Mystery tadpole! Can you please help me identify him?

[Erica Buckner]

Hello everyone! This is my first post to the frog forum. I hope you guys might be able to help me.

I work at a Petsmart in Gresham, Oregon. We received a shipment of glofish and in one of the bags was a little tadpole.

I contacted Glofish directly and told them my situation; they told me that all of the shipments came from Florida.

Since bringing him home, he has been living in a breeder box for guppies in my aquarium. My aquarium is well planted and very clean at about 76 degrees. I have been feeding him romaine lettuce (frozen and then thawed so it's nice and mushy) and every few days I give him a little brine shrimp and blood worms. He has been eating like a pig, cleaning up lettuce the size of 1/4th of a dollar bill in two days. He does most of his munching at night, and always surprises me with how much he eats.

Fish are forte, but I've been learning about tadpole ID. I can say that he has a dextral vent, with no disgusting marks yet on his body. I can't tell whether his eyes are lateral or dorsal, due to lack of experience. I want to say lateral, but i'm not sure. I have had him for 2 1/2 weeks now, and he has grown noticeably.

I'm sure as he develops I will be able to see more distinguishing features, but I thought it would be better to get a second, experienced opinion. This has been a really fun experience for me and I hope to keep him as a pet. I just really, really hope he isn't a bull frog! I am aware that if he stays a tadpole for over a year and gets huge, that's probably what i'm dealing with.

Please have a look at the pictures and input your opinion. Thanks!

[Gnag the nameless]

I think that's an American Bullfrog tadpole (Rana Catesbiana). They are commonly found with fish, as they clean up the scraps that fish leave behind. I'm not sure, at the size that the tadpole is, but once it gets larger, I'll be able to tell. I see large bullfrog tadpoles all the time at my nearby lake. If you want to keep it, I can explain the basics of American bullfrog care to you.

Oh, and if he's eating a ton, it just reinforces the thought that he's a bullfrog. My juvenile bullfrog, Gnag, is my big chubby eating machine; she'll eat 1 earthworm and 8 big crickets, and still be happy for more