Do frogs guard their eggs?

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,908
Reaction score
29,895
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
That photo looks like frog eggs, must have just been the shot angle. Ours never do a pile dump...............
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2011
Messages
1,993
Reaction score
1,786
Location
BC Canada
Actually I moved around some rocks and made a sort of circular barricade and placed both the eggs batches inside the barricade and covered the top with a big flat rock to protect them. We checked periodically to see their progress and noticed that more then 50% of the eggs turned white, indicating that they were infertile. Still, some did make it to tiny free swimming tadpole stage, but at about the same time, as predicted, my turtle started hanging around the rock barricade. I'm assuming he was waiting for any stragglers that happen to swim out of the barricade. Finally the eggs masses lost their tendency to stick together in a mass and sort of melted down in between the the gaps between the rocks, tadpoles and all, which was probably better for the young tadpoles as it meant the turtle couldn't reach them, however we never did see anymore tadpoles. It is possible a few are still alive somewhere in there, but even if they are it is very unlikely they will survive. My pond might seem like a very tranquil serene place for a human to sit beside and enjoy, but for a newly hatched little tadpole being in that water is virtually like being in a baby in a war zone, death waiting for you at any moment and little hope of survival.
The male frog continued to embrace the female frogs once in a while, but since they no longer have any eggs in them it doesn't last long and the females just hop away until he releases his embrace. Essentially telling the male frog that they aren't in the mood. :shifty:
 
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
467
Reaction score
248
Location
Upstate CA
Hardiness Zone
7
When I was a child, toads laid strings upon strings of eggs in my pond, and because it had no fish, they hatched in the hundreds. They fed off the algae in the pond and I threw an occassional earth worm in the pond which became fascinating to watch as it was one long string of thrashing tails as they fought for a place at the earthworm table.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Frogs 38
Can I cycle my pond with frogs? 7
Can frogs cycle a pond? 4
Dead frogs 15
Frogs in the pond 38
Can Anyone Spare Some Frogs? 24
Frogs come out of hibernation 2
Frogs & Fountains 10

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
31,505
Messages
517,972
Members
13,713
Latest member
Dreamyholi

Latest Threads

Top