Are Frogs a Danger to my Koi pond

addy1

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I get both, toads and frogs, the toads first, the frogs second. slightly different timing.
 
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The only problem you have to look out for with frogs near any fish be they goldfish or koi is when the amourouse frog or toad decideds to try and mate with your fish .
They can clamp around the fishes gills and suffrcate the koi unintentionally

rgrds

Daveandval
 

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The only problem you have to look out for with frogs near any fish be they goldfish or koi is when the amourouse frog or toad decideds to try and mate with your fish .
They can clamp around the fishes gills and suffrcate the koi unintentionally

rgrds

Daveandval

I have never seen a frog try to mate with a fish in the 30 something years I have been keeping ponds. I'm not saying it's not a risk but IMO at least from what I have ever seen this would have the be really rare. I would love to see a pic of this.
Bullfrogs are the one exception here that I really don't like near the pond. babies are fine but as they mature there are plenty of other places on the property they can live. Year before last year I bought some leopard frogs and added them to my pond. We relocated twoadults, one female and one male and what I thought were 6-8 leopard frog tadpoles. Not 100% sure but the two adults were living in a above ground pond and these large tadpoles were in there when we drained and went to move. Well long story short, I don't know if this is the male I moved or a yougster male that has grown up up. Was happy to a pic though.
 

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Weve never seen it ourselves but have heard about it from others personally I'd like to see a frog thry get into our pond which is freestanding 4 ft deep and netted .
The net was specifically bought to keep frogs, toads, herons etc at bay leaving the koi to themselves in their pond .

rgrds

Dave
 
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Height of a pond won't stop the frogs. Ours is abou 3.5 ft wall and the frogs hop into and out of it with no problem. I don't see 4-5 ft even being a challenge for them. The net could be an issue.

I've never heard nor seen a frog get after a large koi. Bullfrogs eating 3-4" fish yes. I guess anything is possible but I wouldnt stay awake at night worrying about it or worry about taking excessive measures to keep them out. Unless you want to raise baby fish of course.

Craig
 
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Attached a pic of the typical brat we have had to evict. As cute as this kid was, I like my babies LOL.
 

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[sub]I would like to see the little buggers get under my defences like the 6mm hexagonal holes bungy strapped net lol [/sub]

[sub]rgrds[/sub]


[sub]Dave[/sub]
 
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I do believe a big bullfrog like these can easily eat a 3 to 4" fish. All the reading i have done says they have voracious appetites and will eat anything they can fit into their mouth.
I remove any frog that i feel is big enough to eat one of my 10 biggest fish. If they want to eat any of the ones smaller than that i dont mind because my big fish will make more :)
 
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Holy cow, that's one huge bullfrog, Diesel! I know Grand Daddy Bullfrog living in the ditch across the road from my house must have been that large. I thought I remembered him larger than he was, until I saw him a second time. I think I would evict one that large, too. They can definitely eat a small bird at that size, so fish as well. I've yet to see any of my bullfrogs eat a fish, but I'm sure they have caught them a time or two. I only have 4 koi babies this year, and that's fine with me! I don't try to save the eggs or the fry, just let nature take it's course. Otherwise, I would have to rehome the babies, and then you have to wonder where they will go and what type of environment they will be living in.
I have a farm pond, so no way am I going to keep all the bullfrogs, leopard frogs, Northern Cricket and Spring Peeper frogs, nor the painted turtles and snappers out of my pond. The snappers are the only thing that I will evict if I ever find in my pond. So far, only two very tiny just hatched babies were found, and that was last year in the fall, maybe September! Strange time for babies to be born. Didn't see any this year, guess the ditch was their hatchery as usual.
Was there a reference above to worrying about dragonfly nymphs? And if so, what was the concern with them about? I don't remember there being any problem with them.
I had lots of toad eggs this spring, tons of teeny tiny toad tadpoles, but never saw even one baby toad. I've heard the toad tadpoles do not taste good either, but I had painted turtles here at that time, so thinking they cleaned them up for me. Never saw a frog tadpole all year. Never did last year either, until I cleaned out and expanded the koi pond bog. There are large tadpoles in there, maybe 3" long, so assumed they were bullfrog tads. Lots of young bullfrogs, just never saw them in the tadpole stage this year. But, in the end, they are all welcome (except the snappers!) in my ponds. It's all part of nature, and the balance it provides, to me anyhow. :)
 
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the heron reduced my koi/goldfish from 13 to 5 in one sitting, I scoop out the frogs on a regular basis, luckily my neighbour has a frog pond but they often return to mine. One frog killed one of my pretty fish in an amorous escapade. I am now down to three :( maybe I should pick up a couple of new fish now the spring is appearing....
 

addy1

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Welcome Viv to our group. I have to net my pond against herons, they fly over almost every day, even in the winter.
 
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Welcome Viv to our group. I have to net my pond against herons, they fly over almost every day, even in the winter.
I have only had the one visit, but have since covered my small pond. I must say, the heron was quite magnificent and gave me a rather haughty look as it took off :) but the frog 'bonking' the googly eyed fish was most unexpected....
 
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I gave up on the whole bullfrog evicting thing....I evict one...3 more takes its place. I don’t have koi so if he eats a gold fish or two then I’m out a few bucks. In fact a few years ago my goldfish bred and I was up to my eyeballs in baby goldfish...probably over 100! By the end of the summer maybe 10 were left. Not saying the bullfrogs did most of the damage but I’m sure they helped.
 

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