Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[pondlover]

It sounds like a great way to spend a nice sunny day. I used to ride at Wrangler's Camp in Land Between the Lakes, but haven't been in several years. I noticed in one of your posts earlier about tadpoles. I have a ton of little guys swimming around in my pond. Do I just leave them all in there? I don't want them to overpopulate, but I think they may have already done that. LOL

 

[CountryEscape]

Just leave them. They will mostly become food for your koi! They won't overpopulate. If too many become frogs, other things will eat the frogs. It's called nature. They lay hundreds of eggs, part of them hatch, and part of the tadpoles make it to frogs. Even then, not many of them will live. I had tons of frogs last year, only saw the bullfrog (or large anyhow) tadpoles in my bog when I was expanding it. Never did see any tiny tads. Not sure if they were in the bog and I just never saw them, or they were eaten as soon as they were hatched. Fish will also eat the eggs. Good luck! Are your tads tiny ones, or bigger sized ones? I guess they all start out pretty small. What type of frogs have you seen around the pond? It's all fun watching them grow.

 

[brandonsdad02]

We had 2 sets of toads going at it for days in our pond this year. They laid eggs but not sure if they will make it since we had a cold snap. Last year when this happened we had toadpoles swimming around just a few days after we saw the long black strings of eggs. I figured we would have lots of toads once they got older but not so much. Ce is right, the fish will eat them and so will anything else that wants a easy meal. I saw our turtle eating a few tiny toads last year.

 

[CountryEscape]

Even that robin that I said was on my waterfall last weekend, she was eating something on there, probably snails! Nature feeds itself. Don't worry about overpopulating, even if it looks like you have hundreds. Other things will be thrilled they made it to this point, trust me. Now, I wonder when I will get to see lots of tadpoles on my pond. All the tiny frogs have gone back into hiding, been gone for a couple of weeks already. The bullfrogs are still in the bog, though. I guess the little Cricket frogs and spring peepers want warmer water and air temps before they show themselves again.

 

[addy1]

Yep ce all of our peepers have gotten quiet again, the toad tads seem to be hanging in there, 1000's of them. The green frogs are in the ponds but not croaking as much, like someone hit the pause button.

 

[CountryEscape]

Same here, Addy. I'm hoping with the 70's predicted for this weekend, the bullfrogs will start croaking again, and the peepers and cricket frogs will come back out of hiding. I need to look closer for tadpole eggs, I guess. Or, maybe they are not able to get into my koi pond, because it is elevated ... maybe that's why I never see eggs or tiny tadpoles from the toads. I know they can climb, though, so should be able to get in there. I'll check out the bog again, but I am always checking out the bog, pulling foamy algae every now and then anyhow, never noticed any tadpoles except the big ones last year, and that was only because I was emptying the bog!

 

[j.w]

I've still got just the one frog croaking at my pond but he's seeming to be a faithful guy/gal so I'm happy. I'll pick up some more up the road but not going to put them in the pond, think I'll put them in the bath tub pond which isn't too far from the pond w/ no fish in it yet. That way I may end up w/ some survivors. Had to put a little wire fence around the bath tub tho cuz the raccoons last year were trying to get at the water lilies!

 

[pondlover]

 

[CountryEscape]

I'm having a really hard time being patient, too, PL. I'm going to try a water change on both ponds, one tomorrow one on Sunday, and see if that helps. I'll let you know my results!

 

[brandonsdad02]

The water change might make things go even slower. Just got let the bacteria take control and your water will clear up. All the pond plants should help a lot once things get established.

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, huh .... now I'm confused, but I'm tending to believe you, BrandonsDad, because last year once my water got clear, I never did anything to it. The only water changes were adding water when the level got low, due to lack of rain and hot temps. I'm somewhat confused, though, as some say to do a water change, and others say to not, wait out the bacteria. The reason I would think a water change might help is that it's kind of cold and the bacteria is maybe not working right now, will have to wait for it to kick back in or get going for the year. Maybe the water change would help in the meantime?

 

[brandonsdad02]

The chlorine in the city water will kill the good bacteria if you add too much at once. Once your pond is established and good bacteria is there and keeping the water clear, it should be fine to add water. I top mine off when its low. I have added uv lights to help with the algae blooms in the spring. I know its hard to wait, I'm going thru the same thing. I want to see all my fishies and frogs.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Between the uv lights and the almost inch of rain we got today, the water is starting to look a lot better.

 

[j.w]

I do partial water changes now and then (just did one a couple days ago) but I'm on well water w/ a ph of 7 and never creates any problems w/ my water. Rain here is ph 7 also. Must be some good bacteria in there doing it's job!

 

[CountryEscape]

BD, I have well water, so no worries about chlorine. However, my PH from the wells (I have 2 separate wells) are both pretty high, more like 8.4. I'm going to do a total water check on both ponds this weekend and check all my notes and do some thinking on what to do. I have my UV light on the koi pond, goldfish doesn't have anything on it, and so far they are alike, both are murky. Yuck!