Updates on Frog Life

The last few months have been a flurry of activity. Our family moved twice this past summer, and after living in the same house for 18 years, it was no easy task. So while I haven't posted for many months, the frogs went through the move with us and then the remainder were released as little frogs.
The tadpoles had a very high survival rate, reaching 90%. Unfortunately, the salamanders as a group did not fare as well. Very early on newly hatched tadpoles ate almost all of the salamander eggs and newts. About a dozen tiny, tiny salamanders hatched, with one surviving to adulthood. Beautifully frilled, he would hide under the rocks and dart out for food.
In the future I will try to seperate them as soon as possible.

Back View of Sal the Salamander

Now here is a freaky looking little guy! If you
look carefully, you can see the tiny dots on the fringe of his gills. This is a view from the tail looking toward the head. I am having a very hard time getting a good shot of his face. I'm hoping to post one tomorrow. Watching him grow and change I'm fairly certain that he is a salamander and not a newt.
So for now I'm calling him Sal the Salamander, but he could be Ned the Newt next week!

He eats quite a lot and right now he loves "Frog and Tadpole Bites" from the pet store. I love watching him slip out from the under the rocks and eat the pellets. I am amazed at how fast he can gobble them down. He has a very wide mouth, and is able to swallow the food whole. The frog tadpoles are still not opening their mouths and swallowing as much as they are continuing to "vaccuum up" their food.

Green Tree Frog (almost)

Here is the first of the tadpoles to get front legs. She is a Pacific Tree Frog, my favorite frog. This is the type I  see often in my yard. I think she is the sweetest little thing. I love her little tail stub. So far she is the only tree frog that I can identify for certain.
As I was cleaning the tank, I looked down and saw her swimming! I never noticed her among the others. How could that be? You'd think I would have noticed this little green gal among all the others, (most of them are brown) It's really left me wondering how she slipped by!

Fat Tadpole with Back Legs

Here's a shot of the very first of my tadpoles to get legs. As you can see he is quite proud of them. Look closely and you can see little bumps on his sides where the front legs will pop out. I'm especially fascinated by this type of tadpole. I scooped their eggs from the pond a couple weeks later than the others.  They are very small in comparison to the other tadpoles, yet their development is faster. I call them the Wide Eyes. Their fat little bellies are almost transparent.  Doesn't he look cute?

Feeding Frenzy

It's true, these sweet otherwise docile tadpoles become mean green lettuce eating machines at feeding time! They attack their lettuce with such a vengeance, twisting, turning and even tearing off pieces. I made a short movie to post but as of right now am not sure how to get it on my blog.

He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother

I love this pair, aren't they adorable in an amphibian sort of way? I think so, but then I am a proud frogmom.
Just a quick report tonight.
A lot of the tadpoles have leg buds now but I still have seen full legs on just one of the tadpoles. All of them have huge appetites and eat large amounts of cooked lettuce. It's a real feeding frenzy at mealtime!
I'm concerned about the salamanders that hatched three weeks ago as they are still very tiny. I'm not sure if they are able to get enough to eat. I'll have to research that.

Pucker-up!

This charming tadpole is one of the "new" ones I inadvertently brought home with the plants and water from Josh's pond. As I mentioned earlier, they are tiny, probably a third of an inch at most. Their underside is completely transparent, it's so cool to see their hearts beating. As you can see their eyes are on the outer edges and their mouth has a definite pucker to it. These tadpoles are fast though, I call them little zippers, as they can swim so fast you can hardly follow them.


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In the Light

Today I get a little artsy with the tadpole photo. I love the contrast of light and dark in this
image, and how he sits in perfect balance between the two. Quite a feat.
Whoa, that's deep...

This is one of the "BIG 'UNS" He meausures in at a robust two and three quarter inches. I can understand why after watching him eat.
Honest, I wish my family loved my cooking as much as these guys do!

Big 'O Tadpole

Look closely where his body and tail meet, you can see a very tiny back leg!

This is a closeup of one of  "the BIG UN'S".   It's really strange to me that all of the frog eggs hatched within a day or two of each other, but some of them have grown enormous. They all seem to be the same kind of frog. They have the same markings, colorings and etc. This tadpole is almost 3 inches long, while some of the others that hatched with him remain at about an inch.  All of the tadpoles have voracious appetites, maybe this giant gets more than his fair share! 

Eye of a Tadpole

The tadpoles eyes are amazing! They glow, with the most beautiful vibrant gold flecks.   

Frills and Gills

Here's a close-up of a salamander (or maybe a newt) I was surprised to find in the water I brought back from my last visit to Josh's pond. My intention was to scoop up pond plants to enhance the habitat for my 'wogs at home. Little did I realize this frilly fellow was in the mix. He appears to be different from the ones that hatched from the egg clumps. (see earlier post) He is also quite a bit larger, measuring in at about an inch. The other salamanders are barely half that size. I'm real curious to see how this little guy or gal develops.

Norman

My, My, What a Beauty!

I had to show you the mouth on these guys now. Check out the teeth! No wonder they can tear right into the lettuce. They have some serious chompers.

Most of the tadpoles are about an inch and half long now. Their appetites have grown hugely, and mamma's cooked lettuce still remains their favorite food!

Little Wide Eyes

I went back up to Josh's pond yesterday and decided to scoop up some small pond plants while there. I figured they'd be good for the tadpoles. As I started looking at the water I was surprised and delighted to find this and bout 8 others like him. He is very tiny, only about 1/3 of and inch tip to tail. Compared to the other tadpoles he is very small. His underside is very transparent and I can see his heart beating through his skin! As you can tell, his eyes are very wide spaced, actually on the sides of his head! He has a smaller mouth also. One of the cutest thing about him is his fat, stubby square body. I've got to do more research and find out exactly what kind of frogs we have.

A Stranger Among Us...

This is a hatchling salamander, from the egg pictured on Sunday's post. It's about 10 days old. These tadpoles are only about a half an inch long, and seem to develop faster than the frog tadpoles. They have 2 legs in front with 4 tiny fingers. Although these guys are smaller than the frog babies, they swim fast! Most of the time though they like to hide away motionless in crevices under the larger rocks. I haven't seen them eat the cooked lettuce like the wogs do...hope they are eating something. I better do some research on these little fellas.

Hey where is everyone?

Well, I guess I better get to hatching! This salamander tadpole is one of the last to leave the safety of his egg. As you can see the egg to the right is vacant. The baby salamanders move around in their jelly eggs quite a bit right before they hatch. The green color is from algae that has grown inside the egg.
Time to move out, find a new pad!

Floating with the big guys

When I brought the eggs from Josh's pond home all of the loosely floating eggs hatched the very next day. Tiny, about a quarter of an inch, with small frilled gills, I wasn't sure what I had. The frilled gills threw me off. I thought maybe salamanders or newts. So much for my expertise at identifying newly hatched amphibians. They are frog tadpoles. What kind I am not exactly sure, I'm still researching that.

Remember the clear jelly clump, with the green eggs? They didn't start to hatch until about a week later, and it was evident right away they weren't frogs. They have much narrower bodies and frilled gills that continue to stay frilled. I'm thinking a newt. Or salamander.

My, How We've Grown!

An inch long from tip to tail! When the frog eggs first hatched the tadpoles were about a quarter of an inch long. My little ones are growing like crazy. Just three and half weeks later, they've reached a full inch! I'm a proud Frogmom!

Of Pods and Wogs

Pictured on the right is part of one of the pods or egg clumps. You can see the green eggs that are within. Most have hatched and I think those that are left may not. The eggs have deepened from a soft transparent green to an almost opaque green. A few are obviously rotted and have turned milky white. As the eggs hatch, the pod becomes more disconnected and the new polliwogs eat the clear jelly. This egg clump is riddled with holes, having been in the aquarium for three weeks and most of the eggs have already hatched. See the tadpole head popping up through the mass? I watched him swim in through the hole in the clump (center bottom of image) and eat his way out. He's been hatched for about three weeks.

Attack of the People Eating Polliwogs!

Be careful. Very, very careful....
My sweet little tadpoles have a darker side to them. They eat raw meat.
I researched what to feed my wogs and one article suggested a small piece of raw chicken, steak, or hamburger. I decided on the hamburger since I could easily roll it into portions I thought might be fitting for my group. Within a few minutes several began eating it. They seemed to like it OK but it made the water a bit mucky and somehow it just didn't seem right. I know as adults they eat insects but still raw meat scattered on the bottom of their aquarium just didn't seem right.
I decided to try another suggestion-cooked lettuce. This one they loved! I can't tell you what it means to be able to feed the hungry crowd something they enjoy! And they love my cooking! If only it were so easy to feed my family.

Psst....here's my secret recipe...
A few small pieces of romaine or green leaf lettuce (not iceberg)
I prefer the organic as I don't want to risk making them ill with chemicals used on non-organic produce.
Tear into small pieces. The baby salad lettuce is perfect.
Put several pieces in microwave bowl, add water to cover and cook for about 3 minutes. I usually stop the microwave halfway to stir. Cool down. Leaves should be very soft. Drop leaves in, discard water.

Frog and Salamander Egg Clumps

Hmmm...all the eggs shared similarities but weren't the same. We had 2 pods that were formed into fist-sized clumps. Each contained transparent green eggs, about the size of salmon eggs encased in a thick clear jelly. (like tough jello) The entire clump was easily picked up by carefully lifting the stick from the water. We carefully placed the eggs in a small cooler filled with pond water.

Although I love frogs and salamanders, I'm not an expert. My admiration for these little guys comes more from gardening and my boys. Each year I've seen numerous frogs make their appearance on the blooms, leafs, and plants around my yard. The last 3 years have brought a drastic reduction in their appearance. This trend concerns me greatly. We have had quite a boom in construction in our local area, and several nearby acres of woods have been cleared. Small creeks and wetlands run through the cleared area. Although wetland and buffer zones marker were posted, it looks to me as if the area has been vastly diminished.

When my boys were only 6 and 9, they would make regular trips to the "frog pond", to check the status of the frog eggs and to watch the frogs hop and swim in the shallow water. Occasionally they would be lucky and fast enough to catch one. The boys would enjoy watching it on the grass for a short while and then set it free.

At that time, in my garden, I enjoyed seeing many of our local little Pacific green tree frogs. In fact several of the little green guys could be found in the same spot almost daily, year after year.

I was fortunate enough to find them quite frequently until about 3 years ago. Last year was the worst. I only saw a couple of tree frogs. I think it is a direct result of the trees being cleared.

When my son Josh told me that year after year, he watches the turtles, raccoons and birds eat the frog eggs, polliwogs, and froglets, we decided to save a few. I thought it would be exciting for the students at school to see the metamorphosis and then return them to Josh's pond. That's how I came upon the eggs. Now I feel a deep sense of responsibility to keep these little wogs healthy and happy until they can be on their own.

Rescue Mission

On April 6, my son and I began a rescue mission. We decided to try and hatch some of the frog eggs in his pond. We gathered three groups of eggs. Two were "pods" of eggs attached to a stick and one group was a cluster floating on top of the water. I say rescued because turtles had already consumed a fair share of them. We were unsure what type of eggs we had, one group being loosely connected, floating on top of the water. The other two clumps of eggs were firm clear jelly filled with green transparent eggs. Josh and I weren't sure what we had. Why were the eggs so different? Were they all frog eggs? Maybe two different types of frogs? Salamanders or newts? Frogs in different stages of development? hmm...