Hello I am new to keeping stickies and just found this site after a search. I got seven tiny stickies last year for my 3yr old concrete pond that has naturalised nicely. Then I got worried after that bad winter we had as my pond is only about 10' diameter and about a foot deep. It froze pretty much solid but there are biggish rocks that must have prevented all the water from freezing as I kept the waterfall running all the time. Fantastic icicles! I have since seen two survivors one about two inches the other about one and a half. Can anyone tell me what my chances of getting a new batch are or should I source some more?

Hi Chip, Hilarious tale about your toads! I wonder if the male was new to the game of romance? Someone should tell him he should be concentrating on another part of her anatomy! Or is this a toad version of a kiss? Big Kid

I would not cull the taddies, they will be thinned out naturally. You may well get a bigger spawning next year but if toads mature at the same rate as frogs the above taddies wont be breeding next year, all the '1' year old frogs I have seen are too small. I dont know if 2 year olds breed. Net a few mozzie and feed them to the fish, once the fish have cottoned on that these things are food feed them as you like. I dump the larvae into the inflowing stream and my fish swim up it to be first in line

Newts and newtlets are carnivorous. By now your bin liner will have built up a population of daphnia and other pondlife like this- you should be able to see tiny thinks moving around in the water. Also mosquito and other fly larvae. If you want to supplement their diet, then go to an aquarium shop and ask what live food they have. Probably daphnia, bloodworm and brine shrimp. They will eat any of these (although the bloodworm comes in red smelly water). Buy a few bags (priced 30p up to £1 a bag), and watch when you empty a bag in. They should soon start eating it. The best probably for the newtlets though is to go in the pond where there will be a winder variety of food provinding you have plenty of pond weed and no filter. although it you have fish they may get eaten. The newtlets and the tadpoles if they are still there MUST have a ramp to get out of the bucket and down to the ground, and the bucket must be placed on grass or the soil so they don't dry out on hot paving. If you have a camera with macro, you can take nice photos of them.