I haven't had any toads yet, but i have heard they prefer still water and deep water since they wind the spawn round underwater plants.

i have a small still pond about 20" deep,,this is where last year i had all three spawn,,,in the bigger pond 10ft long and around 36" deep with fish..they only swim,,never had spawn to talk of in 4yrs,,

Thanks for the messages, hopefully my pond will be like your pond Annabel, as it matures. The newts are now out (very, very fat newts I mights add, feasting on the tadpoles), so hopefully they are, or will be, successfully breeding too. I do like the toads, especially as it is easy to tell the individuals apart, and they have very individual habits. They live quite an age too, I just wish they would use my pond instead of taking the long dangerous journey to their spawning ground.

its in their genes to return so they always will,,if you put it in there from the original spawning ground,,,,would they then return? or just know it was placed there?

questions,questions,

My understanding it's from where they grew up, the imprinting probably starting from their first gulps and smells of the pond etc. etc. So transferred spawn is fine, but transferred tadpoles probably not, and transferred toads--no way! Incredible that type of genetic imprinting to find their way back.

Ive just fished out of my pond what I now know to be toadspawn, laid(?)in the last couple of days, much later than the frogspawn rescued in January. I say rescued, as we have large, hungry fish in the pond which have devoured all our frog tads in recent years. I've tried bucket, mini (still) pond and sink nurseries but these always go stagnant, so this year I've set up Tadpole's Finest Nursery, using Tesco's very nice black, mesh-like porous reusable bags. With a rock to weight it down, suspended from 2 bamboo canes tied through the handles, its looking good so far. The frog tads look happy in theirs: the water stays clear thanks to the pond pump and filters - tads in, fish out! They'll need feeding though. Any advice on tadpole food please? It would have been interesting to see if toad tads in a fish pond don't get eaten but I don't want to risk it! We also have several newts but I've never seen any spawn.

I've heard of people using pop up mesh laundry baskets too.
Froglife suggest a rabbit food pellet. I've heard of people using oats (porrige) and fish food in very small quantities.
When I put a few in buckets, I don't feed, just add oxygenators and they seem to find enough algae etc.

As far as I have seen toad taddies/toadlets do stay very dark coloured so could be black. Compared to froglets which are much lighter they also seem a little bigger. I remember going to our local RSPB reserve at Fairburn Ings and seeing hundreds of small toadlets walking up the pathways together. We had to really watch our step.It was quite a sight.
I have taken some of my frogspawn out of the pond and put it into a small fish tank. I hadn't thought about the water turning stagnant. I thought the fish were enjoying too many feasts but maybe I will put them back into the pond at a safer location.
Alison

Here is a link that might be useful: Alisons pond and garden

I have found cooking lettuce leaves for about 10 minutes is well eaten by tadpoles. You can also dry them out and then freeze them, so it is possible to cook loads and feed them a leaf or two a day. After they get their back legs they like a bit of meat I understand, so fish food is ok. Make sure though they can get onto dry land as they can drown after they get their legs if they can't get onto dry land. Every year I take some tadpoles in to raise indoors and they do love their lettuce it seems. Once they get back legs Iput them back in the pond, but by that time they are big enough to avoid most of the predators.

Really love your contraption--well done! A very elegant solution!

I keep looking for toadspawn, but with a mass of waterstarwort, I think if they are there, they are well hidden.

Chip

" You can also dry them out and then freeze them"
.....I trust you mean the lettuce not the tadpoles!