that baby frog!

the mengele tank

One baby frog (possibly two) survive in the tank. Today I hunted for dead flies to pop in there. Have decided to leave them outsdie...just cant understand how they develop so slowly.

still need to do a final fish roll call. slipping this year.

Last night...fat frog sitting in the pond. feel so proud that he is MINE...birthed from my own spawn! wierd feeling! my OWN sprogs!

Slow developers

Very interesting. I was worried that the tadpoles form the tank were not developing so i transferred them all to the water barrel never saw another thing Then i found there were a couple left and they were continuinhg to grow but at a vastly reduced pace. Currently the is just one baby froglet in the tank but there IS another just about to appear. how amazing that its now october and yet the others all grew up and left 4 months ago

Then...i found two baby frogs in the water barrel the other day! I thought im not letting these ones get away so caught one and popped him in the tank

Lets see what happens next. I'd love to hang on them during the winter.

They go so fast

I cant believe its happened so quick. One minuite they are tadpoles, then they are growing legs and then…they are froglets. First there’s just one and then you spot another and another. Within 24 hours they are crawling up the side of the water barrel…just one, then two then three.

They will all be gone within a week or so. And I am always left with a strange sense of loss. Yes I KNOW they are only frogs but….

The curious thing has been the pace of development – the tank compared to the water barrel. The tank boys are still tadpoles. Dilemma. Transfer full formed frogs to tank or just see what happens?

new fish

new fish in the pond

1 x baby orfe 2 inch
2 x baby shebunkin x 3
1 x white koi x 4

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photos of new tadpoles

Tadpoles in pond slowly hatching...they are thousands of them! look closer!

That's the tank I put a few of the rescued ones into and above left is the water barrel where they will live as froglets

operation successful

Very exciting.

I took a few jugs full from the pond and put in the barrel but have to let that settle. Put a jug in the “water feature thingy” (WFT) and a couple of jugs in the fish tank.

And then lifted the tadpoles…..it HAD to be done…the fish would have eaten them otherwise….,managed to rescue about 10? Teeny ¼ inch tadpoles..put some in the WFT and some in the fish tank. Left about 5 in the jug where I could see them.

Now “down the other end” ..PAST the wire…you may remember there is a [collective noun] of spawn. You stare at it for a long time and you can see it wiggling. I haven’t worried about this, as you know, because they were the “men behind the wire”….BUT….i had the hose on to replace the water I stuck in the tub etc etc and I come back and all the bloody tiddlers are under the water….can tadpoles drown???

Common sense says no but then again…they were lying on top and wriggling around and now they are under water.

Am I truly the Karen Mathews of the fish world?

I stuck my hand into the gloopy mess and it came out with loads of them clinging to me….popped them into the WFT.

I’ve left some in the jug n the side.

Lets hope that - morale of miracle – just for once the teenagers dont come home and think they will ….tidy up

Anyway…we will see how we go….we have tadpoles aplenty dispersed amongst out various breeding devices…..

Fingers crossed.

I still have my mind on a midnight trip to preston park to catch a newt in a crisp packet.

And PS. Call me sentimental but it aint the same in the pond without that big old fish. To think that fox actually came and dug up the big daddy and he sat at the end of the garden and munched him. There are scales around the grave and I really have to harden my heart about it.

Tonight's the night

Tonight I am going to move the floating spawn to the barrel. It is starting to dissipate to such an extent that I fear it will soon disappear.

IAM nervous about moving it but I have not choice. It will be eaten otherwise.

The big collection of spawn is twitching away and looking excellent. I am not so worried about this as the fish cannot get to it as it is behind the wire.

roll call Spring 2011

Pond cleaned and ready for the summer.

2 x comet with red stop 3in approx

1 x slightly larger comet about 4in

1 blue orfe x 10 in (an original fish from about 8/9 years ago – and the last. There were 2 this time last year but one missing)

1 x orange orfe (about 10 inches, grown over ¾ years from a tiddler)

I x silver koi – 5/6 inch already showing the characteristics of the Pig of the Pond

1 x shebunkin (added 2 last year and only one left)

1 x red and black goldfish. (this must be 4/5 years old now)

1 x very golden goldfish now about 3in long. Found him last year

And that’s it.

Nervous

Apparently these spawn are meant to show tadpoles within 4- 10 days??? Last year was so disappointing. No frogs for the summer. I blamed myself for moving it. This year I have not touched it and still no action. And it IS starting to decay.

We also have the massive [collective noun] down the dark end.

I will go to Preston park in the dark with a crisp packet if I have to.

I want to build a new pond down the end of the garden and leave this one for the frogs. its not deep enough for reproduction.

the fucking fox

I should also add….remember the koI all died…4/5 months ago? I buried the big chief..the numero uno and stuck a ROCK on his head…this week the bastard fox has been in and pawed away around the rock and removed the corpse of a FIVE month dead fish.

yeah yeah the fucker was hungry…

a [collective noun] of frog spawn

So it’s a sunny day and time to mow the lawn and all that shit. I start to pull out the old weeds from the pond…

now.. remember how excited I was about the blobs of spawn???

All of a sudden I pull away the old dried up debris and there in front of my eyes lies the biggest [collective noun] of frog spawn you have ever seen!!! I couldn’t believe it…there I was so excited and happy to have these mere handfuls and then an entire bucket load descends on me….

And what’s more…so i then start tendering the pond plants…lift up one of the planters and there are these two big eyes staring up at me like the puppy from Bolt! Hellooo!

Enough spawn to leave where it is…and move some to the water barrel….tomorrow….

Spawn

We have some lovely pictures of the pond and its spawn to look at.

Traditionally I wait until he clocks go back to remove the cover but as the spawn I lying there I will leave for a while. Let it get well and truly established before I move it.

Looking forward to the 2011 roll call and seeing who has survived the winter – tinged with sadness at the loss of the big chaps of course.

a new year. more spawn. fish awaken

A new year dawns!

As you know I don’t remove the cover until the clocks change but this year – just like last, and around the same time – there is frog spawn in the pond.

This was so exciting last year and I put half in the water barrel and half in the fish tank and then NOTHING. Felt guilty all year and worse – no frogs. After years of waiting for my fish to breed, all of a sudden I had my own bona fide frog spawn. And I killed it.

This year…well no koi for a start…no big fat fuckers to feed on the spawn. And the cover is not a net but those smart round plastic inter connecting covers from the bastion of middle class suppliers - Scotts of Stow.

I have three blobs on the plastic. I WISH I had a camera and could have seen that frog returning like a salmon to his home ..jumping across the pond dropping his spawn behind him.

Something went wrong last year. In my head I blamed it on climate change. But its curious he has come back at exactly the same time.

Last year I searched the ponds of sussex but to no avail. No spawn

At Preston park there is a pond with NEWTS! This year I WILL have spawn.

Watch this space.