common_nature | A story with legs

When I finished my last post the tadpoles were 3 weeks old and about to go from their nursery tub into the pond. It's actually more of a water feature than a pod - it's a fairly small 2 level fibreglass set up with fake rock texture, a pump and 2 potted water plants that could only vaguely be said to thrive. It also has a predator occasionally drop by.

I thought the tadpoles would struggle to strive in this environment... But they actually did amazing! I put the pond pump in a lingerie washing bag so they wouldn't get sucked in to it, but tadpoles got into the bag the first time I set it up and into the pump. But all came out alive! Even the one I found literally inside the pump mechanism. I got better at creative knots when setting the pump in the bag so there were no more stray guys after that.

The tadpoles grew really fast and seemed to enjoy the more natural environment of the pond.

7 January

I fed them a diet of fish food and random fruit and veg. They are not a fan of zucchini (my Partner agrees with them there) but they love watermelon (as do the pond snails).

7 January

I developed a little afternoon ritual of sitting by the pond at 5pm while the water was war nest and watching them eat. It was very soothing, almost like watching goldfish.

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13 January

I feel into a steady rhythm, and so did the tadpoles. They grew, I watched.

23 January

I was enjoying them so much I want to look at a reference book at the local library on tadpoles of southern New South Wales. It was really interesting, especially the tadpole stages.

Plus, I found out I'd misidentified these guys! I'd been telling everyone they were spotted marsh frogs when the book helped me identify them as striped marsh fogs. Sorry l'il dudes. To be fair, the 2 species are very close. So much so there was an illustration of the 2 tadpoles side by side.

Judging by the size (up to 9cm!), the darker colour and the soaked-sultana shape of my tadpoles they're definitely Limnodynastes peronii, the striped marsh frog.

So that was cool. The tadpoles were growing well and were pretty active. I was just starting to look at the next stages of their development when one day I peeked in the pond and saw...