Mysterious Disappearing Reappearing Tadpole

[somuchpaint]

Very strange... When we first brought the tadpoles home from a stream (presumed to be Southern Leopard Frogs), we had three of them, and I had them in a 5.5 gallon aquarium, half filled with water. They all had little hind legs, so I put a glass jar on its side so they could climb up onto it if they wanted. The aquarium had an underground filter that only covered half the bottom of the aquarium, and an airline hose with one of those porous stones in it. The bottom was covered with fluorescent blue and pink gravel (picked out by my daughters years before for some fish that had been relocated.) There was no cover on it.

I was putting the tadpoles into their new home, one at a time, transporting them in a smaller glass jar. I put two in, went back upstairs for the third, and when I went back down I only saw one in the tank. I thought it had somehow jumped out, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I accepted that we only had two now, and my oldest daughter made up a story about the tadpole magically disappearing (to comfort her younger sister, although I told them both that it had to be somewhere).

I did several partial water changes. I tried feeding flake food and live fruit flies, but never saw them eat. I did throw in a vacation fish feeder, one that doesn't dissolve but lets fish eat at their own pace. I didn't know if they ate it or not, but I knew there was something available. Two weeks went by. Eventually, I worried that their water was too deep, so I transferred them to an Uncle Milton Planet Frog (which I DID NOT BUY, it was a gift that started the whole thing, but I knew immediately that it was unsuitable for adult frogs, and maybe too small for tadpoles. I have been planning a half water-half land set up for an empty 40 gallon breeder for them). The tadpoles actually seemed happier in the Planet Frog, since there are plenty of smooth shallow slopes, and they are coming half out of the water. I do daily partial water changes, since the volume is so small. I am seeing poo, so they are eating something (maybe the weekend feeder).

Well, I called my husband today to tell him that one of the tadpoles finally has front legs. He told me that he had covered the basement tank (the 5.5 gallon), because he was worried the tadpole would jump out. I said, wait, there is no tadpole in the basement tank. He said there was. I went downstairs, and there was the missing tadpole, lounging in the tank, still without front legs.

WHERE DID IT COME FROM? Is it really possible that it hid so well (camouflaged by the fluorescent gravel?) that my kids and I didn't see it, despite all of the time we spent observing that 5.5 gallon tank, only half full of water? Or maybe my daughter was right, and it is a magical tadpole, LOL.

Great place to camouflage, right?



And here are the visible ones:



A close-up (can you tell I'm fond of these guys?):

[somuchpaint]

The mystery tadpole died a few days after posting this. It had abrasions on it that I noticed when I introduced it to the Planet Frog. Possibly it had tried to bury under the gravel?

My two remaining froglets are now sharing a 40 gallon breeder with expanded cocofiber bedding, water-washed-and-baked magnolia leaves, and a purchased water dish with a smooth ramp they can use to enter and exit their "pool." One likes to hide under the leaves, and the other half-buries in the bedding when it isn't in the water. I still intend to turn it into a half-water, half-land set-up, vivarium style, with a false bottom, land and water plants, and pill bugs and springtails on clean-up duty, but I'm not there yet.