We are off to hunt some tadpoles!

[3lilreds in NC]

If this doesn't work, has anyone ever used those grow-a-frog kits? Is there one that is better than another? There seem to be two kinds - the Grow A Frog brand and the Uncle Milton's brand. :confused:

[Dobela]

The best tadpoles we ever got were from a local pet store (not a big box chain store). THe owner ordered his fish from providers using outdoor stock ponds. When the fish would arrive he almost always had a tadpole or 2. He would give them to us for free whenever he had them.

[Carol in Cal.]

We get ours from a local creek.

 

We fill a very large wading pool with water 3 days before we hunt, and run an aquarium fountain in it, to aerate the water and drive out the chlorine. We put a small pile of rocks in the middle to add shelter, and one or two medium rocks here and there, likewise. Then when we collect the tadpoles we bring home some of the creek water as well--maybe 2 gallons. We pour it all in at once, and put in some blanched lettuce (idea from "Creepy Crawlers and the Scientific Method.")

 

We lost all our little froggies right before they made it out, but we did see them develop their legs, and start to lose their swimming tails, and we did unexpectedly establish a colony of newts in our year that lasted for several years. This all made our house the fun house--DD's friends loved it that they could hunt for lizards and newts in our yard, and make messes, and such.

[Renthead Mommy]

I don't think the grow a frogs can be released back into nature, so unless you want a pet frog for a few years, I wouldn't do this.

 

I've seen the large (very large) bull frog tadpoles. The pet store said they ARE a local species, so once grown, you can actually release them. (But double check this before getting one!) But the cool thing about these is that they are so much larger, it is so much easier to see the changes, and if you do want to keep them as a pet, they are, for lack of a better word, 'meatier', so they are just easier for kids to handle than the super small frogs that tend to grow from ponds and creeks.

 

The local creek/pond is still the best/safest idea. Be sure to look for egg clutches, not just tadpoles! Seeing those little dots develope into little black "C's" in the egg and then hatch was so neat! I believe I read that only about 2% of tadpoles usually made it to frogs. One year we brought home a small chunk of eggs, pulled off the clutch. We raised, and then released back over 30 frogs to the area we took the eggs from. ( I didn't think we had that many eggs! And less than five died!) That was really cool!

[jenn-]

Just a word of caution, bullfrog eggs can take 2 years to develop. http://www.bullfrogs.com/Bullfrog-Tadpoles.html

 

If you do collect from the local pond and stream, make sure you release back to the same pond. Some frogs are invasive species so putting them back into a different pond/stream can be detrimental to that ponds ecosystem.

[Renthead Mommy]

Just a word of caution, bullfrog eggs can take 2 years to develop. http://www.bullfrogs.com/Bullfrog-Tadpoles.html

 

 

Wow! I knew it took longer, just not that much longer!

[3lilreds in NC]

Yep, I knew they were going to take 2 years. Someone local (was that you, jenn?:)) told me when our friend offered to let me come get tadpoles.

 

We have scads of the little buggers. They are tiny right now; I think they just hatched. We have them in a giant glass bowl from Michael's because they didn't have any gallon jars. We will have to figure out a lid before they can jump out.

 

We got some mussels, too! My dad said if we aerate, and add some fish food now and then, they should be all right. We will see.

 

My kids had a BLAST playing in the river. My friend's dog came down with us and fetched sticks and her ball, which was awesome. Their cat came too! I am covered with fur. Schmooey, of course, took of his pants and peed in the stream. :lol: We're all having a nap now.

[3lilreds in NC]

We get ours from a local creek.

 

We fill a very large wading pool with water 3 days before we hunt, and run an aquarium fountain in it, to aerate the water and drive out the chlorine. We put a small pile of rocks in the middle to add shelter, and one or two medium rocks here and there, likewise. Then when we collect the tadpoles we bring home some of the creek water as well--maybe 2 gallons. We pour it all in at once, and put in some blanched lettuce (idea from "Creepy Crawlers and the Scientific Method.")

 

We lost all our little froggies right before they made it out, but we did see them develop their legs, and start to lose their swimming tails, and we did unexpectedly establish a colony of newts in our year that lasted for several years. This all made our house the fun house--DD's friends loved it that they could hunt for lizards and newts in our yard, and make messes, and such.

 

Newts? That is AWESOME! Schmooey does have a little wading pool. I had it in the house, but the cats like to pee in it. :glare: I should put that outside, aerate it and then put the tadpoles out there. I'm sure they would be happier. Did you keep them in shade? What did you do when you needed to add water - did you keep some handily dechlorinating?

[Carol in Cal.]

Newts? That is AWESOME! Schmooey does have a little wading pool. I had it in the house, but the cats like to pee in it. :glare: I should put that outside, aerate it and then put the tadpoles out there. I'm sure they would be happier. Did you keep them in shade? What did you do when you needed to add water - did you keep some handily dechlorinating?

 

The one we used was a big hardshell wading pool--roughly oval, about 6 by 3-4 feet in size. It's important to prevent the local cats from being able to reach the tadpoles and flip them out, so this was big enough for that.

 

We put it under our magnolia tree. We have pretty hot summers here, and magnolia's never lose all their leaves, so there was shade all the time. This kept the water cooler. We had to fish out any leaves that fell into the pool. We got a little behind in this, and the water turned a little brown. This assisted with camo, so it was all good. It did not get skanky because we kept the water flowing.

 

We got a cheapo concrete mixing tub at the hardware store, and filled it up with hose water. Once or twice a week we would move the water into the tadpole pool. That was sufficient for what we needed.