Frogs in dam

[Roy Butterton]

Hi Koi Lovers
First of all compliments on the new web site it is user friendly and that is progress. Thanks to all who advice me on getting my male koi fertile. The good news is that all my males developed milk with the exception of grand dad Ki Shusui. At this very moment my pearl Shusui is spawning.
Could some one give me seem information on tadpoles and frogs. Inspite of all my affords to keep frogs out of my mad dam ons was successful and I have many tadpoles. My question is can tadpoles and frogs eat the koi eggs and baby fry?. The frog is'nt the platanna.
Congratulations to oupa Jaco with the birth of Hundreds of grand fry babies

Regard
Roy

[Brian]

Hi Roy,

Thanks for the compliments, and I hope to bring you all even better things in the future.

I don't think you'll have problems with tadpoles eating fry, but the adult frogs most certainly can. American bullfrogs were introuduced in Niigata at the end of the second world war as a food source, and are the scourge of koi breeders there. Are your frogs big or small? You should be vigilant against these frogs, and stop them from ever reaching adulthood.

If you have problems with big bullfrogs, you should inspect the edges of your mud ponds and grassy areas searching for the gelatinous eggs. Upon finding any, a generous dousing with caustic lime should disintegrate the eggs and help to keep your frog problem from getting out of control. If you have a copy of issue #1 of Koi-Bito, you will see Kataoka-san doing just that.

Not sure what you can do once the frogs have hatched and become tadpoles, except remove them at culling. I always see lots of smaller frogs in mud ponds in the southern areas of Japan, but they don't pose any threat except competing with the fry for food resources.

Brett, Brady, Maurice...any of you gents want to share your frog deterring strategies with Roy?

[MikeM]

I have seen tadpoles eat goldfish eggs, so I expect koi eggs would be eaten also. I get small frogs in my lily pond, but not in the koi pond. The koi eat frog tadpoles (but not toad tadpoles) and they eat small tree frogs that get in the pond to spawn. I never see large adult frogs around the koi pond, but I do not think the koi would go after them because too large. I think the currents deter the adult frogs. They prefer the quiet water of the lily pond.

[dick benbow]

I think Mike M covered the ground pretty well with his comments. They can be a nuisance to catch and destroy as adults. Try using a flashlight at night. I have also used my flyrod with fly and dangled the fly in front of them till they sucked it in! I had one adult that did a number on my volumns of yamabuki longfins this breeding season.

[MikeM]

Dick: If Steve Childers ever wandered over here, he might enjoy this. A few months ago a pair of spawning tree frogs were coupled in the skimmer singing their song. It echoed! When I took off the lid, they jumped into the water on the submerged pump side of net/matting, and went to the bottom as if to avoid a predator. They were quickly sucked into the pump (will take 1.5" diameter objects). That pump feeds a direct return to the pond and a multi-chamber filter. I ran to the multi-chamber, took off the cover and removed the remains of the female from a leaf net I have there. The male was still holding on ... unharmed! He hopped off into the shrubbery. The corpse of the female had no legs. I figured the legs got past the net, so I started removing media to find them. Did not want any rotting frog legs in my filter! Couldn't find a thing. Then I remembered the direct return, which has a directional end-piece. Unscrewed it, but nothing came out. The legs had to be somewhere. So, I figured they must be stuck in the pump in-take before the prop. It is a pain to get the pump out because its a very tight fit. Got that done ... no legs. So, where were they?

I'd forgotten about the frogs .. a few storms in the area diverted attention. Then this past weekend the multi-chamber filter began to overflow, a drip at a time. I searched everywhere to find a blockage ... when I unscrewed the directional jet, out came a pile of frog leg bones. Very white & clean. The flesh had decomposed within the line.

The tree frogs sing & croak whenever it rains. I figure that male is in the chorus some place.... waiting for a ride?

[jacovors]

Thanks Roy,

Here in the Free State it is so dry that I do not have any frogs near my ponds nor any fish eating birds.
One advantage of living in a dry region.
Jaco

[Roy Butterton]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the input and sorry for all the spelling errors,I'll edit in future.
Up to date I have caught hundreds of tadpoles and I'm now attempting to catch the young developed frogs. Clever ones those.
In the time being the Matsuba eggs have hatched and that makes things difficult.
Regards
Roy