We did this when we were kids. But kids today don’t do it anymore. Too bad because it’s a lot of fun and a great lesson in metamorphosis.
Where to Find Tadpoles
If you live in a suburban area or a neighborhood with some greenery and they don’t use pesticides, finding tadpoles is not difficult at all. When it starts raining, you hear toads and frogs croaking for mates. They lay eggs in small bodies of water. A puddle, a drum, the edge of a stream. The eggs look like small black egg yokes.
They’re not hard to spot if you know what you are looking for.
If you live in a city and can’t take a trip to the country side to find frog eggs, try your local pet stores. They might have frog eggs.
You need an aquarium, or a pail, or a big basin. That should do. Fill it half way with tap water. If your water has a high chlorine content, try getting water somewhere else. Do not use mineral water or filtered water that you use for drinking because that water is just too clean. Your tadpoles will be feeding on microscopic plant life. Scoop water from a lake or pond that has green algae. Leave the frog eggs on the surface of the water, they hatch on their own. Do not put any fish in the aquarium because fish love eating frog eggs.
When your tadpoles have hatched, they will look like this. They don’t look like frogs at all. Just keep feeding them green pond scum, they thrive on their own. Some tadpoles are cannibalistic and eat each other, so keep their their tanks full of organic things to eat.
Out of 10 tadpoles, maybe only 2 will reach the stage where they have legs. Here is a picture of a tadpole transitioning into a frog with legs but also with its tadpole tail. When they reach this stage you need to put something on the surface of the aquarium that will help them stay afloat, like this leaf. Or a floating bottle cap. They need to stay on the surface because the tadpoles have developed lungs and they need to breath air.
Not all your tadpoles will grow into frogs or toads like this. That’s because a lot of them do not survive or are eaten as tadpoles. That is just how nature works. But it is a rewarding experience to watch a frog egg transform into a tadpole, grow legs and become small frogs that grow into big frogs.
Published in: Pets