Hwarrick: So you also have toads that also reproduce in your pond? I have a ? that I can't figure out: the toads mate in the pond, then I have 100s (1000s!!?) of polliwogs in the water that develop bigger by the week but still with a tail & no legs. All of a sudden one morning: every one is GONE... where do they go? Not developed enough to jump out, the goldfish leave them alone & no snake or other critter could eat ALL of them just overnight?!! Now another batch of teeny ones again in the pond after the visit by the toad pairs. Any idea how they disappear just overnight... EVERY ONE of them?! No snakes or birds doing it I am quite sure as it happens just over night one night!

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 ?

I have a 20 x 40 concrete pool, 11 feet deep x 3 feet deep. We quit using it after enjoying it for over 30 years and we let it become as "wild" place for creatures of all kinds. I bought feeder goldfish one year and they wintered over and i still have two very LARGE beautiful ones that enjoy the use of our pool. I have not taken the falling leaves off the bottom and i guess this is where they "live" in the winter, under the ice. Frogs and toads appear from where ever and I enjoy their company. When they are sunning themselves on some of the floating pads we used when we used the pool, I find earth worms and toss them on the floater and they hop to gobble them up as fast as i bring them. Last year i had 7 large bullfrogs and some leopards and two beautiful brown quite large toads. It is amazing to watch them catch their own dinner as it flys by their never blinking eyes. It is unbelievable but for three years in a row there was what i think is the same frog that wintered over in my pond and would make the galunk noise when ever i appeared by the poolside. If i made the same noise back he would answer me. If i stood by the pool and could not see where he was i would make that noise and he would answer as tho to tell me where he was. I could sit at the edge of the pool, make the noise and he would swim over to where i was sitting and would even hop up and sit a few feet from me. If i moved slowly, i could edge over to him and lay my hand palm side up and he would hop onto my hand. It would even let me stroke it under the chin without hopping away. My husband took pictures of me with the frog on my hand. This all sounds so unbelievable and sounds unreal as i am reading what i am writing but it is true and it is so amazing. I will look up in my documents and hope i can find the pictures to post here. Has anyone else ever had an experience like this? I have not been able to do this with any of the other frogs that have lived in my pool. Thas happened three years in a row, so i am assuming it is the same frog. This year I have not as yet seen my friendly frog and as of right now i have seen only one very tiny little green frog. I hope my friend will yet come back this year. I've tried calling, he doesn't answer. I hope he is still living somewhere and hope oneday he comes back to my pool! The spring of the year wild ducks use our pool and i put cracked corn out for them. If i forget to fill the dish,we hear a pecking at our patio door to let us know their dish is empty. One year we had put a large innertube with a plastic liner and filled it with straw and the ducks raised a family of 12 fluffy little yellow babies that swam around every day with their parents, and and uncle lol always two drakes. Then it was time to leave and the mother coaxed them up the cement stairway to the deck and they all went their way out into the world. I hate to get rid of my "wild" pool, it still has a link fence all around it as required by code of our city and it is a bit of an eyesore since the tile is falling off the sides and the concrete is breaking up here and there but where will all my "friends" go if if fill it in and make a lawn out of it?

Hi! Becky, yes...the waterlilies I grow DO have a scent. I am glad that my ponds are small or else I'd have a hard time getting my nose close to sniff them! The scent is not real strong on these, but definitely sweet. I was also always fascinated by waterlilies as a child and swore one day I'd have my own! There's just something almost magical about them. Judith, I wish I could give you the names of all the waterlilies, but unfortunately some were cheapo, unmarked lilies from Wal-Mart simply marked by color. However, the first picture of Pond #1 with the white lily is a native waterlily from a lake down the road from me....that is a comical story in itself which involved me leaning over in a tipsy canoe to pull the tuber out of the bottom of the lake...and got soaked! The other white lilies in the last photo are Wal-Mart specials, but the 2 pale pink lilies are "Pearl of the Pool"...don't know the name of the darker pink one. If you saw my original posts, "My Garden is on Fire", the dark burgundy waterlilies are "Burgundy Princess" and the light yellow one is "Sunrise". And don't give up on your waterlilies...they take a few years to really start bloom production. None of mine bloomed in year 1; year 2 there were maybe 4 blooms; year 3...less than a dozen. Now they offer up quite a good supply, but they don't bloom for an extended period. Sometimes I have lots of them blooming, other times they are just pretty leaves. They are perfect hiding spots for the froggies! BTW, I have visited the Montreal Botanical Garden at least 5 times in my life, and to me it is the closest place to heaven!! I love Montreal, and have some of my happiest memories there...just a lovely, romantic city! I NEED to go back! Valerie, we decided we wouldn't use pumps in our pond for the reason you state....the ponds are too far away from the house and we don't want to add to our electric bill! Some people prefer the pristine-clear water and that is wonderful, but I'll bet they don't get all the tadpoles hatching out like I do....today, about 15 tiny, baby froglets were basking in the sun on the rocks around the pond...and there were about 6 big frogs with them....one big, happy frog family! Sometimes I get some algae, but I just use a net and skim it off. We throw in a few mosquito dunks (safe for frogs) in early summer so the skeeters don't lay eggs....Mosquitos are New Hampshire's state bird! LOL Thanks to you all, Celeste