California toad (Bufo boreas halophilus) experience

[Pete]

I normally frequent the salamander forum, but on a recent turn of events has brought me to this forum more. My girlfriend and I found some toad tadpoles on a hike. To my surprise she wanted to take some home and raise them. I thought it was a suspicious response from her, but I figured I'd risk it and support the interest. I haven't kept frogs or toads since I was in high school, so this forum was a helpful refresher course.

I just wanted to recount the experience and share some photos.

The first photo shows the habitat in which we found them. It was in the East bay hills of the San Francisco bay.

The next two pictures are of the amazing tadpole density in the pond. I should note that in addition to the tadpoles, the small ponds held red-legged frogs (Rana draytonii), california newts (Taricha torosa), and Western pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata). We collected about 15 tadpoles. This was back at the end of April or early May.

The next three photos are of some random shots of the tadpoles. I would estimate that they were of varying sizes from 1.5-2.5 cm. Their hind legs were mostly just stubs when we collected them, but they grew quickly, and in the past two weeks they've started emerging. The tadpoles were left to feed on whatever was in the planted tank and occasionally fed crushed fish flakes. They were kept in a tank with some amano shrimp, a few fathead minnows used for breeding, and a lot of snails.

The next two photos are after they got their front legs. I was a bit surprised that they were changing at such a small size (<1 cm), because we have Bufo boreas halophilus (At least, I suspect they must be) here at the lake on campus. I always see the little toadlets out of the water even with little tails at about (1.5-2 cm). Perhaps it has to do with the tadpole density in the pond, because I've never seen tadpoles so dense on campus.

The first toad to transform had some defects, as mentioned here. He's since started eating, and my girlfriend is opposed to culling him, so we'll see what happens. I've been feeding them wingless fruitflies and these wooly aphid like bugs that infested my broccoli and cabbage plants. The toads seem to love them, and I hate them, so it's a win-win. I was surprised, because they started trying to eat them when they still had about 50% of their tails.

The toads have been putting on weight and are starting to look like toads. All in all it's been a good positive experience, and I have to thank those that posted in earlier threads about toadlets, because a lot of that information was helpful. In the next post I'll add some pictures of the toads and food.