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Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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Posted by PKingham London, UK (My Page) on Thu, May 26, 05 at 13:21
HI Guys,
Thought I would show a few pics of my pond, it's possitivley blooming at the moment. Lilly is growing nicely, water is clear with algae on the sides but no blanket weed (thankfully).
Here's a snap:
I have a few questions though, and I wonder if I can have your opinions.
1)I long for frogs and newts, but I have taddies, *toad* tadpoles by the million, I mean I have A LOT! This fish do not seem at all bothered, but I am wondering if it's healthy for the pond, and also does it mean I can expect an even bigger harvest next year? Should I cull them?
 
I think I have at least 2 for every square inch of surface not counting the ones swimming.
2)My bio filter is a mossie trap! I am guessing they fly up the 'water out' pipe, spawn (or whatever mossies do) and then die as they can't get out. It's dark in the box so I guess they can't find the way out. The problem is that there are 3 layers of filter foam before a layer of that boken pipe stuff, there is no where for them to go, the water is filtered from the bottom. so at the top I have a layer of water from the pump, with larvae and dead flies. I don't want my garden to be a mossie farm for the summer.
2 photo's one of the filter with the lid off close up, and one winder with the pipes.
 
SO taddies and mossies, what would you do?
Many thanks
Paul |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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| oops, forgot to mention that the toads are still swaning, this will be at least three times so far. I can hear more of them calling in the garden too. |
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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| I would not cull the taddies, they will be thinned out naturally. You may well get a bigger spawning next year but if toads mature at the same rate as frogs the above taddies wont be breeding next year, all the '1' year old frogs I have seen are too small. I dont know if 2 year olds breed. Net a few mozzie and feed them to the fish, once the fish have cottoned on that these things are food feed them as you like. I dump the larvae into the inflowing stream and my fish swim up it to be first in line |
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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| I forgot to mention the scum bit, pitty you cant edit your messages: 3)Where my watherfall is, I have a build uo of bubbles and white foam around the sides of 1/4 of my pond, do you think this is because of the toads? |
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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| Please don't cull them--you are a very lucky person and will be rewarded many times over! Newts and frogs will come if they are around, and you can always help by adding some spawn from another pond at the right time of year. There is the saying you can never have too much spawn--they will take care of their own numbers! |
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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| Nature takes its course... I have huge numbers of toad tadpoles and am hoping they'll mature and eat all the b****rd slugs in the garden! There are some tiny dragon- or damselfly nymphs now, so next year they'll take care of the toadpoles, I expect. |
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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| Thanks for the advice guys |
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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- Posted by Phil_V Bedfordshire (My Page) on
Thu, Jun 2, 05 at 12:33
| I find I always get foaming water around spawning time, especially if there are lots of them 'at it'. It will clear itself if this is what is causing it. Apparently some chemical inbalances can cause foaming too. Is your pond smoking in the second pic of the filter in your first post, or is this the foam? Phil V |
RE: Taddies, flies, scum & photos
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| It's smoking, I have a mister at the top of the waterfall, so long as it's not too windy it rolls down onto the pond. Looks great! |
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