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!
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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.
Also please leave a comment below! We like getting some feedback and hearing how it's going with our taddies across Canberra.
Feel free to post any comment you like!
ReplyDeleteHow are your tadpoles doing? If you have any pictures, we would love to see them!
We can see little white legs growing on our biggest tadpole now!
ReplyDeleteIt's all very exciting. We have carefully piled the gravel up into one corner of the tank so that once the tadpoles become froglets they can rest closer to the surface and breathe out of the water.
Is there anything else we should do? and how formed should the legs be before we return them?
Thank you for creating this Blog-
Megan Fischbein
Curtin North Preschool
Hi Megan - thanks for commenting. It's nice to hear they have started the metamorphosis!
ReplyDeleteIf you have made a little dry 'island' for the frogs to rest on then that's enough. The point at which the frog(s) should be returned is when the tail is just about to disappear and the frog chooses to spend time on the island. This marks the transition from being a herbivorous tadpole to a carnivorous frog and the spirulina is no longer suitable as food.
Once you get to this point you can choose to feed the frog(s) tiny crickets or you can hand them in at the Frogwatch office. You can hand them in all at once or individually, as long as the frogs do not starve at any point.