Large bullfrogs are a tadpole for 2 years. If things ate them ther would be no frogs on earth. The way they have protection is their Tails. If I put 3 five gal buckets of bulfrog tadpoles in a take on my fish truck an a fish gets in there the fish will be dead in a few mins. This is because of the poison in the tadpoles tails getting into the water. So no fish will eat tadpoles. Now I have seen here Hybrid bluegills eat toad tadpoles. This is because a toad is a tadpole just a few weeks and does not have the 2 years tail protection like the big frogs need. I ahv raised fish 40 years now and hate having 50,000 frog tadpoles in apond with fish then drain it and have to SORT by hand 1-2-3-4-50,000 tadpoles from the fish. Bar graders do not work if the fish are the same size, you have be careful not to mix then in a small tank and kill fish. My fish farm is for sale now and hope i do not have sort tadpoles soon :( rest my life :( Type LIVE FISH OF INDIANA for photos --i dont think i still haev tadpole pictures there ?

Since fish eat algae I wonder if it is a good idea to add any more nutrients to the pond, like fish food until the algae goes down. Plants produce oxygen during the day which increases the ph but at night they produce carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide in water produces the chemical carbonic acid that will take away your waters buffering. Baking soda is a buffer as David explained so well. If your buffering (KH) was low it could cause your fish to be highly stressed by wild swings in the PH causing pine cone disease. PH can also make a difference in the tolerance of ammonia levels which is also a stress factor. Hortons idea of removing some of the algae is a great idea, I think. Algae eats the ammonia in the water. If you then remove some of the algae you are also removing the nutrients it took to grow the algae. If the algae dies in the pond it then end up as a fertilizing nutrient for more algae. As Horton says water hyacinths is good for removing nutrients from you pond but if it is too cold for the water hyacinths you should try watercress. You buy it from the grocery store put it in the pond where it will stay and it will grow roots. Watercress is my personal favorite for the spring and fall.

I also have/had a pond in my back yard. I’ve had this pond and waterfall for over 20 years. But a new neighbor moved in 10 years ago two doors down that brought in bee hives. For about 8 years bee have invaded my back yard and come to the pond. Honeybee’s can get aggressive when they are protective of their water source. Just tending the pond I have been stung several times. But my situation has become dire as my 10 month old puppy, who like many puppies chases the bees and got stung. She went into anaphylactic shock and almost died. My dogs are my life and I’m quite upset about the amount of bees in my yard that are putting her at risk. When the bees got so bad, 6 years ago I contacted out county. At the time bee hives were not allowed in residential areas. But Lake County (Illinois) did nothing to have the neighbor get rid of the bees. A few years ago they became legal, so of course the county will do nothing. Even though the hive owners are not following any of the required regulations (ie: water source, fencing, distance from property line, etc.). Since my puppies life is literally in danger, as each exposure to the bee venom will amplify her bodies reaction up until her death. I’m on a very anti bee mode. I have destroyed my pond, which was home to koi, gold fish, trapdoor snails and was a favorite for frogs, toad, tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs and tons of birds. I find it very sad that all of that wildlife has lost their home/water because of an irresponsible neighbor and poor county officials. I’m also being forced to uproot flowers and spray nasty insecticide (which is not good for anyone, including my dogs). I have fake hornets nests around the yard and bee traps. But I have to take drastic measures to protect the pup. My puppy also must wear a full face mask to prevent her from biting bees, but she could easily step on one or get stung on her body. What else can I do remove these bees? County officials do nothing. I’ve reached out to state and have heard nothing back. I don’t have many wasps or yellow jackets it’s 99% honeybees. Video of my pond from Summer of 2018

I've read these forums off and on for several years now. It's amazing how many searches for gardening info bring up Garden Web forums! I bought my first house last fall and decided this week it was time to register and join in here. So many wonderfully talented and knowledgeable gardeners here! And, then, I find a forum specifically for Okies! One of the things I liked best about the house when I first looked at it was the backyard. There are just all kinds of plants. I have to wait to see what many of them are, although my neighbor next door has clued me in on some. The neighbors have a landscape pond in their backyard. One of the things I expected to miss about my last apartment (lived there for over 10 years) was the landscaping, complete with ponds, a stream and lots of wildlife including frogs and toads. I was thrilled to find out that the neighbors pond has frogs in it as I love listening to them. They were worried that the new owner (me) might object to having to hear frogs croak. I think we both got lucky! The backyard slopes severely and has some sort of evergreen planted all around it. Over the years many of lower branches have been trimmed off due to disease, according to the neighbor. Now they are very tall with foliage only at the top. Quite a few of them suffered a good deal during last winter's ice storm. There's still at least one sizeable branch that is broken and needs to be cut off. A couple in the back aren't broken but are badly bent over. I'm sort of hoping that the bent ones somehow magically recover as the birds and squirrels seem quite fond of them. I have already counted at least 15 different species of birds in my new backyard, and that doesn't include mockingbirds which I have seen in the front yard. I also saw a tiny mouse near the back fence a couple of weeks ago when I watering a spot that has some irises and a crepe myrtle. Last Monday evening I saw a baby rabbit in the neighbor's yard by my garage. Some of the plants (many of these I can't verify yet, just going by what the neighbor tells me) include crepe myrtle (3 in the back), a Rose of Sharon, irises, hardy hibiscus (looks like 4 of those), daylilies and some other lily the neighbor wasn't sure of the type, clematis out front, what appears to be a lilac someone tried to chop down that is coming back but is probably too close to the house for good air flow, and some boxwoods up next to the front of the house. The boxwoods look nice but stink so I am going to try to relocate them farther from the house in the front yard and create a flower bed with them as a back drop. To replace the stinky bushes up close to the house I have already acquired two blue hollies, four mini roses, a peony, azalea, hydrangea, blue lilac, and a romantica rose. I'm probably going overboard, but my gardening for the past 20 years has been limited to pots and whisky barrels on an apartment patio, and I'm just so excited to have a house with lots of room for gardens now! My biggest problem is that a large part of the backyard is heavily shaded due to the evergreens, and, especially around the perimeter, there isn't even much in the way of grass. Lots of weeds in the areas where there is grass. I'm looking forward to finding out all the creative gardening things I can do with my new house! I've probably rambled on long enough now. Going to leave work early today to have lunch at the Arts Festival then home to plant and transplant! Debra