I, too, have thousands and thousands of tadpoles in my pond and I'm more worried when they mature!! Aren't they going to take over the lawn and how do I mow the grass if they do. I don't have any fish in the pond yet but am getting a few feeder goldfish. When I get some will they thin out the tadpoles? Tyvm for your help. BT

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 ?

Mine take about a year! But you will be amazed at how many tiny tadpoles just disappear. I start out with hundreds and end up with maybe 1-2 larger ones. Sometimes mine overwinter and don't become frogs/toads until the next summer. Just try to collect as many as you want and work on your pond.

As long as they use "breather plastic bags" designed for fish transport, I had excellent luck getting Tadpoles on line with 100% shipping survival via priority mail, 3x last spring and early summer. One order was lost for 2-3 days (5-6 day total shipping duration) and they still arrived happy. Plan on about $1 per Tadpole. Agree ... DO NOT buy or locally catch and move Bullfrogs!! I've had them before from a nearby lake and they do very well, but eat anything that they can get into their greedy mouth, including other frogs, fish, bats, snakes, small birds. Theyre born desperately hungry! Mine have grown from 2.5" to full 6 to 8" mature size in one summer! DNR will hate you, because they roam and often get out. They successfully track water can go a couple miles to find a new area to invade. If you like big and beautiful, look instead for Leopard Frogs. They are native to much of US but are getting rare due to loss of habitat and Bullfrog predation*. How can a Frog Person not like this green beauty? Semiaquatic frogs like Leopards and Bullfrogs will jump all over your yard at night (so must seal fence excape areas!) They quickly learn where the pond safety zone is and can take a series of rapid leaps across your yard or greenhouse and disappear under water. Mine can do this the moment I open a sllding door to go outside. If you are trying to introduce frogs from a wild gathered egg cluster(s) note that the clusters might be salamanders instead! Frog eggs within the cluster mass look like little rounded clear jelly spheres, especially visible when the cluster tears open. Whereas salamander egg clusters look like a jelly mass with no visible clear spheres inside, just the growing amphibians. When they tear open, no clear rounded spheres are evident. Both animal embryos within the eggs mass look rounded at first and then enlarge over time. Near to hatching time salamanders embryos elongate and show an arrowhead shaped head with little gills zones on the sides of their neck. It amazes me that a frog or slender little 5-6" salamader can lay a 3-4"+ diameter egg mass. The masses are not large when laid but swell afterwards. When ready to hatch, enzymes are released to largely dissolve the gel, almost in unison, releasing the babies to roam. * WARNING do not put small tadpoles or tiny frogs into ponds with Goldfish of any size. Unless there is a ton of water vegetation to hide in for instance along shallow pond margins, the fish can eat them about as fast as you eat popcorn (and at $1 per amphibian kernal). Even with cover the fish will hunt them constantly. Instead use a 5 gallon tub to the side or partially submerged, partially shaded from hot sun, and a wire cover to stop raccoon, bird or adult frog attacks. Hatched Tadpoles of any kind grow fast and very healhy when using a pond fish food. Suggest floating a few Goldfish or Koi food pellets, which they nibble on as these softens. A few 'Tads often gather around each floating pellet. Thus, you get to see the 'Tads better and little food is lost or spoils. This also helps indicate when to add more food. Make sure to also have some fine leaved pond weeds therein to hide in and nibble on. 'Tads can mouth breathe if the oxygen gets too low in the container water. However, if there is prolonged or marked frantic gulping for air, spread the 'Tads between additional containers. It is warmer in a bucket than in a pond. Avoid full sun locations unless the bucket is inset deeply into the pond or ground. Obviously, do not add 'Tads to your pond until they are large enough to NOT fit into the mouth of your largest fish! If they do not mature into adults the first year in a cooler climate they will overwinter on the pond bottom and finish their cycle the next year. If the pond can potentially ice over, use waterfall flow or small fishtank air bubbler to stir the surface and keep an open zone for air exchange. Otherwise decaying plant matter consumes the oxygen, and excess carbon dioxide and ammonia fumes can build up, killing 'Tads and fish. Much like goldfish, 'Tads will hunt out mosquito larvae in buckets or ponds. In ponds I suggest having 3-4 of the same frog species in hopes of getting a breeding pair so that the cycle maintains. Frogs can live several years and overwinter well. But for a Frog pond to stay "frogged" you are going to need a fenced yard with board blockage to 2-3' high and enough yard and vegatation to support the insect and earthworm levels needed to support the mature frog population. Fish in the pond are important to stop over tadpole = future frog population. In our yard, we keep a lotus tub with lotus to the side of the pond without fish. This is so we can put in egg clusters there when frog populations are low. If you live near a lake or bog lands and hear frogs in mating season, don't fully board fence your yard. Just BUILD IT (the pond) AND THEY WILL COME. Treefrog populations are especially mobile to the right habitat. The above is A LOT of detail and several years experience working to get frogs established in our yards at two different locations. Based on hard won experience it can take years to get right, and is easy with the right match of mostly the right habitat and then frog species. Bullfrogs are easiest but don't do it unless they surround your yard anyway. Local Toad species might work better if you don't have enough cool leafy forage zones for Semiaquatic Frogs. They still need 'Tad growth ponds to sustain.