Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Too Many Tapoles

I recently drained my pond to fix a leak. I removed all the fish. The pond is now full of water. The only fish I've added so far are some mosquito fish. I've noticed that there now appears to be a huge population of tadpoles. Any suggestions on how to control or eliminate the tadpoles?

Bluegill will eat the small ones, bass will clean out the rest.(when they become frogs)

Thanks burgermeister.

Will the bluegills eat the mosquito fish?

Patience.

Enjoy the spectacle of huge numbers of tadpoles; chances are you won't see 1/10 as many after you restock the pond.

Large BG will eat small MF; small bass will eat large MF.

Tadpoles are highly beneficial. Enjoy them while they last.

Yep, the bluegills will eat the small MF and the MF will eat the tiny bluegills.

Dont control or elimanate them send them to me. They are a great food source for fish you cant have to many.

...another tadpole question to the froggers.
We have also witnessed a gazillion tadpoles in our virgin waters. All very tiny; maybe 1/4" - 1/2" long. Earlier this week, D-ski handled the fish stocking project while I was on the road. She said that she saw a huge tadpole. She said that it was easily bigger than my thumb. The fish guy immediately noted that it was a bullfrog tadpole, ready to sprout legs (whether he knew what he was talking about or not...?). Does a tadpole that large indicate the BF species? I could swear that I have heard the gutteral bellow of a BF at the pond perimeter in the past few weeks.

Ski, I once bought some BF tadpoles. They turned out to be toads. Who knows?

Congratulations, Brettski. The annual Great Toad Spring Mating Conflagration happened in your pond. Enjoy seeing those gazillion toadpoles, as next year the fish will likely make quite a dent in them.

The thumb-sized TP sounds like a BF-to-be to me.

I don't know if it's the same where your at but the toad tadpoles in my pond are only about 1" long and black while the BF tadpoles are about 3" and brownish-green. I caught a few in a bucket I was using to water trees this week. The BF polywogs had tiny legs about 1/4" long.

Brettski,

I judge by the size at which they sprout legs.

BF tadpoles soon become nickel sized, then quarter sized in no time flat with no legs showing. If they are nickel or dime sized with legs appearing already, they are wood, leopard, or other species. If they are well smaller than a dime and have legs showing, they are toads or tree frogs. Toad tadpoles are very dark with faint gold markings.

Not to worry about gazillions of them. The huge quantities of small frogs attract birds, and they pig out on them.

swimming with the newly planted FH's

Brettski, I grew up in northern Illinois and used to play with/abuse tadpoles just like that. They became Bull Frogs.

+1, Bullfrog. He'll be sorry you ever got a hold of his picture.