frog spawn

[wicked reptiles]

Hi guys


I will start off by saying that im not a real big frog enthusiast but do not want to see themm get eaten before they have a chance to really live. Now my problem is this, i have 4 ponds outside with turtles, gumbusia, glass shrimp and yabbies. Now i have heard that gumbussia will eat little frogs, and just now i have noticed that there is lots of frog spawn in my ponds and i would love to be able to help these little guys out! So i was thinking that i could put them in a 4 foot tank in my garage so could i get some help with arangements like heat and so on. Also I have no idea what type but they have made their own way to my ponds and i live in canberra, also there was huge numbers of them in there before i put in the turtles. Any help would be great!:?

 

[frogus]

Sounds like your on the right track.

 

[wicked reptiles]

Thanks, just cant bare the thought of all those little tuckers gettin gobbled

 

[cris]

IMO you should get rid of the gambusia, you are probably breaking the law by having them anyway. I doubt gambusia would eat frogs but they will eat small tadoples, chew the tails on larger ones and probably eat some of their eggs. After saying that though I would just leave the eggs in the pond, I have swordtails(a bit like massive gambusia) in my ponds and the frogs still thrive. The tadpoles and frogs will also be a good addition to your turtles diets(I mean what they catch themselves). I think they should be fine and enough will most likely survive to maintain the population, if one out of 1000 tadpoles survives long enough to breed that is plenty to maintain the population in most cases. In general most of the tadpoles are supposed to die it ensures the ones that are able to breed are strong and genetically sound. The tadpoles themselves will probably kill each other as much as other things in many cases.

You might also be breaking the law by taking protected animals and putting them in a fish tank, this could risk any legally held reptiles you have. I dont know the laws there but it would be worth your time to check them.

 

[wicked reptiles]

alright, thanks. I geuss ill just leave them to it

 

[angel_saza]

Generally, you are allowed to collect frog spawn and observe the metamorphosis of the taddies into frogs. The Frogs must be released within 7days of them morphing. I'm pretty sure thats how it goes.

 

[wicked reptiles]

sweet, il do that and get to see the little fellas!

 

[jkrakka]

what are these gambusia can some one send me a pic of the thanks

 

[meshe1969]

Here is the relevant info for the ACT, it would appear to be illegal:

http://www.environment.act.gov.au/petsandlocalwildlife/localwildlife/frogpondsinbackyards.

I would contact someone here:

http://www.nativefish.asn.au/

They will help you get rid of the Gambusia

 

[Oxyuranus microlepid]

http://www.gambusia.net/

 

[cris]

One way to reduce the population of gambusia is by using bait traps, just make sure you place them at surface level with the top out of the water to allow any trapped tadpoles to breathe. Gambusia are also live at the surface so it will work better to trap them too.
Check the traps about every 30min -1hr and you will catch heaps that can then be killed and fed off to the turtles.

 

[wicked reptiles]

k, they would have to be tiny traps to catch the gambusia and not interfere with the turts, wher would i get one?

 

[hornet]

k-mark should have little plastic ones but i have little fold up ones that were about $7 from the local tackle store, only hatchling turtles would b small enough to go into the hole

 

[wicked reptiles]

Kool, once i catch them there will be way to many to feed to my turts straight away, so i was wondering if it would take away too much from the nutritional value to freeze a bunch of them?

 

[hornet]

nah, freezing is fine, i used to catch fish from my local creek and freeze a heap for later use

 

[wicked reptiles]

kool, ill even be able to have them in bags with dif sizes for dif sized turts, that will be cool, oh and by the way is it unhealthy to have turtles feeding on mainly fish, snails, yabbies and turtle dinner?

 

[hornet]

nope, the live food is what they naturally eat and the turtle dinner has vitamins, should be fine

 

[wicked reptiles]

Kool, thanks to everyone for their help on this!