Frogspawn question

[Tweetypie]

Earlier this week, whilst out walking in the forest, I noticed a huge dollop of frogspawn in one of the shallow trenches, which had been previously full of rain water. The second day (Wednesday) I took a bottle on my walk and filled it with water from the river, then poured it onto the frogspawn. Bit of a trek, but hey ho, a bit more walking will do me good. ;-) Now I have been thinking about this frogspawn, call me a soft touch, and I can't help but wonder if I should have scooped it up and taken it to the river bank, a mile away.

Since living in this area for 5 years and walking in this forest, daily, I have noticed a serious decline in frogs, so much so that I only saw 3 last year!! What would you do and should I go looking for it tomorrow, armed with marigolds and a container and take it near to the river?

 

[Marigold]

Hi Tweetipie. Yes it would be very good to transplant the spawn if you can if you think the trench is going to dry up. It would get washed away if you put it in the river itself but if there is a marshy area where some water plants will hold it in a wet hollow with enough depth to keep them swimming they should be OK.
Frogs are declining nationally and from being found everywhere they are now in a bad way like hedgehogs. We used to have masses of them in our pond but have had no spawn for several years now. A frog disease has spread across the country and killed many and of course they're very vulnerable to the increased use of agricultural chemicals and runoff into rivers and streams as well as the misuse of garden fertilisers etc.
Alternatively if you have a large clean plastic container and could get some river water for them you could set them up and rear them at home. Rainwater would do if the river is too far to carry water. Needs to be about 15-20 cms deep and kept in shade. You will need to order some tadpole food - this comes as 2 stages; the first stage is for emergent tadpoles who naturally eat vegetation and the second stage is when they're growing legs and become carnivorous. When they get legs you need to put a brick or stone in for them to climb out on.
Do let us know how you get on. I did this with the last clump we found in our pond 2 years ago. I put in some weed for them but this was a mistake as it evidently had the eggs of dragonfly nymphs on the leaves. Tadpoles made a great start all hatched and swimming - then they all disappeared and I found that a large and very well-fed dragonfly nymph had eaten them all!
There's lots of advice online about raising and feeding tadpoles.

 

[Tweetypie]

Hi Marigold
I went to the frogspawn today,armed with rubber gloves, a container and trowel. I tried lifting it into the container, but it was really difficult, very jellified, if that's a word. I used the trowel to scoop it up and took it to a very deep trench, which was still filled with rain water, about 6 inches deep, as I thought it might have a better chance there, than next to the river. I made a make shift puddle next to the water, so if they do survive, they have deeper water to go into. I am not even sure if it was alive. It had black slightly elongated spots. The jelly was quite thick, I didn't see it moving, but the spots were smaller than a pin head. Fingers crossed a few survive.

 

[Marigold]

Sounds good; they were lucky you came along. Well done your good deed for the day.

 

[dianefairhall]

Good luck - I suppose you'll never know!

Several years ago OH arrived home (Yorkshire) with a jar of frogspawn to put in our pond. Can't remember why, something to do with school holidays of his workmates' kids. We had lots of tadpoles and froglets but as soon as we put a brick in the corner they all legged it and we never saw a frog again.

 

[Tweetypie]

I've been out to visit my frogspawn today, but not sure if it is alive. Its difficult to see. I did notice that in some of the other trenches further down the forest that there's lots more spawn, some developing nicely into tadpoles, but unfortunately for them, a female duck has decided they are a tasty meal! The trenches are caused by the lorry tyre tracks lopping down some of the forest last year :-( Have to say that the water makes for a pretty picture.Not sure how a duck discovered it.

 

[Marigold]

That looks quite big puddles. Yes many tadpoles always get eaten - that's why there are so many of them! What a lovely place. I expect the tadpoles are fine. They don't move much until they are big enough to get out of the egg jelly stuff.