Tadpoles 1½ months old

Hi everyone!

The tadpoles and froglets are now one and a half months old and some of them have actually already completed their metamorphosis - they are now frogs! These have been handed in at our office and are being released back in the pond that they were taken from originally. It's important that the frogs and tadpoles get released to the same place they were taken from originally to not spread the frog species or the chytrid fungus that now lives on many frog species to areas where they are not supposed to be.

When the time comes to hand in your tadpole kit, remember to follow the checklist procedure at the end of the document 'Procedures for loan of a Tadpole Kit through the Ginninderra Catchment Group' which should have been sent to all of you at some point. If you don't have this document and didn't get the email I just sent with it as an attachment, please leave a comment or shoot us an email.

We now have some more nice photos of the tadpoles and froglets! First two images where you can see the growth of the back legs:

Then two images of tadpoles with front legs:

And finally two images of fully metamorphosed frogs resting in a humid container with a few leaves that they can hide under:

If you have any nice images of your tadpoles or of the kids and students watching them we would love to see them!

- Anders and Anke Maria

Tadpoles 1 month old

Hi everyone and welcome to the Frogwatch ACT Tadpole Kit blog! We hope all of you are having a lot of fun looking at and taking care of the tadpoles and we hope all of you will get to see the tadpoles turn into frogs (the metamorphosis). Remember that once they turn into frogs, they need to have a corner of dry land in the tank to rest on - frogs can drown!

The pictures and progress posted below is from term 4 of 2012.

The eggmass was collected on the 14th of October. As many schools as possible were given hatched tadpoles on the pickup dates of the 15th and 16th, but many schools had to be given eggs. For a few schools the eggs did not hatch or the tadpoles died early and were given a new batch of tadpoles from the Frogwatch office.

Getting some of the tadpoles we have here in the office is still an option if you have had a kit from the beginning but lost most or all of the tadpoles early!

The pictures below were taken today, the 13th of November, at about one month of age. The tadpoles are growing nicely, you can see the red gills and pulsing red heart through the semitransparent chest!

If your tadpoles are significantly smaller than these, make sure they get enough sun and enough food. Too much food will foul the water, though - so if that happens make a few water changes and scale back the food dosage.

We also have gotten a few pictures from Waratah Preschool on the 24th of October of the kids studying the tadpoles and drawing froggies!

We also got two pictures of the tadpoles at the Curtin North Preschool taken on the 9th of November. They are growing very nicely:

We would love to get more pictures and will be happy to upload them if you send them to us at actfrogwatcheducator@gmail.com

Also please leave a comment below! We like getting some feedback and hearing how it's going with our taddies across Canberra.