Polly Wogs/ Tadpoles

[unknownclown]

Hello
I took my kid up to the mountains yesterday and while we were wondering around I found some frog eggs in a pond.

I thought this would be great to teach her about how they grow and develop into frogs. I grabbed some along with some of the water of course. On the way home they started hatching. I had no idea they would hatch so quickly! I read something off the internet and think it could be because of the temperature change?? Not sure if thats true or not. Today they are doing just fine. Im wondering though if anyone has suggestions on what I should be feeding them. Theres a bit of algae for them in the tank and Ive heard that they like fish food. Ive also heard that they dig on lettuce thats been boiled and frozen. I havent tried the lettuce thing before and Im kinda iffy on wheather I need to go thru all that.

I also have them in a small fish bowl at the moment but plan on transferring them to one of my empty 10 gallon tanks later once I get enough safe water for them. Does anyone know if bottled water is OK? Im thinking no... although it doesnt have chlorine in it. Maybe if I leave it out on the deck for a couple of days??

Also Im wondering if I need to make sure theres enough oxygen in the water. Ive pulled up a few sites and cant find anything suggesting I do but Im not sure if that means I dont or if they forgot to add that detail to thier site.

You know when I was a kid it was so much easier since I didnt worry about this stuff :p I just caught them kept them and viola they were frogs.

I was wondering what you all suggest. I want these little guys to be as healthy as possible so that I can let them lose back where I found them once they are froggies.

[Davey312]

I'm not really sure about any of this, but i will give you my opinion seeing as nobody else has anything to say... first off that boiled and frozen letuce doesnt sound like a great idea to me.. lettuce doesnt have much of anything to start off and boiling plus freezing it would probably just take away any nutrience from it.. but i do think that they would be able to eat fish food and if i remember correctly i think once i may have seen actual food for tadpoles it was in flake form, also the bottled water should be fine. for the temperature of the water i would bring it a couple degrees warmer.. perharps a few degrees warmer then what the water was when you took them, just to be on the safe side and make sure they dont get too cold. you can probably just place the bottled water directly into the tank. hopefully this will help, hope your project works out well, glad to see your teaching your child how amazing nature really is! (some of my information may be incorrect, if someone knows the right answers please feel free to point out my errors)
Thanks,
Davey

[Double J]

Bottled water is ideal in your situtation. I have used it as well as treated tap water to raise Dendrobatid (dart frog) tadpoles with equal success. Bottled water is treated wth ozone, which does a great job at killing the bacteria intially, but lacks the long term effects that come with chlorination. That is why bottled water that is ozonated water is safe for amphibians and fish. There is no need to leave bottled water out whatsoever. I use it directly from the bottle. However, a more cost effective solution might simply to treat some UNSOFTENED tap water with a good dechlorinator/dechloraminator from a pet store. Either method will yield the same results. And when you do water changes, just let the water reach the same temperature as the what the tads are already in.
The ten gallon tank will be ideal for tadpole housing in your case. With regular partal water changes (about 50 percent every week should suffice), I don't think you need to worry about oxygen levels. Throw a few pothos clippings inthe water, or even collect a few small pond plants from where you collected the tadpoles.
As for feeding, I would feed frozen bloodworm, a spirulna flake food, and a color flake. Be sure to clean out the uneaten bits of food, and this can be done easily with an old turkey baster that is free of soap residue. I thhk the lettuce thing is a waste of time. Go with the fish food, use lots of sprulina flake, and be sure to throw in some bloodworms... freeze dried or frozen both work.
So, best of luck.
Don't hesitate to ask any more questions.

Double J

[unknownclown]

:) thanks I was thinking the lettuce thing was a bit much as well. Im glad Im not the only one! Im not worried about wasting money on the bottled water I get the big jugs of it delivered to my door so I have plenty here.
Thanks for bein so helpful! :)

[Phil Beaudoin]

You need to find out what species you are dealing with. Different tadpoles have different needs. I notice you are from washington and it says you found these in the mountains, so i have no idea what you have. Green frogs, leopard frogs, and bullfrog tadpoles from around here feed voraciously on boiled romain lettuce and boiled zuchini, boiling them turns them into a similar state as the decaying or softer vegetation they would come into contact with in the wild. A ten gallon tank is fine. Make sure to keep in mind the level of the water in the pond they were found in, perhaps even the water qualities. Drops in water level are the main triggers of metamorphosizing. This is a stressor. It was been shown that stressors of all sorts will push frogs to change, be it increased predation, temperature, or just anything that makes them uncomfortable. Post some pics of the tadpoles if you can so they can be identified, although it would probly be easier to find a website that talks about all the frogs in your state. I'm cool with teaching kids how frogs develop, but I think the best lesson that comes out of it is returning the frogs to where they came from.