Advice please - how to save 8 gallons of frogspawn???

[Gypsy07]

Apologies if this isn't in the right section of the forum, but I wasn't sure where else to ask...

I found a huge pile of frogspawn in a corner of one of our fields. it's been a boggy pond all winter but has slowly been drying up. Now all the water's gone and all that was left was this frogspawn. Some of it has already dried up and is most likely dead, but a good amount of it still looked viable, so I collected as much of it as I could in buckets and mixed some water in to re-hydrate it.

So what's the best thing to do with it now?

We don't have a pond and there are no ponds I can think of nearby. We could dig a hole in another field and fill it with water, would that do? Or should I be looking for another wet boggy spot to plop it back into? Or maybe divide it up and put it in a few different places to give it a better chance of some of it surviving?

Hoping someone can help me with some advice here...

 

[Attack Chicken]

I have no clue but it sounds cool. I'd just keep putting rainwater in the bucket until you can find a stable souce of water(pond or lake)

Goodluck! Any pictures?

AC

 

[jettgirl24]

I have no idea personally but I did a little google searching and found this: http://www.erodent.co.uk/GardenPond/March2007.htm

Looks like they scooped up some pond water, mixed it with regular water, and it sounds like they hatched and were released! Maybe you can fill the buckets or a tank with rainwater and regular water and they'll hatch out themselves? You'd still need to find some kind of body of water to release them into but it sounds like it is possible to get them to hatch!

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Could you get a little kid pool or blow up pool that would be more shallow and put it in roughly the area they came from?

Once they hatch, they will need to eat. What - I don't know? bugs, larvae, spawn, algae?

Growing up, I used to gather eggs in jars and set them by the wood stove until they hatched and then moved them to a shallow bowl that I kept screen on. I fed them gold fish flakes.

Out of the jar, I remember one survived to grow legs and then arms and then died. One surviver sadly dried up against the side of the glass bowl because I forgot about it. (I was a kid). I was heart broken that something died because of my forgetfulness.

Good luck with your little froggies to be.

 

[sourland]

Find another boggy spot. I moved 5 gallons of tadpoles last spring when their vernal pool dried up. Hopefully some of them survived.

 

[thebritt]

You can fill any large container (horse trough, kiddie pool, etc) with water, as long as you use de-chlor or allow it to sit out a couple days (if your water is chlorinated, chlorine will kill). Gather as much of the pond slime/algae as you can, and put some willow sticks, and, ideally, some cattails or anything with boggy roots for them to hide in, and eventually allow them to crawl out of the container when they grow up. You shouldn't need to feed them, tho you can throw some fish food in there for awhile if you feel the need. They eat algae and insects, when they get a little bigger. They won't need anything until they hatch. The above method I used with great success - the main thing is to provide places to hide. You can probably pick up some pond weeds from any local pond to toss in there. Good luck! I love froggies!

 

[Baymule]

Some froggies met in my donkey's water tanks and made whoopee last spring. I stuck branches in the tanks so the tadpoles would have hiding places and something to crawl out on when they developed. I also got my donkey another water tank as the stagnant water got smelly. When I watered the donkey, I watered the tadpoles. They hung out most of the summer, or the froggies sent out the "found a babysitter" croak and kept meeting at the tank. I could imagine the boy froggies telling the girl froggies, don't worry about the kids, the jackass will raise them.

I wish you and your future froggies the best, just don't clean the tank, they need the green alge and slime.

 

[bock]

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[EweSheep]

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[Gypsy07]

Thank you very much everyone for both the sensible advice and the silly stories. Both much appreciated.

Today I remembered a large bathtub that's been sitting (for years) up behind a wall in another corner of the same field, so off I went to check it out. Full of water, not stagnant or smelly, nice green mossy growth up the sides, woohoo - result!!! Thought, that'll do nicely for some of my froggies-to-be, and then had the thought that if there was one dried up pile of spawn, maybe there would be more. So I spent half the afternoon in a state of nervous froggy saving worry, tramping round our fields looking for more spawn. Just as well I did, cause I found four more big patches of it dotted about the place.

So I collected about three more big bucketfuls and transported it all back to the bathtub, along with some algae-ish looking stuff and some pondweed-y slime that was in another big puddle nearby. I shall wait till I see them starting to hatch then I'll put in some sticks and stones so they can get in and out of the water. I also found a wildlife sanctuary's website that says you should dangle bits of liver into the water for them to feed on. So hopefully in a couple of months I'll have a ton of frogs hopping about the field.

But... I still have the original buckets of frogspawn that I collected yesterday... I don't want to overfill the bathtubtub with spawn or there'll be no room left for the water!!! Oh, and I couldn't find my camera today but when I do I shall post some pictures. Of a muddy puddle and a grubby bathtub. Prepare to be underwhelmed. LOL!