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Worried about cold snap
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Posted by Christabella London, UK (My Page) on Thu, Apr 7, 05 at 15:21
Hello all.
I am a first time pond owner having only filled it in November and only got my first plants in last week!
But anyway, I am the very proud guardian of quite a bit of frogspawn which has got to the 6mm wriggling stage. I am v worried about the cold snap which is supposed to strike tomorrow. Temperatures in London are predicted to hit zero. Will the tadpoles survive? Should I take action? I don't really agree with interfering with nature but I don't want to lose all the tadpoles :(
Help! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Worried about cold snap
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| I dont know but I doubt those that freeze will survive but those below the freeze should, if they havent hatched then you could put the spawn in a bucket of pond water and bring it in out of the cold. Put it some where well 'day lit' but not warm. Even if it hatches the tadpoles live above and I assume off the jelly for 2 or 3 days so you have a good cushion. |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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- Posted by Beenz Glasgow UK (My Page) on
Thu, Apr 7, 05 at 19:49
| After the hot weather last weekend I took OUT the pond heater expecting all this to be over!. I would not be worried at all for your little tadpoles, maybe so if they were unhatched eggs on the surface then I would be concerned, they will be below the surface well wrapped up in the blanketweed. I doubt even if the weather does drop below zero that the surface of ponds shall freeze this weekend, the volume of of a pond needs to be subjected to icey conditions for a considerable length of time to start to freeze over and it is going to be into the higher teens by monday. If you have a fountain pump, keep that running to keep the water moving, it would take antartic conditions to freeze over running water. |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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| I agree with the above, as long as they are below the surface they should be fine. During the previous cold snap I also melted the pond water around the spawn to get it to thaw more quickly. It made me feel better, and I hardly lost any spawn (unlike the neighbours), so the length of time frozen could be a factor too. Don't bash the ice as they don't like the shock waves. I've been told it's best to fill a container of very hot water and hold it on the ice and just keep moving it around so the ice melts but the hot water is not going directly into the pond. As the ice breaks up, that helps the oxygen levels and the pond can be left to thaw naturally. Having said all that, your pond probably won't freeze anyway which would be great! |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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| I don't know whether you will have a problem. You could try floating a clean well rinsed washup bowl inverted over the clump of spawn as a little greenhouse. But this will depend on whether there is enough vegetation to stop it floating off. |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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Thanks for all your advice. My tadpoles are still in the spawn so I may try to rig up some kind of acquatic cloche for them! I did discover a big lump of spawn lying on teh bottom of the pond too so I'm sure some of it will survive.
Have a good weekend
C |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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| Mummy, she's usin big words again "cloche" .....oooo uuuuummmmmm what's that, ( thick male here) |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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I can't believe that you don't know what that is Sean. It is a bit like a small poly tunnel that you can put directly over the plants and also what some people call a cold frame. Does that help you.?? Obviously anything over five letters must be big words for you .lol. as you haven't anything over five letters in your above post except uuuummmmmm which lets face it is only 2 letters.
Alison |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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| Yep I didn't have anything fancy in mind Sean - I meant dampflippers' idea of an upturned washing up bowl! |
RE: Worried about cold snap
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- Posted by Beenz Glasgow UK (My Page) on
Fri, Apr 8, 05 at 18:07
| Alison, keeping the pride of thick males going...I never knew a cold frame was called that either ;-) |
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