Quote Originally Posted by numpty View Post
Nice! Aquatic clawed frogs in your backyard (well, maybe not literally).
Well, you're not too far off base. The pool where I caught the tadpoles, is about two minutes walk from the back of my house.

Personally, I mixed the rooibos tea at a ratio of two teabags to eight litres of water(the first time I filled the tank). All the partial tea changes were made with tea that was mixed at a ratio of one teabag to eight litres of water. I did it this way, because the dechlorinating agent I used was used by adding three drops to four litres of water. So, I placed my tea bags in a two-litre jug, which I filled with boiling water and then I supplemented those two litres with six litres of cold water. The eight litres were then cold enough for immediate use. One advantage that I found with the rooibos tea, was that the water did not go smelly, and dirty so quickly. The food that I fed the tadpoles turned the water into a liquid with the consistency of soup. This water had to be changed every day, for the well-being of the tadpoles. It also smelled terrible! The rooibos, on the other hand, retained its thin consistency, And, a partial water change every two to three days was quite sufficient.

I based my "experiment" on this article BBC News - Exotic frogs reared in redbush tea in Gloucestershire. But, to truly conduct a proper experiment, you would have to remove as many of the variables as possible. You would have to be sure that all the tadpoles came from the same spawning, that they all have the same genetic variability, and that they had exactly the same food, that the tea was consistently of the same brand, etc. etc. I would greatly like to perform an appropriate experiment on this topic one day.

To be honest, I'm quite the amateur when it comes to raising tadpoles. But, I think that this would be an interesting experiment to conduct, with many possible advantages.

I have my eye on an almost-dry concrete water tank up the hill which contains some Polypedates tadpoles. If the level gets critical I might decide to "rescue" a few and raise them through metamorphosis. Not sure yet.
Honestly, I would have 'rescued' some of those tadpoles long ago. Almost, as soon as I knew they were there. If you do decide to 'rescue' some, please post some pictures I'd like to see them.

Thanks for your interest.