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enter image description here

They are about 1/2 inch in size. Appeared from nowhere in the last ~1 week.

Video attached for a better viewing angle: https://youtu.be/CkxJaD1Oor8

Evorlor
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adamsfamily
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    They came from an egg mass in the pond you didn't notice, not nowhere. – Ecnerwal May 04 '23 at 16:54
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    _Strictly speaking_ it’s not exactly a gardening question per se, but having tadpoles in a pond can either have the implied question “do they harm my pond” (no) or “should I adapt something” (check whether they will be able to climb out in a few weeks), so we can probably keep this. – Stephie May 04 '23 at 17:03
  • Lucky! Wish they were in my garden pond – kevinskio May 05 '23 at 18:24
  • @kevinskio I'm happy to give away some of them to you ;) – adamsfamily May 05 '23 at 21:12
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    IF Bullfrogs: When they start to "sing" listen to the call & response chorus. Poorly: Bwaak ... Bwakk ... Bwaak ... / Wough wough wough wough. | Repeat. | If you learn to repeat this half well you can call them and they will answer. Or answer a call and they will engage. Lots of fun. – Russell McMahon May 06 '23 at 07:14
  • @Ecnerwal you mean they weren't spontaneously generated??? – RonJohn May 06 '23 at 14:33
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    "Video attached for a better viewing angle" +1 for recording horizontally – Clockwork May 06 '23 at 23:30

2 Answers2

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Those are tadpoles - the larva stage of some amphibian - or simply frog or toad babies. It means that some adult frogs or toads either live permanently in your pond, or that they visited for a short while, mated, laid eggs and nature took care of the rest. You may or may not have seen jell-like clusters with a dark core or strings of jelly-like eggs earlier this year.

Almost all kinds are totally harmless in your pond, eating the algae off stones and plants, carnivorous species are rare. If you have fish or larger insects like dragonfly larvae in your pond, some of them will probably end up as nutritious snack, others mature into tiny frogs or toads.

You needn’t do anything about them, but if a pond has only steep sides, it’s good to add a ramp or create a very shallow part where they can climb out once they metamorphose from gills to lungs. Your video shows a quite shallow part which should be sufficient.

Stephie
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  • Thanks, also accepted as an answer. I'm considering moving them into a bucket and gently transporting them into a river nearby. Otherwise I'd have a lot of frogs singing shortly :) – adamsfamily May 04 '23 at 20:36
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    @adamsfamily, why go to the effort? Once they grow legs, most of them will transport themselves. – Mark May 05 '23 at 01:24
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    @adamsfamily Froglife.org has [this to say about moving them](https://www.froglife.org/info-advice/frequently-asked-questions/spawn-tadpoles-larvae/): "We advise that you don’t move amphibians or their spawn away from your pond as by taking them to a different pond, you may unwittingly transfer various diseases and invasive plants. Also, many amphibians may try to return and they will suffer if placed in an unsuitable area. Do not release spawn, tadpoles or adult amphibians into the wild or into public water bodies such as rivers, canals reservoirs or country park/nature reserve ponds." – Andrew Morton May 05 '23 at 08:38
  • Got it, the issue is that what is below this pond usually works as a swimming pool in the summer :) I'm not sure I can wait long enough for them to grow up... :( I'm a bit worried about placing them in a river, though, not sure if they would survive. – adamsfamily May 05 '23 at 09:03
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    @adamsfamily if you have a natural swimming pool as you imply, you probably already have amphibians living in it. And amphibian species tend to eat annoying insects (both garden pests and the sort that bite you) – Chris H May 05 '23 at 10:55
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    A quick research gives a development time of eight to twelve weeks from egg to metamorphosis into a frog, depending on species and temperature. Maybe that helps with your planning. – Stephie May 05 '23 at 13:39
  • Regarding "a lot of frogs singing shortly", you haven't mentioned where in the world you are to know the local likely species, but most frogs in the world are very rarely heard, or even seen. Most of their lives they are spent camouflaged in undergrowth, minding their own business, and you'll only notice them when a few of them come back to your pond to mate and lay the next generation of eggs. – IMSoP May 05 '23 at 14:25
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    Empirically, you didn't notice them when they were singing a few weeks ago to cause your tadpoles to appear "from nowhere" now. For most frogs, it will be next year before that happens again... (mine are not unnoticeable - darn near deafening at times...) – Ecnerwal May 05 '23 at 15:56
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    @Ecnerwal Your assumption is wrong, I did notice them because I wasn't able to sleep for about 3 weeks. I then carefully transported two frogs to the nearby river - apparently too late, the eggs were already laid. "From nowhere" means that I haven't planted them in - from my perspective they came from nowhere :) – adamsfamily May 05 '23 at 21:07
  • @IMSoP I moved to Hungary a short while ago, Central Europe. I definitely hear the frogs when they are looking for their male/female partners, they emit a lot of sounds, but I love almost all living beings, so I haven't dealt with it (meaning I haven't moved the frogs away) for a long time. The problem is that the house owner will want to open the swimming pool soon, so I need to find a better place for these buddies to continue their journey. Maybe I could dig a hole and create an artificial pond somewhere in the near forests and transfer them over there. – adamsfamily May 05 '23 at 21:11
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Those are tadpoles. Some friendly neighborhood frog has laid their eggs in your pond recently.

Brady Gilg
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