How to Raise Tadpoles Into Froglets
Raising tadpoles can be an easy, low-cost way to learn about nature and life cycles. Tadpoles develop over a short period of time, and stages of growth are easy to observe and identify. Frog spawn and tadpoles can be found in ponds, lakes and slow-running river edges. They can be easily collected with a small fishing net or a bucket, since they stay close to the banks. Although tadpoles are easy to raise, they do require some care.
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Things You'll Need
- Container the size of a fish bowl or larger
- Pond, lake or river water
- Salad leaves
- Stones and pieces of wood
Instructions
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Collect some clean water from a pond or river, preferably from the same place where you collect the tadpoles or spawn. If that is not possible, fill your container with tap water and let it stand for a week in the sun to give the chlorine a chance to evaporate. As an alternative, you can use de-chlorinating designed for fish tanks to speed up the process, but the container with the de-chlorinated water should still stand for one to two days in a sunny place. Store extra water for changes.
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Decorate the container with small objects to give the tadpoles areas to hide and swim around. Possible decorations include stones, wood or plastic figurines. Once the animals grow legs, they can use these objects for practice crawling.
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Place the spawn or tadpoles into the container. Make sure not to overcrowd, since tadpoles grow very fast; 10 tadpoles or spawn eggs are plenty for a fishbowl. Spawn develop into tadpoles within one to two weeks or more, depending on species and weather conditions. You will have to remove dead spawn eggs, which are identified by their beige or opaque color.
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Feed the tadpoles every second day. Suitable foods are boiled salad leaves or specialized tadpole feed purchased from pet shops or pond suppliers. Determine the right amount by starting out small; if the tadpoles eat the food very quickly and then chase each other around, you have given them too little and need to increase the amount. However, do not give too much food, as it will remain in the container and make the water dirty.
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Remove a quarter to a third of the water from the container every second to third day and replace it with fresh, de-chlorinated water. This ensures that the water is clean and that much of the leftover food is removed.
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Collect small insects or buy bloodworms once the tadpoles begin to grow legs and start climbing on the objects in the container. Depending on the weather and the species of frog, this can take between six and eight weeks. Warm weather will speed up the process, and some frogs types remain tadpoles for up to eight months. Once the tadpoles have grown legs but have not lost their tails, they are called froglets.
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Increase the dry environment in your container once the tadpoles have turned into froglets. They still need a certain amount of water, but also require space to sit on and vegetation to hide under. Place some large stones and plants in the container, but make sure that the leaves are not poisonous.
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Feed the froglets with insects and worms every one to two days and watch them grow. Make sure that the space they have available is sufficient. If it seems overcrowded -- usually shown through aggressive behavior -- consider releasing some of the froglets into the wild, provided they are local species. Remember that some species, particularly bullfrogs, can be quite dangerous to your local environment, since they take over and eat the native frogs. If you have reared bullfrogs and they are not native to your part of the country, consider donating them to your local zoo.
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References
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