Are Frogs a Danger to my Koi pond

[Eps28]

I'm a new Koi pond owner i have a 1600 gallon pond with a waterfall and a UV filter I'v tested all my water and every test came back great PH etc... my water is very clear and you can see all the way to the bottom currently i have 8 Koi ranging from 5-11 inches i got from a Koi farm near bye by the way i live in NC anyway my fish have been in the pond for about a 2 weeks and are doing great they love to eat and explore they seem very happy in there new home i love going out there and watching them swim its very relaxing well tonight i was out there enjoying a beer on the bench by the pond and i saw a medium size FROG dart across my pond water from one end to the other and then just wade in the water on one of the shallow end shelves of the pond should i be removing these frogs with my net and relocating them away from my pond are they a danger to the koi could they give them a disese or hurt the fish or possibly eat the smaller koi if they are a danger to my pond what actions can i take to keep them away from my most relaxing Koi pond Thanks for any advice Jon

 

[fishin4cars]

Jon, welcome to GPF, Frogs and ponds for the most part just go together. Very few ponds don't have frogs. that being said there are a few things that should be known, American Bullfrogs can be a danger. Adults can eat small fish, they can also eat a good # of things that live around the pond. A 10' or larger Koi would not interest a bull frog but a 4-5" one might be considered a meal if one was hungry. I have read of some that say that toad eggs can be dangerous. I have had them lay in my ponds every year for the last 25 years and never lost a fish. But if you do see a lot of frog eggs, you may want to scoop some out and dispose of them. the problem would be if there were a large # and the koi ate a bunch. remove and keeping the pond population down would probably be more benefical than leaving them.

 

[Waterbug]

 

[Eps28]

Thanks for the replies guy its nice to be able to come somewhere and ask any pond question and get replies from such friendly people thanks a bunch Jon

 

[sissy]

yep i have relocated 3 bull frogs and think the snake may have gotten the frogs but still have tadpoles ,not sure what frog is having fun in my concrete mixing tub .NC my fav .place to shop .I love it .I was going to go to Graham NC to look at the aerators but time escapes and the storms we have been getting don't help and I got my fish at the koi farm in Reidsville NC

 

[Eps28]

yep i have relocated 3 bull frogs and think the snake may have gotten the frogs but still have tadpoles ,not sure what frog is having fun in my concrete mixing tub .NC my fav .place to shop .I love it .I was going to go to Graham NC to look at the aerators but time escapes and the storms we have been getting don't help and I got my fish at the koi farm in Reidsville NC

Ya theres alot of nice koi farms in NC as i found out when i started this hobby i love the koi pond now sitting there with a cup of coffe in the mourning is so relaxing don't know how i ever lived without one lol Ya i relocated 2 frogs last night with the net i'm just going to try and keep them away from the pond as much as possible

 

[capewind]

I know some people LOVE their frogs, but my view is as neat as the frogs are, I like my fish more. If we see a frog, it is immediately evicted! We added a couple of 5-6" butterfly koi this year, and in my view, the reality is they are really only a 3-4" fish (when compared to standard koi's body), which is an "edible" size for some of the larger frogs we get. Those fish have grown, so should be safe now, BUT, we have babies out there that our bigger fish no longer look at as food... We'll eventually need to give some of the babies away, but I love watching our little 2-3" babies swimming with a 2' long fish... If we let the frogs stay, we are sure to lose that option.

We are raising some babies out inside til they are larger, but ran out of room, so threw the comet babies back into the 'comet pond' once they got to be 2+"... AKA clearly big enough that the other comets couldnt eat them. We grew out about 50, and am now down to 15-18 of them, and have only been finding (and evicting) little frogs lately (maybe 2" in body length), and are about past the stage of having many dragonfly nymphs, which I would think wouldnt be much of a threat to a 2-3" fish, so am blaming the frogs we havent evicted yet.

 

[sissy]

I found out koi kill frogs as my aggie and bert my two biggest koi do .I have pulled lots of frog bodies out of my pond and even had to save a small bird that stopped by to get a drink and saw aggie just jump up and grab it and had to rescue it with the net.Poor thing got out on the ground and shook off a few times and then flew up in the tree and preened himself .Bath by aggie . :razz:

 

[Fishylove]

Yah... I like the frogs too, actually I love that the frogs have found my pond but.... I found out the hard way that bull frogs will eat ANYTHING they can fit in they're mouths :huh: That being said, I have removed a rather large bullfrog twice this summer and DANGIT if I dont think that same one is BACK! Grr This time, I think I will mark it somehow just to see if it is the same one coming back. The smaller frogs I don't worry about, cause the fish are to big for them to eat and I do enjoy them.

 

[CometKeith]

Being more of a watergardener I enjoy, frogs, dragonflies, and any other small creatures that inhabit my pond. This is the first year I didn't have a tadpole and I was overrun with goldfish babies that have tripled the number of fish in my pond. Personally I think most ponds will find a natural balance. Bullfrogs are by far the worse of the frog clan and their ownership and transportation are severely limited in many states because they have contributed to the demise of many other types of frogs.

 

[preeti22]

I would have definitely keep the frog out of my pond.Because my pond is for fish only and one can enter in that pond.I dont like frogs too is also one of the reason for that.

 

[brandonsdad02]

We have had tons of toads this year in our pond. I counted 6 sets of toads lay eggs in my pond. We started out with one bull frog which lasted a few days until the screen around the pump was knocked loose and the frog met its match. We had one more tadpole in our pond and through out the summer I counted 4 more tadpoles in our pond. Some say that the frogs burrow in the mud in the pond, but we made our pond bigger this year so everything was all new.

 

[koiguy1969]

for fry and smaller fiish... frogs arent so great...

 

[EVMIII]

My pond isn't operational yet, but I couldn't keep the frogs out of my pool, I don't reckon I have any chance of keeping them out of the pond. I won't be starting with any koi smaller than 5". They add the audio portion of the show and they do eat a lot of bugs.

 

[Craig58]

We like our frogs. Population control, survival of the fitest, etc.. Our dogs keep the frog population in check and few frogs survive a whole season. But they keep showing up. I can't say we have ever had a known issue of a frog bothering any of our fish, but most of our frogs never got a chance to grow really big either.

We did have a bullfrog that actually caught and tried to swallow a good size baby crow. It was stuck in his mouth and both appeared to be dead and were floating in the shallow end of our pond. When I pulled them from the water I removed the crow from the frog's mouth which was no small task. With me having served on ambulances for many years, my wife jokingly suggested I practice my CPR on the frog. So jokingly I put it on the pond wall on its back and gave it a number of compressions using the two finger "infant" technique. Well the joke was on me as after about ten compressions the frog began to breathe and then flipped over! After about a minute he hopped into the water!

Never underestimate them frogs!!

We had toads the first year of our pond. Our koi tried to eat a couple toad tadpoles but always spit them out. I assume they must have a bitter taste. Our dogs won't pick toads up anymore either. When they did it would cause the dogs to drool and salivate excessivly for 15-30 minutes afterwards. They learned. Interestingly, since we had frogs, the toads no longer try to lay eggs in the pond, yet we have them throughout our gardens. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this? Will frogs 'defend' a pond from toads?

Craig