Quote Originally Posted by amphib View Post
They are susceptible to parasites. But i cant say whether you have anchor worm or what it may be with out a picture.
I may have a problem here!

Last year we had goldfish which were wiped out by anchor worms.
Consequently, we completely emptied our pond of water and plant life, cleaned the liner, and refilled with clean water. Any existing frogs had left of their own volition whilst we were doing this (as I believe they would do anyway at that time of year - presumably returning to the pond only to breed).

The pond was left completely empty (apart from the water) throughout the winter in the belief that any existing anchor worms would die and any of their eggs, after hatching, would have nothing on which to live and would also die.

My question is, could any frogs overwintering outside of the pond have been infected by anchor worms and have brought them back to the pond?

Incidentally, a large amount of frogspawn appeared a couple of weeks ago. This has now disappeared (though I haven't seen any tadpoles as yet), but more worryingly, I recently found two dead adult frogs on the bottom of the pond, which I removed. I didn't see any anchor worms attached, but is it possible that anchor worms (or their eggs) are still living somewhere in the pond?

Thanks for reading all of this(!), but I thought it necessary to explain everything thoroughly.