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Thread: Leeches ate my frogspawn!

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    Default Leeches ate my frogspawn!

    I have a lovely little pond that I created in my London garden last year. I filled it with a variety of wild plants and weeds, and also frog and toadspawn from my mum's pond - they would never have survived there because they can't get out of it, and I am in a part of London where there is no way a frog would have been able to get to my pond to spawn itself.

    Anyway, I had hundreds of froglets all over my garden (I kept them fed with dog food), and I was looking forward to another bumper year. Knowing that they take a couple of years to reach maturity, I got a load more spawn, but noticed that the nucleuses of some were like worms rather than spherical.

    I thought nothing of this, until I noticed that they moved to the edge of the spawn and every single nucleus was gone. It turns out that they were all leeches. Not just that, I set up a leech trap in the pond, and hauled out so many leeches, it is clear that I have been breeding them in vast numbers over the past year.

    I realise that I won't get any froglets this year, but my concern is now next year, when my frogs come back to the pond to try to breed. I have no fish in the pond, and can't find any information about what predates on leeches - especially that doesn't predate on tadpoles!

    What can I do to balance the ecology of my pond better? What can I put in there to eat at least some of the leeches? Would sticklebacks do it? I know a stream where there always used to be some.

    I would like my pond to be friendly to a wide variety of wildlife, but at the moment it appears to be a danger to my favourite visitors...

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    Default Re: Leeches ate my frogspawn!

    Any medium fish (I don't know any species in the UK, so I can't help you there) that you could feed earthworms would ear leaches, just put in a number that can be easily removed at the end of the year so they won't eat the tads next year

    Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

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    100+ Post Member Cliygh and Mia 2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leeches ate my frogspawn!

    That is an alternative, but fish could also eat the eggs as well. You may be better removing any leech you find, and keeping the frog/toad spawn in a terrarium until they start to hatch, when it will be safe to move them back outside, as they can evade predators at that stage. What species are the frogs anyways, and do you have any pictures of them? Don't be afraid to post pictures, we love frogs here!

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    100+ Post Member 123nave's Avatar
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    Default Re: Leeches ate my frogspawn!

    There is a pond next to my creek and there are leeches and frogs living in the water, for some reason were I live they don't seem to harm each other. But when you go swimming in the creek sometimes you will get leeches if it is the end of summer, and is starting to get colder. Don't know how to help you though?

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    Evan I.F.S.

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