When/how to release leopard frog tadpoles?

[jfaction]

My son rescued a mass of eggs from our pool, in which southern leopard frogs seem intent upon partying every night. He set them up in a tank he has, and has an appropriate habitat going. Our plan was to release them into a nearby pond/stream in the near future. I'm worried now that they've emerged as tadpoles in this room temperature water, that if we release them now and it's cold outside, they'll die. i'm in Austin TX and so it's only in the 40s-50s now but will be cold soon. Also, what if the pond or stream dries up?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

thanks
Shannon

[Zigzag]

Most people recommend not releasing most animals after they have been in captivity for any amount of time. I am sure someone with more knowledge than me will chime in.
Hope you will figure out what to do with these guys.

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! First thing to do is check your local laws in regards to how many frogs can you have and also how soon you have to release. Many states limit the number of frogs and also prohibit releasing them after a few days in captivity. If legal, releasing them near a body of water is the best you can do. Some will hopefully survive to live a normal wild life span .

[herpdoc]

from what i remember, many states do allow you to release tadpoles you've raised back to the wild. in my opinion the only real diseases to worry about are ranaviruses and chytrid fungus. as far as the other stuff (bacterial disease/opportunistic fungus), it's usually stress related illness due to normal flora from being in captivity. if you let them go, they're either going to die or recover and in either case you're not exactly changing the environment since it's already there and presumably wild frogs aren't necessarily going to get infected. the only other argument i can think of for not releasing is mucking with the genetics from one location to another if you release them into a different location.