Hello,
Today, I discovered several 100 grey tree frog tadpoles in a 50 gallon stock tank. The tank serves as a bird bath, it has a submerged but raised stone platform and a recirculating fountain to attract birds. The stone platform and the walls of the tank have little dark dots (I assume it is algae).
I went to clean the fountain filter when I noticed the tadpoles. I am guessing they are grey tree frog tadpoles because the males have been calling for the past several weeks. Even though males have called most years, this is the first time that I found tadpoles.
I have spend the last hour reading about grey tree frog husbandry and have a few questions specific to my case:
1. The fountain filter has been clogged for about a week so the water is barely recirculating. Is this why the frog(s) laid in the bird bath (almost stagnant water)? I have not unclogged the filter to keep the tadpoles from being sucked in.
2. So far, I have learned that the water supply needs to be changed regularly. Since this is a 50 gallon outdoor tank I am guessing it would be challenging to do partial changes using unchlorinated water. How do others deal with this?
3. Do I need to move the tadpoles to smaller containers or can I keep them in the outdoor tank?
4. If I have to keep them in the smaller containers, given the number of tadpoles, I would need many containers. I would love to raise them but my work and family health issues will probably not permit me to make regular water changes for so many containers. Should I just scoop up the tadpoles and transfer them to a neighborhood pond?
Thank you.
Since they're wild frogs and it's summer, I'd leave them be if you don't need the fountain to run. Raising tadpoles in tanks is a lot of work, don't do that to yourself.
Just to be safe I wouldn't unclog the filter just yet. Rather than trying to change all the water, I'd introduce manageable amounts of new water, maybe a few gallons at a time. (Unless someone else has a better suggestion.) Maybe someone can find the average amount of time these tads take to grow to frogs, so you'll know about when it should be safe to get the filter going. (If the filter has some kind of cover or mesh that's smaller than the tadpoles, it might be safe to run.)
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