kebuchan@gmail.com

Hi all,

This time around when skimming the pool just before vacuuming and
shocking it I found a "bizzilion" tadpoles swimming around the pool.
Also found a grey tree frog in the skimmer, so I assume these are tree
frog tadpoles. We managed to net out about 75 or so of them and 2/3
of them were adopted by other family members. I now have about 25
tadpoles in a 10 gallon tank that I bought specifically to raise
them. I went to the local petstore to get some advice on caring for
them. They suggested I feed them frozen blood worms, which I did but
it's been 2 days and they don't seem to be doing a whole lot with the
worms. The tadpoles are about 1.25" long, some slightly smaller.

A few questions I have for the experts on this group:

1. What should I feed them assuming they don't eat the frozen blood
worms and how frequent?

2. The petstore suggested I don't use a filter, so I don't have the
filter running. But the water is already getting fairly cloudy and
begining to smell.

3. I would think live food is the "cleanest" but what food would they
eat??

4. Should I aerate the water? Again the person at the pet store said
not to.... but they keep swiming up to the surface, which seems like a
lot of effort...

Thanks,

Kevin

bryan

You will need to leave water out overnight to get rid of the chlorine,
then replace 1/4 of the water every few days.
Ammonia will build up fast in the water, the only way to keep it down is
a lot of water changes.
Aeration will help.
I have used flake fish food.
Bryan

garysibio

While I've never raised any treefrog tadpoles, I've raised some others
and they tend to eat algae. You might try some algae flakes which you
can get at a pet store.

Also, make sure that your tank is well-aerated. Put some plants in the
tank also.

Lastly, when they start to transform - how long that takes depends on
the species - it usually goes quite fast so make sure that you can
deal with 25 tree frogs.

Enjoy! They're fun to watch.


Gary J Sibio
garysibio@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~garysibio

There are 10 types of people in this world -- those who understand binary numbers and those who do not.

garysibio

Prior to recent decades the tropical fish hobby used to put together
what were called balanced aquariums. By using the right combination of
animals and plants, it was never necessary to change water. It's also
possible to do this with tadpoles.

I don't have any tadpoles at present but, when I've had them, I've
kept them in a 10-gallon tank with one goldfish and monitored the
nitrates. I've never had a terst indicate that a water change was
necessary.


Gary J Sibio
garysibio@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~garysibio

There are 10 types of people in this world -- those who understand binary numbers and those who do not.

chris mcmartin

I think the magic word is "spirulina." I haven't kept tadpoles in a long
time, but I seem to remember that spirulina flakes are what a lot of folks
use.

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