what eats frog/tadpoles' poo?

[anneke]

Hi,

I'm currently caring for tadpoles from the common frog, Rana temporaria - Ireland's only native frog - as a school's nature project. They are about 6 weeks old, still have their tail and produce a lot of poo. I've changed the water this morning and was wondering which aquatic insect or other invertebrate eats this poo in the wild. Does anyone know? I'm sure there's something eating it in nature and would like to introduce this 'something' to our fish bowl so that our water will be naturally cleaned.. anyone any ideas?
Another question: do young tadpoles eat freshwater shrimp? I thought they were still vegetarian until they lose the tail? 2 shrimp were added to the bowl but are now 'gone'.. I did find one's exoskeleton.
As for tadpole food - have tried algae, bread, lightly boiled dandelion leaves and a bit of boiled egg - thought a varied diet would be good?
Apart from tadpoles there are / were a few tiny beetles, stonefly larvae and many tiny snails that hitched with the watercress and other plants or stones we added to our bowl.

[Mentat]

You could use a small aquarium sponge filter/air pump combination. Rinse the foam filter in aquarium water (i.e. during a water change), not in tap water that will kill the beneficial ammonia/nitrite reducing bacteria. What is their current set-up and how/when do you conduct water changes?

Can add veggie type fish flakes to their diet. Tadpoles consume mainly detritus, algae and higher plants. Also, animal matter can be consumed in smaller amounts. Don't think they became predatory to the shrimps. Maybe the shrimp died and then the tadpoles consumed their organic matter. Good luck !