Urgent help with Rana temporaria tadpole

[jane1187]

Hello,

Not very familiar with keeping tadpoles (or frogs for that matter), having only kept fire-bellied toads but no offspring.

I found a Rana temporaria (Common Frog in the UK) in a drying out puddle in the last dry spell we had here in the UK.

I've been keeping it in a similar set up to my young newt larvae. I found a 'how to raise tadpoles' care sheet on the internet which says to feed them boiled (and cooled!) lettuce as they will rasp at it like they do with algae on pebbles and things in ponds.

However, the tadpole has been getting skinnier and skinnier over the last week and a half and there's no evidence of eating the lettuce!

Please help! I read in my pond life book that they filter small particles from the water, would they eat the baby brine shrimp I feed my newt larvae?

I don't want the little critter to die and I fear predation if I release him into another pond.

Any urgent advise?

 

[jane1187]

P.S. the intention was to release it once it has morphed back to the pond (or still a puddle I think) where I found it

 

[CheeseyDean]

Wow, it bothers me no one replied to this thread. I hope your tadpole turned out okay.

No, tadpoles will NOT eat brine shrimp or filter food through the water. They need stuff like fish flakes and algae.

 

[Azhael]

Jean, i understand why you rescued the poor fella, but now there is the issue of releasing it. Since you have other amphibians in the house, it would only be good idea to release the froglet provided that a strict quarantine had been followed. Otherwise, your good intentions might actually cause a lot more harm than good.
Personally i would have let nature, you know...happen. That tadpole would have fed perhaps a colony of ants, or a beetle. Rana temporaria are explossive breeders so a single bad year can be easily compensated the next.
Anyway, the tadpole should eat algae, detritus and even munch on a piece of worm. Fish flakes might work.

By the way, although it´s true in this case that R.temporaria tadpoles are not filter feeders, there are species that are, and will need things like brine shrimp and Daphnia, as is the case in Xenopus or Hymenochirus.

PS: This is older than i thought...

 

[jane1187]

Yes this was back a few months ago.

Just for people's info I managed to raise the tadpole to just before morphing but it did not survive before it could leave the water.

I was keeping it outside on my shaded patio in a small tank as my form of quarantine. This way it was far from my collection. Normally I am against rescuing of this kind and do normally leave nature to take its course but it was just one tadpole alone and my female hormones got the better of me!

Thanks anyway everyone. I hope to keep CB frogs at some point so info about raising tadpoles is useful to me anyway. He did quite well on my pre-boiled lettuce I fed him up until he died.

Thanks all

 

[Bill B]

For future tadpole keeping, I suggest discs or tablets of Spirulina (or flakes, but I've had difficulty with Spirulina flakes), available as fish food from many manufacturers. My tadpoles are very fond of Zoo Med Aquatic Frog and Tadpole Food. From what I can tell and know, their products are available in Europe.

If you were referring to head or iceberg lettuce - well, that stuff is not very nutritious. Spinach is better, but the two I have listed above are probably the best.