Where have all my tadpoles gone ?

Thanks Magpie for finding out that my frogs have herpes. Well I never did!

Hello all, we have a small wild life pond that had a lot of frog spawn, much of which hatched. But we appeared to have lost all of the tadpoles, but now I'm seeing a few coming up for air, so I guess they have just matured and gone down to the bottom.

Mine are the same!
Started with loads, now just a few

We've still got plenty - so far. We covered them with wire mesh as pompa suggested. The allotment does seem to be slightly warmer than the surrounding area, maybe because it is surrounded by trees.

Panic over !!

After a pour down last night and lots of warm sunshine this afternoon my taddies have reappeared and have been sunning themselves on the stones just below the surface. I can only assume they decided to go very deep into the bottom of the pond for a while. I was not looking forward to telling my GS that they had gone as he had watched their progress on skype.
My neighbour is still waiting for hers to reappear though.

Can I ask whether any of you have aerators (sp?) in your ponds? We have a small one in the garden which used to be home to several goldfish, but something got at them last year and they all died or disappeared...

Haven't bothered with the pond since, but it's looking a bit scummy on the surface, although the water is quite clear and the water irises are doing well. I just don't want it to go horribly stagnant and smelly!

No our small pond is totally natural.

In my experience Ana if the pond is left to it's own devices with only a little help from us it will regulate itself and become a very good wildlife pond. Mine often becomes green and horrrible in spring but it then clears almost overnight. The only thing I do is to remove the oxygenator plant when it reproduces itself too much, and also duck weed which can become a problem as it grows so fast. It has never been stagnant or smelly and I have no aerator.

Oh, thanks for that - I'd much rather it stayed as a wildlife pond rather than get more fish, but what do you mean by the oxegenator plant, tiggypiro?

(Yes, must get on top of the duck weed!)

WE do need to clear the sludge, but will wait until the frogs have matured.

I have a small fountain that acts as a filter. No fish! Getting loads of dragon ad damse flies, water boatmen etc

Yes, I have noticed quite a few water boatmen - not seen any damsel flies yet although have in past years.

Ana, when we put our pond in the allotment I asked on freegle if anyone would give us some oxygenating plant and a lady kindly offered us some.

Our pond is about 15' x 9' and 2'6" - 3' deep with a waterfall for the birds and to circulate the water. It's been perfectly healthy and more or less balanced for the 8 years it's been there, and it's been interesting watching the wildlife colonise it. There are half a dozen goldfish, but they're well feed and haven't been a problem.

We usually have to take out overgrown oxygenating weed and rely on the annual influx of tadpoles to clean the sides, but this year all the common weed has vanished. Only the water lily is left, and the sides have stayed clear. It's got a GC/heron wire cover, but obviously something has got into the water from somewhere. Just hoping it sorts itself out.

I must remember to go out this evening with a torch to have a good look into the depths.

My pond is usually covered in duckweed, but I haven't seen any yet this year.

Ana - an oxygenating plant is one that provides the pond with oxygen and keeps it healthy. There are quite a few different ones and you could find quite a list on the internet. If you have a friend with a pond they will probably have some to give you but most garden centres will sell some. I have the one which looks like seaweed and is fast growing. I usually have to weed it out before the taddies hatch but this year it is looking a bit sorry for itself. I am hoping it will recover !

sara4 - I am very envious of your lack of duckweed. I wish I had the same problem. I can keep on top of it at the moment but in a few weeks when DGS's come for the summer and the wire mesh goes on it is impossible.

Dragonfly larvae are ferocious predators of tadpoles. My pond was overrun with these last year and I had to fish some out and get rid of them, sounds cruel I know but I was trying to save my tadpoles. Also we had newts last year (which I love), although I have not seen them this year, and they love eating tadpoles. Life is hard if you are a tadpole everything wants to eat you.

No evidence of any tadpoles left in my pond, but the ones in my greenhouse in containers are thriving and getting big, I have started to feed them fish food flakes which they love.

Only problem now is that I am going away in a few weeks and will have to put them back in the pond to fend for themselves, but at least I have given them a chance.

Magpie, I wondered about dragon fly larvae, we get damsel flies, not seen dragon flies in the past, but eggs may have arrived.
My suspicion atm is that there were too many for the small pond to support food wise, hence those that have survived are now growing well.

Dragon fly larvae are formidable, I've seen them attack half-grown goldfish and anything smaller is doomed.
Still seem to be loosing tadpoles although we haven't seen anything predations them.
I guess nature doesn't always go the way we want.

I remembered to go out with a torch last night to view the depths of the pond. Amazing! Several newts (looks as if they're sporning), big wiggles that I think could be dragon fly larvae and smaller ones - perhaps damsel flies, water boatmen, a couple of frogs, the resident fish which get the blame for everything - and taddies rushing around madly. With so many preditors it's no wonder there aren't many left! And the weed is now starting to grow so at least the survivors will have somewhere to hide.

Yet again nature looks after things for us !! Brilliant ! (and the sun is shining today)

Tried to net off some of the leaves/blossom that are covering my pond, whoop - tadpoles, had to leave the blossom etc.

NkfDumpling* I think I will try that tonight and she what's in mine.

OH scraped some slugs off a plank at the allotment and a frog hopped past and took absolutely no notice of the slugs. Our frogs obviously need classes in fulfilling their duties after all the trouble we took to protect them.

We have lots of frogs but also plenty of tadpoles still the the pond. One problem is that the paths need strimming. How can we make sure we don't hurt a frog?

Liz, I suggest you try eating a slug, then slake off the frogs

Apparently Spanish slugs taste bitter (not prepared to test that out)