Devastated tadpole population - the killer filter.

[Finstella]

Hello,

My new pond was taking shape. I had let nature fill the pond, building ladders for frogs to get in and out. i got 4 little goldfish and 3 bigger.

an accurate count of more than 60 frogs was made (frog loving was on the cards)

Frogspawn was abundant

then they hatched

now they are all gone...........ALL GONE.

My relatively small filter at the bottom of the pond murdered all of my tadpoles. How have you managed to get around this because next year there will be just as many and its a damn shame to loose 1 tadpole, let alone all of them!

Your experience / advice.

Yours sadly - Fin

 

[addy1]

You might put a large fine type screen around the filter, it reduces the power of the draw, the tadpoles etc would not get sucked in.

I made the draw from the bottom of our pond (external pump) to have less suction in any one spot. I put a waste basket around it, (small metal) around the waste basket I put screening. The piping would suck up snails, tads, fry, now it doesn't

 

[Mmathis]

I have a solids-handling pump, and have it wrapped in the green Matala filter material. Was doing a draw-down over the weekend [via the drain from my SKIPPY], and found tons of our current batch of taddies living in there. They'd made it through the Matala AND the pump. They were alive, and thriving, so I rescued as many as I could -- put some back in the filter and some in the pond. Guess in a week or so they'll be too big to go through....

Yes, do as Addy says, and come up with a way to "screen" your pump. For it to work, would think the screen would have to be a finel mesh, which would mean more frequent cleanings, but might help.

Hoping you can figure it out in time for more taddies to appear!

BTW, you didn't add any chlorinated water to your pond, did you? Non-treated water will kill them FAST, as taddies are more sensitive to environmental changes than even goldfish. They are considered a natural WATER QUALITY INDICATOR in nature.

 

[Finstella]

nicely done all. i'll invent something to soften the draw close to the pump and would appear to have a year to do it as "sexytime" has finished for the froggies. ill also check the water quality.