Parasite??

[taniaaust1]

(sorry if this is in wrong area to post in but I cant see where a general question on parasites goes).

I may of imagined the following, Im still trying to figure it out and this happened so fast that Im not entirely sure what I saw.

I was watching one of my new froglets in my outdoor pond (my tabpoles only started going to frogs a couple of weeks ago... and I have 2 frogs, 2 froglets and the rest tabpoles still). I saw something slowly come out of its mouth, I thought it may be its tongue.. what confused me thou was it was forked at the end, like splitting into two.. I dont think frogs have tongues like that do they??). Anyway.. I found out for sure it wasnt a tongue when it drifted off from the mouth and at that point thought it was just a bit of old decayed plant matter.

A second later thou.. it suddenly very fast moved back into the frogs mouth.. if I could have seen the froglet sucking back as the tabpoles do I may of thought it sucked it back in..but the speed the object moved and I didnt see the froglet suck back at all.. made me think the thing which came from its mouth may of been alive and looked like it dived back into the froglet. As soon as it rapidly went into its mouth, it spat it immediately out and the object fell into the plant leaves etc (while I made a run to try to grab a container to try to catch or get whatever it was for a closer look to see what it was). Couldnt thou find it when I got back (impossible in outside pond). Whatever it was.. seemed to have a bit of a stripey look to it.

It all happened so fast that I still do not what I saw... maybe I missed the froglet sucking things back (thou I was watching closely and wouldnt have expected that), surprised thou how hard it would of had to suck to bring that thing back into its mouth at the speed it went.

My question is.. is there any kinds of parasites which one end of them branches off (forked) and are a bit stripey and may be confused with looking like grey/brown/old plant matter? Maybe it was nothing thou. What could be relevent was that this froglet is one Ive named hercules.. he had the biggest appetite of all my tabpoles and just eats and eats.. and ended up that fat at one point that he was so bloated up he looked like he had some bloating frog disease (cause of all he eats, he's much bigger as a froglet then my other two which have been frogs for a week! thou he no longer has the bloated look he's still bigger in size then the others). Maybe his obesity was a parasite?

If one had a parasite while is a tabpole.. could the change of the digestive system when it goes into a frog force the parasite to come out? (Im just wondering if this is all coincidental or not as this happened on the first day he got his arms.. he's such a pig even now with both arms, legs and tail, he is still trying to eat the fish flakes I feed tabpoles with). The other 3 going to frogs stopped eatting at that point of the morph (with his appetite I wasnt surprised when he didnt). I watch my pond closely and I havent seen anything like this in the few months Ive had the tabpoles .

Note.. all my tabpoles seem healthy (one was sick for a day last week..floating..but it recovered), everyone is active.. and I counted a couple of days back all 12 (with some now frogs).. Its the first time since Ive put them all in the pond months ago that I was able to see all at once so know now I havent lost any (I started with 12).

any thoughts?

[Mentat]

From your post information and not having caught the suspected "parasite" myself would not worry about it. It's pretty normal for wild creatures to carry parasites in them. Rarely due these parasites become a danger like in our enclosures where their numbers can become abnormally high and affect the host. As long as your pond's frogs are healthy and growing, would not worry about it.

Know of no tadpole parasites that would leave it's host through the mouth when they become froglets. There are some pond parasite treatments safe for frogs. Unless you have solid evidence the pond has a parasite problem, medicating it just in case, is not recommended. Good luck and post pics of your pond and frogs when possible !

[Tongue Flicker]

i know leeches can parasitize inside fish and frog mouths' as well as certain aquatic worms!

[taniaaust1]

thanks, relieved at your posts

I have an update to my post.

When cleaning out my pond filter there was a red worm in it. It is about 1cm long but when it stretches itself out it goes to 12mm, the worm doesnt seem to be segmented (at least to my eyes). It has a forked end like the worm I saw the other day.

Ive been trying to get a photo of it but my camera just blurs the image as its too small. This worm crawls along the bottom (I put it in a jar filled with water with some sand at the bottom) it also curls at times.

When I do a search for red worms in ponds, it came up with posts on blood worms being in ponds and from what I understand these are eattable to frogs (so I hope that is what it is, I planning to see if I can take the worm to a vet to ask them if they know what it is).

[Silkmoth]

Do you have a nature center or university nearby? I bet someone there would answer better.

[taniaaust1]

Do you have a nature center or university nearby? I bet someone there would answer better.

There unfortunately isnt and as Im disabled and hence homebound its very hard for me to even get it into a vet to ask. Im going to see thou if a friend can maybe do that for me tomorrow (if the worm is not dead in the jar of water by now)

[taniaaust1]

Good luck and post pics of your pond and frogs when possible !

My frogs are so hard to get photos of being only fingernail sized. I have 4 frogs now and one froglet (and should still have 7 tabpoles in the pond .. I started with 12).

Here's a photo I took today, if you can spot the froglet .. some of them blend in soo well, this is a great example of their blending to the environment I have them in (this one still has a third of its tail but you cant see the tail in the pic. Its mid photo, sitting side on).

[taniaaust1]

I just went out to the pond to feed tabpoles (thou they dont need it) .. and found the froglet climbing half way up the pond so I tried to take photo there but he just jumped in but I finally got a photo in which he can be seen (I think I must have two froglets, the one I was looking at this morning and trying to get photo of seemed all a dull brown colour and not patterned like this one)...