My youngest son was given some tadpoles a week or two back, so I spent yesterday preparing a home for them. We already had plenty of frogs & toads in the garden, but no pond.
I just picked up some Elodea crispa (pondweed) as an oxygenator. It's a bundle of strands in a net bag, with a couple of stones to weigh it down. Do I just take it out of the bag and drop it in the pond and it will root itself?Or do I need to plant in a container and place at the bottom? There is gravel and soil at the bottom of the pond.
You should plant it directly into the soil at the bottom.There is no need to use baskets in a nature pond.Just place a stone lightly over it until it roots into the soil.I would also get some mature water from a friends pond if you can,to get some insect life introduced into the pond.It will not be mature enough to feed the tadpoles for a while,and you will need a lot of plants in the pond to get the right balance ,so plant as much as you can fit in.I would also supplement the taddies diet with some flake fish food or they may start eating each other .
Quote from: Margaret on March 26, 2007, 22:11:00
You should plant it directly into the soil at the bottom.There is no need to use baskets in a nature pond.Just place a stone lightly over it until it roots into the soil.
Ok - thanks. Not sure I need to worry too much about introducing insects from elsewhere - there were a surprising number of things in/above the water within a couple of hours of filling it, including some bright red larvae(?). I had quite a lot of marginals grown from seed/division (carex, hemerocallis, astilbe) sat round in pots looking for a home, so I've been able to plant the edges quite effectively (I hope) and I bought some plants for deeper water yesterday.
Quite fun watching the tadpoles; I have a good supply of rounded flint rocks collected from the garden, from pebble to football size and I used some of these to form a sloping edge to the pond. They seem to like hiding in the gaps between the rocks and darting out.
Quote from: Margaret on March 26, 2007, 22:11:00
You should plant it directly into the soil at the bottom.There is no need to use baskets in a nature pond.Just place a stone lightly over it until it roots into the soil.I would also get some mature water from a friends pond if you can,to get some insect life introduced into the pond.It will not be mature enough to feed the tadpoles for a while,and you will need a lot of plants in the pond to get the right balance ,so plant as much as you can fit in.I would also supplement the taddies diet with some flake fish food or they may start eating each other .
Thank you Margaret for the info on fish flakes for the tadpoles. Although my new pond should be balancing out quite nicely from last year and there should be some insect life, I don't want to lose the tadpoles.
You are both very welcome.Good quality,meat based and not veggy flakes are best as the tadpoles are very carniverous! I once raised some in a tank and as they grew larger they were scoffing raw mince at a rate of knots!!
Yours are very early My frogs are only just thinking about it!! I think they must be backward round here.Perhaps i ought to get them some viagra............ ;D
I must admit that I am somewhat surprised to see the tadpoles! Margaret you mentioned that you had raised some in a tank. A couple of questions for you, a) did you have to change the water frequently? b) did you put rocks in? Because of the number of fish in my new pond, (19 new born) from last year, I would hate for all the tadpoles to be eaten.
I raised some in a large tank the first year i had my nature pond as i had a lot of tadpoles and not enough food/mature plants to ensure they survived.I had to change the water frequently,which was no great problem as of course i could use pond water.I had lots of green weed and kept the tank in good daylight to produce algae but with not too much sun shining on it to overheat it.I only put rocks in as their tails were disappearing,so they had something to climb out on.As soon as they were hoppng about i put them near to the pond so they could get in and out as they wished.It was great fun but would never repeat it as it is quite hard work.
If i were you i would keep just a few that way,and put them back in the pond when they get to the same size or bigger than the goldfish's mouth! I have always maintained that fish and amphibians in the same pond do not work,and this is one reason why.If you only have few there is less chance of polluting the water cos it is very easy to overfeed the greedy blighters!If you can lay your hands on live daphnia or bloodworm they will really thrive,and they cannot cause pollution.
Thank you for that information Margaret. I think I will have a go at just trying to raise a few, as you suggest.
Quote from: Margaret on March 26, 2007, 22:11:00
You should plant it directly into the soil at the bottom.There is no need to use baskets in a nature pond.Just place a stone lightly over it until it roots into the soil.I would also get some mature water from a friends pond if you can,to get some insect life introduced into the pond.It will not be mature enough to feed the tadpoles for a while,and you will need a lot of plants in the pond to get the right balance ,so plant as much as you can fit in.I would also supplement the taddies diet with some flake fish food or they may start eating each other .
Crikey Margaret,
Watched a robin this morning landing on the Ec (pond full of it) & picking up the small taddies & probably popping off to feed the young.
Aint nature wonderful to watch?