Frogs

Frogs

This is a small collection of photo's of the little colony of frogs I now have living in my courtyard, the most I counted at one time was over 50. Unfortunately there is not as many as that now but that was due to an unwelcome visitor of the slithering type. Yes a snake. I had noticed a dramatic decline over a week or so & wondered why, until I went to make a cup of coffee in my kitchen one day & found a 200 mm long baby snake trying to get OUT the kitchen window, yes it was on the inside up on my kitchen bench trying to find a way back out to the courtyard, the door was open so I know how it got in & I soon showed it a new home a fair distance from my house. That's the one trouble with making a completely natural environment you get everything good & bad.

Where to get your tadpoles from?

Your tadpoles, it is best to go somewhere as local as you can where there is a small dam or marshy area where you can grab them from .... you might have to be quick as some states in Australia are going to bring in legislation to stop people from taking them (thus ensuring they do die out ). I do think that the practise of grabbing a few to put in a jar to watch them change as a kids play thing should not be allowed & even as a school project in class in should only be done if the frogs have a permanent proper home to go to once they are finished with. I can prove that you can create a total living & thriving frog community thus ensuring the species long term survival. I can hear them singing away now, most nights there are at least 3-4 singing away.

I went for a walk with the camera the other night & I found 12 large 2 year olds (latest pictures on this page) & they are fat & healthy so in my opinion is all right to go & get them if you are seriously going to supply them with the environment in which they can live & breed. I will give this one example of how this worked in the frogs favour only recently. We are currently going through a very dry spell here in Tasmania, it is so dry that the dam (next door) dried up for the first time in its life when the water level got to a few inches deep I went & caught as many as I could (with full permission)& brought them back & put them in a few large plastic drums (200 Lt) they all developed (3 deferent species)& were given away to 3 other people who had permanent dams. So now there are frogs living in 3 places versus nowhere had I not got the tadpoles at all. It is best to ask too unless it is public property.

To catch them it is pretty easy to make a net out of some shade cloth & wire on a long stick, it is effective & cheap. Only take a dozen or so if you do, even if there are heaps still only take as few as you think you need. Also make sure that you adapt them slowly as they are very touchy when they are developing. I have found that taking a range of sizes is best, although if you can get them with all legs & tail still they will definitely survive as they are not eating at this stage, conversely taking a spawn bundle gives the frogs the best survival rate because they don't have any transfer shock from pH or water hardness as long as there put in a well established set-up with good food & water. Things you have to also consider are. They have to eat food so you have to expect more mozzies (mosquitoes) & moths about ...or they will go looking for food (just like us). Also if you find somewhere that you can get some taddies try to visit the area on a nice night at dusk to listen to them. You don't want a real loud one living in your yard. Believe me it is not fun ..... about 12 months ago & had one of our local frogs move in ... they are called the 'bonking frog' or 'Banjo frog' because they make this call that is a loud BONK about every 5-10 second, I put up with it for 2 nights & then on the 3rd I was out there with a torch at 3:00 am in dressing gown knee deep in the pond evicting him back to the next doors dam d:-) I can see you falling off the chair laughing now. It was a shame because they are a very pretty frog. So there is a lesson in there somewhere.

What to feed your tadpoles ?

When I first set up the frogs pond there was no algae growth. So to promote some to start growing I took the filter's out of my main pond pumps & washed them in the frogs pond water, most of what collects in your pump filters will be nothing more than algae anyway which is exactly what your young tadpoles need. This method will start the algae growing in a matter of a few days, & your young tadpoles will grow very rapidly on it. Also a good food for them is boiled lettuce or a standard flake goldfish food.

Things you should not do!

Use any chemicals what so ever in the area, that includes all types of snail bait & other chemical based insect control methods.

Once you have got your little frog colony well under way & you start to see them sitting around sunning themselves it is most important that you leave them alone. By all means look at them as much as you can but don't try to get any closer that a foot or so at first. They do get very used to people being around them as long as you don't try to actually touch them or handle them. This is most important from the frog's health point of view, as just the salt on your skin can have a bad effect on their soft moist skin.

It is way more satisfying to have them in your garden as you work around them, as they will not hop away at all as long as they don't think you are a threat to them. As you can see with some of the later few shot in this frog gallery, I can get very close to them now. These were taken within 4 inches of the frogs & they still did not hop off, the later few are of the first generation of frogs now 2 years old.

Newly added shots are from a little trip & took through my garden at 21:30, or 0930 pm these are all 2 yr. old frogs, while taking these shots I found over 15 of same sized frogs all feeding on the night moth's & mozzies (mosquitoes) I found that they were sitting on plants close to the plants that attract moths such as my Hoya & a few orchids.

July 2000

I have one major concern at the moment. The original dam next door has been dry now for over six months & with this drought now being 12 months old & the worst in 126 yrs my little frog colony might very well be the last in the area. d:-(

With this in mind I have just finished the 'Frog Pond Hilton'

New Frog Pond