did cross my mind.) We got them all set up, tossed in some algae covered sticks & rocks, a bunch of boiled lettuce and left them in the hands of nature.

Upon our arrival home, all seemed well.  Curiously, there were not as many tadpoles in there as I seemed to remember releasing - but quite a few of them were almost froglets when we left so my assumption was that they simply hopped away. 

A day later, Libby (my nature loving, frog whispering daughter) came inside to tell me excitedly that we had a dragonfly nymph in our tadpole pond!

So cool! I went outside with her to check it out and there wasn't just one.  No.  There were 8 or 9 dragonfly nymphs of varying sizes creeping around on the bottom and sides of the pond. How so something so weird and incredibly creepy looking can transform into a beautiful dragonfly is simply amazing!

So...want to know what dragonfly nymphs eat??  That's right. 

Tadpoles.

We looked closer. Really looked.

The tadpoles in the pond appeared all fat and healthy but...the majority had bedraggled looking little tails (chewed on, shortened and some nearly missing) and they seemed to be keeping awfully still - not swimming around, mostly staying and floating near the surface or hiding under rocks.  And to top things off, near one of the edges there were the dismembered remains of one of our larger tree frog tadpoles.  

All 30 or so remaining tadpoles (out of over 50 that we had placed in there before our vacation) were  transferred out of the pond and back into their tadpole "nursery".  Minnows were fetched from the creek for the dragonfly nymphs to stalk, capture and nom on instead...which they promptly did. It was fascinating and slightly disturbing to watch. I shudder a bit to think of what our little tree frogs-to-be had to go through in the week we were gone, forced to deal with the situation we literally tossed them into. 

 Soon our remaining tadpoles will be tiny tree frogs and in due time will come face to face with the horrors and threats of the natural world. But not right now. Right now they're safe in their tadpole nursery, with all the boiled lettuce, strawberries, freeze dried blood worms, algae and bacon they can eat.

Right now, they're just not ready for the tadpole version of the Hunger Games...for the dangers that lurk below.

But when that time finally comes again...

well, may the odds be ever in their favor.

Raising Tree Frogs: From Tadpole to Froglet

The Modern Complexities of Nature Study: How to Raise a Tadpole

When I was kid, I remember finding tadpoles in the creek that ran through our backyard and sticking them in an old metal cookie tin with a bit of water and covering it with the lid - then promptly forgetting about the little fellas for like a week and a half.  Checking back on them, the tadpoles had magically transformed into little toadlets.  Ah, the miracle and design of life. :)

 So tell me...why is it that it just doesn't seem to be quite so simple NOW??

I've pondered if it's a matter of the difference between tree frog tadpoles and toad tadpoles. ?  Or maybe that their housing situation involved having 300 plus of them dwelling together in one smallish habitat.

 Perhaps.  But these are the tadpole cards you're dealt when you're plucked from the clutches of certain death - i.e. rescued from a pool cover by a soft hearted and sympathetic 12 year girl.

But it does *seem* far too complicated.  Our little tree frog tadpoles are extremely sensitive to their water temperature, too much sun, not enough sun, too much water, not enough water, water too clean, water too cloudy.  Too many fellow tadpoles and not enough of a varied diet cause them to turn on each other, devouring their brothers and sisters like the ravenous little cannibalistic monsters that they are.  Side note: we no longer have 300. :(

And there I am...changing their water every other day, delicately straining them out of the old and gently transferring them to the new. I even go so far as to warm up a cup or two of ice cold hose water on the stove so as to not shock their delicate little bodies.

And food???  Oy.  Besides each other, they are provided with a rich and varied diet of bacon (they prefer cooked to raw), turkey lunch meat, cantaloupe, banana, boiled lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, plenty of algae, and the yum of all yums...freeze dried blood worms.  (I'm pretty sure they're also eating all the water snail egg case jellies, since those keep mysteriously "disappearing" off the sides of the container and off the algae covered rocks in the habitat.)

I don't remember things being this complicated when I was a kid, but the fruits of my and the kids' labor is finally paying off.  We have a good ten tree frog tadpoles with an awkward combination of back and front legs!  We've also had a handful of little tree froglets whose body shapes have changed and their color shifted from a dirty, greenish brown to a very bright and pretty green - one of these we've already released into the garden by our mini-pond area and two apparently crawled up the sides of the habitat to glorious froggy freedom during the night.  Godspeed, little froglets.

3 down!  Only 50 or so more to go. *sigh*

This post shared at Fisher Academy's Nature Study Monday linkup!

Tree Frogs and Tadpoles: A Rescue Mission

My 12 year old daughter is on a rescue mission.  While at her Nana and Papa's she discovered that their pool cover was home to probably close to a thousand teeny tiny tree frog tadpoles. 

She painstakingly transferred maybe 100 or so of them to containers. They are now enjoying their new home in my kitchen.

Isn't that where everybody keeps their tadpoles?? 

She also brought home 2 adult tree frogs who had been hanging out near the pool. We'll release them into our garden area where they'll be joined someday soon by a hundred or so mini-tree frogs.  Possibly more...since a second rescue mission is in the works before the pool cover comes off. 

What exactly does one do with a thousand baby tree frogs?? :)