Frog, Toad or Fish Eggs?

[Tula]

Interesting, always learning something new here

 

[Ultra green thumb]

Hi I'm Noah Koster! I have a problem. Today, I was walking around the pond out back and it was a beautiful day, but then I found... This! what is this from!?!

 

[Faebinder]

Apparently it's possible to have too many toads in a pond. Our biggest and most handsome Shubunkin just keeled over, less than 24 hours after the toad eggs were laid. I never saw any of the fish eating the eggs, but apparently if there are enough eggs in the water the toxins can just overload the system. This is probably especially true of a small pond.

Anyway, I've separated out the other Shubunkin into a tank with a 50-50 blend of pond water and filtered water. Tonight I'm going to start a catch and release program for the toads. I'll take the ones that are here down to Ladybird Lake, which is a dammed up portion of the (other) Colorado River that splits Austin along a north-south axis. In the morning I'll get the toad eggs out of the pond, and take those to the lake.

Maybe I can find some frog eggs at the lake while I'm at it? It sounds like frogs are generally not toxic to fish the way toads are. I liked the idea of having something living near the garden and eating bugs. We have plenty of those to go around.

Your pond seems to be covered a lot by the lilies... could it be it has very little surface area to vent an ammonia spike? Do you have an aerator?

 

[carolinaguy]

Ant time our koi spawn, there are a gazillion eggs and they sink to the bottom.

 

[adavisus]

In shallow water, koi eggs will hatch, in deep water more likely to die off, decompose and spoil water quality, trigger fungus problems

Not all toads are created equal, cane and spadefoot toads might be a tad more poisonous than others, it might be useful to photograph, take a record of them to identify

 

[MitchM]

5 year old thread.

 

[bagsmom]

We've had some soaking rains recently. About 4 nights after the first male toad started croaking in the pond, we saw the first female. There were a dozen plus toads around the pond, yard and garden last night. This morning I found yards and yards of toad egg chains woven through the water lilies and floating plants.

Here are pics of toad eggs:

View attachment 42895 View attachment 42896 View attachment 42897

Loco -- are you still a member of the forum?

I love your lily tub! Question: do you have it coated with anything? Is it galvanized? My son did a water garden in a galvanized tub and the plants did fine, but the fish died. We learned that the metals used in the galvanizing process are a neurotoxin to fish. (Zinc?)

I have a similar tub -- but smaller. If you did anything to make yours hospitable to fish, let me know. It's so pretty. I'd like to get mine out and maybe use as a supplemental pond -- for lotus, perhaps!