Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Excessive Tadpoles

We have around a 500 gallon waterfall pond that has hundreds of tadpoles growing. First time this has ever happend. We have algae which is feeding them. Pond also has lots of goldfish too. What can we do to get rid of these without killing the fish? YIKES!

They usually are fairly slow moving, can you net them out?

Once you get them out there are tons of uses for Tadpole.

Tadpole is the fruit of the pond. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There, uh, is, tadpole kabobs, tadpole creole...

...tadpole gumbo, panfried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple tadpole, lemon tadpole, coconut tadpole, pepper tadpole...

...tadpole soup, tadpole stew, tadpole salad, tadpole and potatoes, tadpole burger, tadpole sandwich...

that's, that's about it.

Or it would probably be better to hang around and wait for a better opinion from one of the forum experts. I'm just one of the many village idiots. Welcome to Pond Boss, glad you found us.

Don't forget Peche la Frog! For those new to French cuisine, that's a baked peach stuffed full of about 10,000 tadpoles.

Jeff forgot to ask-these are organic tadpoles we're talking about, right?

I was limiting my response to main courses, now if ya want to get into desserts....

Tadpole pudding, tadpole merrange pie, german chocolate tadpole cake, tadpole souffle....

Jeff,

Where would you like me to send the Tadpole pudding?

Flenny, your gonna fit right in around here!

I wish I had more tadpoles. They become frogs, which keep the birds busy and save a few of my fish.

OK Flenny, unless you have the same appetite that these wierdos do, why mess with them? They will turn into frogs and leave. Or, you can net some of them out. However, if they become bullfrogs, you're gonna lose some goldfish.

Anybody tried a combo of tadpole/goldfish sausage?

I can't believe you guy's didn't mention the ever popular tadpole jerky, and for desert, deep dish tadpole cobbler ...alamode of course...

Sorry Flenny, I wasn't like this until I started reading Pond Boss!

As you mention the tadpoles eat attached algae and some filamentous algae. Everyone usually has too much fialmentous algae. I would not be concerned with having too many, since they will be benefical at reducing your attached algae in your pool.

Okay....while this is comical and there are many "delicatessans" I could make with these little obnoxious swimmers....I am not joking when I say there are hundreds....I would venture to say 500 of them.

They are either bullfrogs or toads. I caught them gettin it on in the pond, but didn't actually get up close and personal to find out whether they were a bullfrog or a toad. There were actually several of them using my pond for their pokey pokey session!

If there were only a few, okay....I'd relax a bit. I have 2 Jack Russells. The puppy caught one of the adults in his mouth and threw up for hours.

I just visualize these little croakers all over my back yard...which at that point we're having some serious frog legs for dinner!

Any useful advice would be appreciated. Do you know of any fish that eat these little spermy looking things that can also cohabitate with the gold fish?

If they are black and small then they are toad tadpoles. (Not alot of meat on them little suckas) If they are big and green, then they are bullfrog tadpoles. Most toad tadpoles will grow legs fairly quickly and be gone. Bullfrog tadpoles are a different story. I have had some in my pond for more than a year before they grew legs. I am no expert on them, but they are very hardy. They have been around when my pond was full to when it was just a little mud hole. You could go out and scoop them up by the buckets full. I was afraid my pond would completely dry up and leave them in the mud to die, but mother nature gave them another pond. I plan on stocking largemouth bass in my pond, so that will limit my tadpoles, but you don't want nothing eating your goldfish. Either catch them with a net and thin them out or wait them out.

Got the same deal in my little lake tadpoles everywhere , but noticed alot of little toads making their little way up to my yard from the field. Keeps the 2 yr old grandson busy catching them. Hope i have them every year , little frogs are good babysitters . lol...

Thank you for the help. They are black, hence toads. Luckily we have an acre of woods behind the house, so we are hoping that's where they will head. Our neighbor is also having the same issue.

My husband plans on netting them out once they get a bit bigger. The good thing out of this is that they ate down the algae that grew over the winter.

Anybody in need of some tadpole Toad eggs, I can ship them UPS.

a couple of my favorites are polywog puddin and polywog pie, but always after the main course of tadpole taters.

Flenny, round here, we welcome as many tadpoles as will fit in the pond. my observations indicate bullfrog tadpoles generally take two seasons to develop. tree frog and toad tadpoles seem to develop and leave area in one season. the size difference between bullfrog tadpoles and all other species that i have is dramatic, the BF tadpoles being huge (2 to 3 inches long with 1 to 2 inch bodies) in comparison with other species generally <0.5 inches.

Once I put too much copper sulfate around the edges of my pond and it killed a lot of tadpoles.
If you get a blue herron that visits he will eat most of them (and your bullfrogs)
Wife: Look honey a lovely big blue bird is in our pond.
Husband: Yea, and and the *&^)%#'s got 5 of my prize bullfrogs in his mouth.