Raising tadpoles,
frogs and toads

  CAUTION 
 Some endangered species are protected.
  For their preservation it is forbidden to collect frogs eggs, tadpoles, frogs or toad in the wild.

  Eggs and tadpoles. 
 Sometimes frogs or toads lay eggs anywhere in abandoned bowls in a garden, fountains, water holes on construction sites, in puddles which will disappear by evaporation condemning eggs or young tadpoles to a certain death.
  Then we would like to help them to survive.
  It happened me to collect, raise and release them, before their transformation into frogs in ponds or water holes in the forest.

  Amphibians    (class)
 amphibia 
 anurans  (order)
 Anura = tailless, anura which comes from the Greek "oura" meaning tail.

  Frog eggs or toad eggs? 
 frogspawn or toadspawn.
 How to recognize them.
  What is the difference between the two spawn?
  The frog eggs are deposited at the water surface near aquatic plants, in form of large gelatinous clumps that emerge partially.
Whereas toads eggs are deposited in the form of double row strings, wrapped around aquatic plants, (see the pics).

  Frog or toad tadpoles ?  How to recognize them.
  What is the difference between the two tadpoles?
 The first few days after hatching, tadpoles are apparently identical, fully black.
This article concerns the common frogs and toads of France, they look like bronze/green frogs Rana or Lithobates clamitans (see the pics).
  This may be different with exotic varieties.
   It is only after several days that we see a lightening of the color of the frog tadpole ( gray with golden dots or mottled with brown), while the toad tadpole remains black.

  When?, during what month, at what date frogs and toads mate and lay eggs?  
  There is no specific date for spawning, but it is almost always the first fine days of spring.
  When the temperature is higher for several days, frogs and toads wake up and become active.
  The female frogs inflated by their eggs, are eager to go and lay in a waterhole where are already waiting male frogs that got up earlier, in view of the coupling.

  Development of the embryo  How long?
  This is according to the temperature.
  In a room at 20 degrees °C it will take 4 days, in the wild where the nights are still cool at the beginning of the spring, it may take 3 to 4 times longer.

  Hatching.  When the tadpole hatches,
 ( Photo 4th day ) it still clinging at his egg one day, we can already see the beginning of external gills.

  When tadpoles start to eat? 
  2-3 days after hatching the tadpoles are free-swimming, this is where they are looking to eat.
 In the wild in their pond they find algae and aquatic plants.
  At first they only eat what is tender, sometimes half-rotten plants. Later they will tackle harder plants.
  They will even become carnivores.

  What can we give to eat to the tadpoles? 
 At the beginning we can give them lettuce leaves that we will have dipped in boiling water for two seconds, it makes it soften so it becomes easy to eat for tadpoles babies.
  In the following days they will eat harder vegetables.
 Peas should be cut in two because they do not eat the skin.
  Carrots, leeks, celery, for example, are more easily eaten when they are cooked.

  Fish food flakes  for aquarium fish, sold in aquarium shops are also welcome. But attention to pollution, to distribute moderately.

  Turbid and polluted water . 
 After feeding tadpoles, they begin to make droppings (feces) and the water becomes every day more and more cloudy.
  Bacteria begin to develop and there is a rise in nitrites, nitrites which can be fatal by too high doses.
  In a large tank sparsely populated we reach an equilibrium without nitrites or almost.
  In a small crowded container it becomes impossible, then we must act quickly.

  What to do to prevent pollution? 
 Feces laying at the bottom it is easy to siphon them with a small tube, once or twice a day depending on the density of the population.
  Then we change a part of the water depending of its pollution.
 The water will never be completely clear, this is not serious, in the wild they are accustomed to living in troubled and loaded waters .
  My tadpoles have water with 0.5 mg / l nitrites, and no dead.

  What water?. 
 If tap water is good, no problem.
  If it is slightly chlorinated, just let it aerating with air bubbles if possible in a bucket for a day or two depending on the chlorine content.
  Anyway let the water resting the time it has the same temperature as the water where are the tadpoles to avoid thermal shock.
  If tap water is too bad, we can use rain water or spring water which should not be confused with mineral water too loaded.

  Aerate the water 
  When the tank is too populated, water lacks of air.
  From micro-organisms to tadpoles, everybody will suffer.
  We must therefore artificially aerate the water with an air pump like in fish aquariums.

  The growth 
  This naturally varies according to the temperature of the water.
  Warmer the water is, more the tadpoles will live in fast motion, therefore grow faster.
 Tadpoles in cold water will remain numb, and they will not more evolve.

  The growth curve 
 refers to water whose temperature ranges between 17 °C at night, and 22 °C in the day, which gives an average of about 20 °C.

  In the nature 
 where the water is much colder, they will transform 2-3 times slower.

  Tadpole 27 days 
 The back legs are almost fully formed.
 The body narrows relative to the head.

  Tadpole 28 days 
 The front legs have come out within one night and the body has shrunk again.

  Tadpole 30 days 
 The tail shortens, it reduces itself within one day, it will disappear and let a small stub of 2 mm long instead.

  Gills -----> lungs. 
 The gills becomes lungs.
 The tadpole becomes a frog.
  Its gills turn into lungs gradually: so it can breathe out of water and go for a walk on dry land.

  ATTENTION 
 Frogs and toads must have a sloping shore to go out and breathe in the air, otherwise they will drown.
 Contrary to frogs, toads should not return in the water, very bad swimmers, they will drown!

 How to  feed baby frogs 
 They eat small worms, small slugs, aphids from plants, small midges or mosquitoes.
  Ideally we must develop a paludarium (aquaterrarium) or terrarium, in which midges come to settle naturally.
  Of course we must start the paludarium in advance.
  Personally I had a breeding of Drosophila (small vinegar flies) that I have described in one of my pages on my website.
  To have quickly these small flies, just put two slices of banana with skin in an empty jam jar, add paper strips, and put the pot on a closet in the kitchen. The best is to read my article (with pics) on the web, page Phytoplankton,  Zooplankton,
  Midges must remain alive.
  Drosophila