The wrong kind of spawning

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I recently moved to Upstate SC and inherited a fish pond. It is doing well. Algae problem was solved with new UV bulbs. New liner means we are good to go for years to come. The plants all got repotted before winter so it looks pretty bare. I will post pictures come warmer weather, fresh surrounding mulch, and plant growth.
I moved down from North Central Pennsylvania, so I am not used to 50's and 60's in February. In the last week, the frogs have been gathering and singing at the pond. Froggy Bottom Bluegrass. Now they are mating. There are a zillion frogs in my poor little 1000 gal pond, and more are coming across the sidewalk every hour. Three horny toads were trying to attach to one poor female. Hope they don't drown her! It is a bloomin' frog... zoo!
There are masses of eggs strands in the underwater plant pots. There are frogs getting tangled in the leaf netting. There are frogs on the sidewalk. There are frogs in juniper. There are frogs... EVERYWHERE!
And NOISY! These amphibians are singing around the clock. At first it was driving my dogs crazy, but they have settled down now, except for the occasional bark fest.
It is Spring at its finest, in February.
I have nine goldfish in there. They are schooling (for self-defense?) rather than their usual meandering. I know they will feast once the tadpoles start hatching and swimming. Guess I won't need more fish food for a while.
I was wondering about removing some of the eggs, wondering if there would be so many tadpoles that they would cause some type of problem. I wondered if their rampant breeding would cause a frog population explosion, die-off, and fly epidemic. Basically the worst parts of the 10 Plagues. Then I realized that this pond has been in place for several years. I suspect natural selection will keep the local frog population in check, and if I don't feed the fish during the tadpole explosion, they probably won't really eat themselves to death. Hey, maybe the little all-white one will grow a bit.
Speaking of the little white one, I have been working on names for my fish. They are distinct enough to tell them apart. Being a Vorkosigan fan, I named the little fellow Miles. The largest, solid orange with a big beautiful tail is Cordelia. The big healthy tri-color is Aral. The equally large, but scruffy tri-color is Bothari. The small, mostly white with an orange stripe on its head is Lord Mark. The slightly smaller, but equally beautiful solid orange one is Ekaterin. And there's Kareen, Alice, and Ivan.
I name and talk to my plants. I name and talk to my chickens. Now I've named and can talk to my fish.
Life is good.
 

addy1

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I get thousands of eggs laid, thousands of tads, nature takes care of the excess. I have never had a fly explosion, massive die off, polluted pond water due to them. I would not worry about it.

The toads seem to lay the most, during breeding season I see, up to 50 toads in the pond dropping eggs. Then xx amount of time later tiny toads are hopping everywhere. But I never see a excess amount of adult toads later.

The best part is the insects have decreased dramatically, since we installed a pond. Like flies, crickets. Dragon flies, praying mantis, beneficial bugs have increased. Our deck was covered with black crickets when we moved in here, lots of flies.
 
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Welcome, Guppie! Your pond sounds wonderful, and congrats on all the frog sex going on at your place. LOL I agree with Addy, you won't have to worry about too many frogs. Nature takes care of all of that. I'm not sure, but I thought someone said that the fish won't eat the toad eggs, but maybe they will eat the tadpoles ... not sure. I have had lots of eggs, but have never seen baby toad taddies. :( But, maybe that is in part because I have large koi in one pond, and pretty good sized goldfish in the other pond ... and bullfrogs! Yes, as they say, bullfrogs will eat anything and everything it can catch and get in it's mouth ... and some things it can't get in their mouths. But, again, survival of the fittest. If all of my goldfish babies survived, I would have a population explosion that I don't want/need.
Good luck, and we are all anxious to see your pond, mulch or not! Sometimes the "before" and "after" photos are the most fun! Enjoy your new oasis.
 
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Sounds like Mother Nature at Her finest - always create more than you need just to make sure enough survive. We get frogs in our pond but we've never had eggs or tadpoles - I think the fish take care of that. The only year we saw baby frogs we think they were from the bog - somehow they must have found a relatively still spot to hatch and grow in amongst the plants.

Welcome! We look forward to seeing pictures of your pond!
 

sissy

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Welcome and yep this weather is still a welcome shock to me .I was born in PA raised in NJ and moved to VA .Believe me frogs can be very invasive and I remove as many of their eggs as possible .I have always had a major problem with frogs .I take lots of them to farm ponds here .How big is your pond and how deep and what kind of filter .Remember goldies breed like bunnies
 
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I like frogs. I will try to have a set up this year to move the frog spawn to. They breed in the big puddles in the driveway- squished tadpoles! Till we can level the drive, fill in our “moats” I feel bad for all the poor frogs that breed there.
 
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I have built six ponds to move rescued tadpoles to ranging from 18 gallons to 800 +/- gallons.
 
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addy1

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Most of my frogs and toads breed in the fishless ponds, At one time I had a few fish in one of the fishless ponds (got there on their own) and they inhaled the frog/toad eggs.
 
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The tadpoles are hatching. this brings back memories. We used to watch the fish eat tadpoles in a fish pond growing up. So I'll hold onto my fish food for a while. It will be interesting to watch the time sequence. So far, it has been less than ten days from Frog Party to Tadpoles. Wow! Wonder how long until Tadpole Peak. How long to decline to zero (and resumption of feeding the fish).

If there get to be too many tadpoles, I can scoop some out before too many grow legs. (And how many is 'too many'? - When the plants die off from lack of sunshine! THAT would be 'too many tadpoles' for sure). I have no need/facilities to breed frogs in another container.
But I like the idea of cutting down the insect pest population.

"Goldies breed like bunnies." Oh, Great! I don't think my pond should have more fish than it has now, so I'll keep an eye out for that. For this spring, at least, the spawn won't have many places to hide until the repotted plants start growing.

My pond is about 1000g, and is 2' at its deepest. There is a small pump sitting on the bottom that runs the water thru a big bucket sized filter in the ground. I don't know what Kind it is. But I know it has multiple hoses and a UV light.

Thanks for your comments. I'll keep you posted.
 

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