What kind of frog are best for a pond?

[Canardroti]

I have heard Bullfrogs can become invasive and eat everything in the pond, so I guess I should not get one.
I caught some tadpoles in a creek and only one turned into a frog while the others died, I believe it's an African Clawed Frog. Are they good frogs for a pond? It is about 2 inches now and eats the worm I gave him.
I do want to get more frogs in there, but not sure what species would be best, any input would be appreciated.


200 Gallon pond.
Water hyacinth, Water lilies, Anacharis
15 gold fishes, 10 mosquito fish, 5 guppies.

 

[DrDave]

I am not a frog expert but I once had a tree frog, never saw him, but I listened to him for several years. To my knowledge, he never caused any problems unless you didn't like the continuous Ribbit-Ribbit-Ribbit...

 

[poodles-ponds and gardens]

If you look in Pond Building and Construction there is a thread on "Winterization for froggies" were I put some info on the main pond frogs and what they eat. Your best bet though is to check with your local County Extension Office, or Department of Natural Resources. They could tell you what frogs are native to your area so you're not bringing in an invasive species.

 

[Gregory]

Bullfrogs are one of the worst invasive species around here, they not only eat native frogs and salamanders, but also carry disease that affects native populations. If you have any native frogs in your yard they should use your pond in the spring for mating and laying eggs. I would stay away from any non-native frogs IMHO.

 

[oldmarine]

Hi Canardroti,

I have both native tree frogs and bull frogs that I have caught by hand myself, and brought into my back yard and pond area. First off, the difference between tree frogs and bull frogs are; the tree frogs will wander for food and don't stay in or near the pond until spring when it is time to lay eggs. The bull frogs that I have will not get any bigger than about four to six inches long. The bull frog prefers to stay in or near the water depending on several things. Like foot traffic around the pond, time of day, plants to hide in in the pond, the weather, and food source. I see my bull frogs mostly in the late afternoon, and on into the evening. At night they wander the back yard area which is heavely planted in the flower beds. The tree frogs, I see randomly all over the yard, and around the house anywhere there is a cool damp place to hide during the day to get out of the heat.

To keep the frogs content with staying around the pond area, I water many of the flower gardens and the plants around the pond with deluted alaskan fish emulsion, which attract a few flies. Like I mentioned in another post, the fish emulsion stinks to high heaven for about a day or so, but it keeps the frogs fat and busy.

 

[kirscp]

We currently have at least 7 frogs in our pond (they are all sunning themselves in the same place). They found their way natually into there. Just give it time, frogs will make your pond their home. Every year that I've had our pond, we've had frogs.

 

[jmk]

can you have them with carp mine are about 6inches long

 

[oldmarine]

Just did a little online search for the native frogs in this area, and I found that I have three "Cascade frogs". They only get about three inches long, and stay in or near water. They're not BULL frogs at all.

Based on all of the reading I did, I couldn't ask for a better local pond frog for my pond.

JMK, your carp are safe just as long as they are bigger than your frogs. If your frogs are six inches long, it sounds like they might be bull frogs, which can get quite large.