Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Nature is amazing

Quick story about the speed of nature.

I took a friend out to my property this weekend in NE Texas. When we got to the pond, he started walking along the bank. He was investigating little creatures, mainly frogs and water beetles. He picked something up, brought it over to me and asked what it might be. After a quick inspection, I exclaimed, "That's a baby crawdad!"

The only biological thing I've ever put into the one and a half year old pond is a pound of minnows and that was a week ago. I started thinking about how incredible nature is to be able to start such a diverse environment with little to no help. Makes you pretty impressed with the way our planet was designed to function, or at least it does me.

Please make sure that your friend knows the difference between water moccasins, copperheads and harmless water snakes. With the recent rains and warm weather, there seems to be a bumper crop already.

Bullfrogs found their way to my place, there is a steady stream of 2" tadpoles fleeing when you walk the shore, the big ones aren't there in numbers yet, but hopefully the 4 or 5 that are there will keep reproducing. I have no idea how they found my pond. I remember spotlighting and gigging bullfrogs when I was a kid, what fun !

I set 2 minnow traps last weekend to survey my minnow/bgill population, they were baited with bread. For every bgill I caught, there were 2 large tadpoles.

I sure would like to know how shad or shiner minnows got into my pond!!!

About a billion tadpoles and at least one turtle have made their way to my pond since last September.

Shawn,

If you have LMB, you will soon have zero tadpoles and billions of turtles...or at least several turtles. Unfortunately, turtles are one of the few items that frequent ponds that are not LMB table fare.

LMB are $.90 now, falling to $.40, I think, in June-July. I'm waiting for July to stock them, hopefully giving my BG and minnows a chance to get going.

The number of tadpoles I see is staggering.

Which gets me thinking, I've not seen any mention here of frog/tadpole management. Does anyone do this, manage for eating size frogs?

If you want frogs you better build them their own pond, because your fish will surely eat them. They might not like the taste of tadpoles, but they love the taste of frog legs.

The "Debra King" thread started out as a birthday card to the Queen of Tadpoles...then it morph'd into the frog hotline: Debra\'s B-day msg to Frogville
It starts at the bottom of page 1. Watch out...if ya get her goin', she'll have ya dreamin' of tanning on lily pads and catching flies with your tongue.

It is interesting how it all works..a month or so after my pond got filled I saw nothing but tadpoles everywhere. Now, two years later, I never see a one. So, apparently, the bass or the bgs are now eating them before they get big enough for me to see. And I haven't seen a water moc in a long time.

The always changing dynamics are what's interesting.

Tom Parker