# Why are my frogs dying?



## waruikazi (Mar 10, 2007)

I live in Darwin and I have built a big frog pond in my back yard. In just the past couple days the tadpoles have been morphing. Yesterday i found one frog that was severly deformed, it only had three legs and the legs that it did have were noticeably undersized. obviously this one died. But since yesterday i have seen another four frogs that have either completed their morph or close to it, sitting dead on the bottom of my pond. From what i can see it is only the green tree frogs not the brown poke poke frogs.

Any ideas on what it could be?

This is my pond


----------



## MrBredli (Mar 10, 2007)

Can they get out of the water easily?


----------



## cris (Mar 10, 2007)

Is there anything to allow frogs that cant climb to escape from the pond?


----------



## waruikazi (Mar 10, 2007)

They have lily leave they can climb on and i have found them crawling up the besa block before. I also have a paice of wood in the corner that leads out of the pond and some gaps in between the blocks to let the water out that the frogs could aslo crawl out of.


----------



## pythoness (Mar 10, 2007)

Toads? all my frogs died when a toad started to take a swim in their pond.


----------



## waruikazi (Mar 10, 2007)

Well that could be it but i don't hink so. I built this pond to keep the toads out and i don't hink the taods have quite reached us yet, they'll be here by christmas i reckon but not yet. Do you guys think it's worth reporting to frog watch or some group like that?


----------



## Bug collector (Mar 10, 2007)

my dad said: the shed roof with the gutter goes into the pond. the leaves in the gutter rot and produce tanin (?) tanic acid, and also bird poo from the roof produces a high level of phosphorus. these would build up in the pond and affect the frogs.


----------



## Bug collector (Mar 10, 2007)

** especially if theres rain after a long dry period.


(lol dads over my shoulder)


----------



## waruikazi (Mar 10, 2007)

Hrrmmm good point... Doesn't seem to affect the tadpoles though. Thanks for that, good food for thought.


----------



## Bug collector (Mar 10, 2007)

dad said: the frogs may be more vulnerable coz they absorb stuff thru their skin, do tads do that??


----------



## cris (Mar 10, 2007)

I think its most likely that they are having trouble getting out of the water, species that cant climb will need a ramp of some sort to be able to get out.


----------



## Bug collector (Mar 10, 2007)

what about the deformed legs tho?


----------



## angel_saza (Mar 10, 2007)

Could be either a pollutant in the water affecting the growth of the frogs or just a mutation that's unfavourable.. It's natural. Ask about it on this forum, it's specifically about frogs www.frogs.org.au/community


----------



## waruikazi (Mar 10, 2007)

GTF definately climb and they have alot of platforms to climb on so i'm sure that's not the problem. Thanks for the suggestions guys.


----------



## JasonL (Mar 12, 2007)

Cytrid virus kill frogs as they morph or within the first couple weeks.


----------



## bunnykin (Mar 12, 2007)

thats what i was thinking too jason. But how would the virus get to the pond ?... i guess the frogs carry it ? how would you get rid of it?


----------



## JasonL (Mar 12, 2007)

the fungus is water borne, it infects the water. all it takes is one infected frog to jump into the pond and it will be spred to all. Adults can often live with the fungus but their offspring will all die as soon as they morph. It's this reason you should use tap water for frog (not tadpoles though)


----------



## JasonL (Mar 12, 2007)

add salt to the water, but in places with heaps of frogs it will be re-infected in no time anyhow.


----------



## hugsta (Mar 12, 2007)

Chytrid Fungus can also be transfered via bird droppings. So as mentioned before, if your rain water from your roof is funnelled into your frog pond, when it rains it could wash the fungus into your pond. Once the pond is contaminated you may as well kill everything in it. It is like OPMV of the frog world. Also the main casue of the southern corroboree frog being wiped out.


----------



## nuthn2do (Mar 12, 2007)

The only thing apart from Chytrid i can think of is the water quality. Rain leeching through those spiffy new bessa blocks is got to upset the PH big time.


----------



## waruikazi (Mar 12, 2007)

We have millions of frogs in our yard so wiping it out would be near impossible i think. The thing is for the first month or so of having this pond all was fine. No dead frogs. It's only been in the past fortnight or so that it has been happening.


----------



## waruikazi (Mar 12, 2007)

nuthn2do said:


> The only thing apart from Chytrid i can think of is the water quality. Rain leeching through those spiffy new bessa blocks is got to upset the PH big time.



Over the past week and a half we have had about 500mm of rain so the pond has been flushed several times i would have thought that would have countered the ph problem. 

I heard that some snails can give diseases to tadpoles/frogs could this be the problem? I have put a couple of snails in but that was at about the same time as filling it up.


----------



## JasonL (Mar 12, 2007)

water temp or quality could be the problem, tadpoles will get MBD if they don't eat enough due to one or both of these problems, these tads will morph into deformed frogs.


----------



## Scleropages (Mar 12, 2007)

Check the pH


----------



## JasonL (Mar 12, 2007)

it probably has more to do with hardness, unaged rain water can be to hard for many tadpole sp.


----------



## Scleropages (Mar 12, 2007)

well then check the GH

But if hes not checking the pH I would guess hes not checking the hardness

Sorry if you are checking these btw


----------



## waruikazi (Mar 12, 2007)

Trousa_Snake said:


> well then check the GH
> 
> But if hes not checking the pH I would guess hes not checking the hardness
> 
> Sorry if you are checking these btw



No offence taken Trousa. In all honesty i probably wont the Ph/hardness and all that cause there isn't really alot i can do about it if thats what the problem is. If it was something like a plant or soething i could easily fix without spending alot of money i would do it but other wise i'll just wait for it to fix its self.


----------



## Scleropages (Mar 12, 2007)

Okes , maybe don't let the overflow from the roof go strate into the pond , so the water isent "flushed out" all in one go..... then you can regulate the chemical side better 


good luck


----------

