Soapy is Pokey

My goodness! It has been a long time since I posted anything.

I have some good news and some bad news. Soapy is still happy and healthy (or so it seems). Though she is taking way more time than Big Bob did to grow her back legs. See for yourself, this picture was taken today.

Very small legs indeed.

Now some explaining. I know those of you who have been keeping a look out on the blog are wondering where are the pics of Big Bob the Frog? Well, this is what happened (I have been a little embarassed and busy that's why it has taken this long). Once he became a frog, he climbed up onto the land and would hide under something. I tried to take some pictures, I thought that some looked okay on the camera and I left him for the night. The next morning I came down and the lid was still off the tank. My cheese almost slipped off my cracker. At first I thought "He can't jump out of the tank, he's too small." So I looked for him, I couldn't see him in his hiding place. I kept looking, then I tore all the grass off the land so I could see better, and still couldn't find him. At this point I began tearing my basement apart looking for him. I moved everything and still had no signs of him. My wife came downstairs and went to get a flashlight. She shined it in the tank for a minute and found Big Bob in a little mud hole. I put the lid back on and proceeded to take several deep breaths.

Anyway I tried to take some more pics and they looked okay on the camera, but after I released Big Bob, when I downloaded them they were terrible, you couldn't tell mud from frog. I have been hoping for Soapy to finish her cycle all summer.

I'll try to stay more on it, and maybe I'll be over for a visit in the next while.

Cheers,

Mr. C

Big Bob is a Frog!

Big Bob grew front legs in about one day. I was watching pretty closely, because I wanted to get pictures of them as they grew. One day they weren't there, the next KABOOM! there. Then his tail only lasted about two days, then he was out of the water. He is living in the tank, the wet environment has harboured many small insects, and he's doin' fine. He's still a scaredy cat, so I think he will do well in the wild. He is tiny, he could sit on a penny. I will post some more pics later.

We got these tadpoles around June 2nd, they had been hatched at least one week, that's what we'll say (this is very scientific). Big Bob became a frog on about the 15th of July, that means that it took him about 7 weeks to complete the transformation from tadpole to frog.

WAY TO GO BIG BOB!

Big Bob has back legs

Big Bob the largest of our 4 tadpoles has developed back legs large enough to be clearly seen. He is clearly a couple legs ahead of the others.

All 4 of our tadpoles have now adjusted to their new setting. I will continue to post as news happens.

Tiny Tim, Ninja, Soapy, Big Bob

The votes are in and the tadpoles are now christened.

Tiny Tim

Ninja

Soapy

Big Bob



Today we will name our 4 tadpoles

We have 4 tapoles that have lasted and will hopefully last until they turn into frogs. They are easily distinguished by their size. We have tiny, small, medium and huge. The huge tadpole has started to sprout legs, however they have not yet emerged out of his skin. Tonight Mr. C will post the tadpoles pics with their names.

One Animal has completed his journey with us!

We are pleased to announce that Mr. C arrived at work today to discover an adult damselfly. They are surprisingly larger than their nymph form. He must have found it quite close to when it had shed it's exoskeleton, because it was still unable to fly. He carried it around to the class to show us, and the grade 2 class as well. Ms. Damselfly was able to fly away before Mr. C was ready, but thankfully she was not able to sustain her flight and had to take a rest. The grade 2 class had some net houses for their butterflies that they weren't using so Mr. C was able to catch her and get her into the net house. We had noticed she was getting darker as this month went on, we knew that was a sign that she was getting closer. However, we had also read that some species take two seasons to get to the adult stage, and because of how small she seemed Mr. C was worried that might be the case, but she came through fantastically. She will be released into the wild near a pond today. Thanks for the show.

The last shed exoskeleton of the nymph stage of Ms. Damselfly

The adult Ms. Damselfly (We don't know that it's a female, but meh.)

We have 2 new videos!

Two of our students developed scripts for the tadpole and insect lifecycles. They were recorded and done up in CrazyTalk using a picture of a tadpole and the nymph taken by Mr. C. They are quite enjoyable.

Pages have started!

We have now added information to the about frogs page and the how to set up and take care of a terrarium.
Please have a look. If you would like to comment on the info, post comments here.

Our new tadpoles are just catching up to where we were with our last army, that is why we have not been posting as much as usual. Soon the posts will be coming as they are growing quickly.

Thanks for your patience.

Discovery

As our little specks that move have grown, we have realized that they are baby snails.

We are overrun with them. Mr. C will begin extracting them soon. We believe they are acting as one source of food for the tadpoles. We have removed one adult snail from the tank hoping that the eggs will no longer be fertilized. As soon as the tadpoles are big enough we will put the damselfly nymph back in with them as we believe it will also eat some of these tiny creatures.

Jubilation!

We have been granted a second chance. Thanks to Mrs. L who works in a grade 3/4 class in our district, we now have 7 happy tadpoles. These tadpoles were retrieved from the wild, and as we have said, wild frogs seem to have a better track record. We are going to make sure our tadpoles grow happy and healthy until the end of the year. Our area had a late spring, so we most likely will not see the whole cycle complete. Mr. C may try to keep the blog running after the school year ends and allow the students to continue to follow along for the rest of the cycle.

Thanks again Mrs. L!

Catastrophe

Well, we started a frog blog and we no longer have any frogs. We tried several ways of maintaining the tank, we cleaned it, we didn't, we fed them, we didn't, we just don't know what happened. Mr. C is very disappointed, and would really like to try all over again, but the cost of the tadpoles and the season is mostly over. We will see if our hopes are answered and we are somehow able to acquire some tadpoles, or pollywogs before the end of the year.

We still have the damselfy nymph, but we will release it back into the wild soon, as well as the snails. We will continue to post anything we find out about frogs and other things.

Mr. C would like to thank any who were as interested as he was in watching the frogs develop.
Maybe next time.

A few bits of News

Over the last few weeks we have had a real rollercoaster ride with our tank, however we are finally seeing some dividends.

Just this week on close inspection we are seeing the beginnings of the back legs of our tadpole.

The lighter yellow coloured part coming out of the belly is not their legs, but the lines (they look more like legs close up) that are the same colour as the rest of the greenish skin is the start of the legs.  As you can see the nymph wanted to get in on the photo action as well.

We have also noticed a new organism in the water. There are many tiny fleck like spots that zip about in the water now. Mr. C believes this is one of the organisms that the tadpoles feed on, but we don't know for sure. We also don't know the name of these tiny creatures. (Picture posted at the bottom of the page)

We are going to try a less maintenance approach with the tank, as a friend who has successfully raised some tadpoles advised that she did not do much in the way of cleaning or feeding, she simply added pond water every other day or so. Seeing as how our methods have not proved very successful we will give it a try.

The Damselfly Nymph is still with us!

Yehhhhhhh! Good News!

Mr. C did a vigorous tank cleaning on Saturday trying to keep the remaining two tadpoles alive. He was not particularly careful to ensure the other smaller organisms were okay. However, the Damsel nymph has been spotted and is alright. We may get to view more than one lifecycle yet.

And then there was one

With the new environment we have not been any more successful. We are down to our final tadpole and from now on Mr. C will take it home for the weekends. He/She's our only hope to see the lifecyle.

After talking to others it does not seem uncommon for this to happen, however we are greatly disappointed in our results.

We hope our next posts will all be good news.

What our class would really like to know about frogs.

The class made a list of questions they would like to ask a frog expert. From that list we voted on which ones we liked the best. Here are the results.

1. What animals are predators of tadpoles?

2. How big is the brain of an average sized frog?

3. How can you tell when a tadpole is hungry?

4. Can frogs mate with toads?

5. How do frogs lose their tails?

6. What is the average lifespan of a frog?

We will begin our quest to find the answers to these questions and more, please stay tuned for the answers. If you have an answer please feel free to comment, but make sure you cite your sources. We want our blog to be reliable.

Awful News!

We are sorry to announce that this weekend was dismal for the tadpoles. We are down to five healthy tadpoles, the snail, the nymph and a few shrimp. This news was a real heartbreak to Mr. C who loves all animals. Our filter/aerator quit sometime during the weekend. We believe this had something to do with the downfall of our tank.

            Mr. C took out the aerator, put in gravel and filled the clay slope with rocks. Another teacher at our school let us in on the information that if the water is shallow it can help to speed along the lifecycle. We will be changing water more frequently and paying close attention to the health of our remaining friends.  

Action!

Today we had some exciting action in the tank. Mr. C has used real pond water, adding other natural organisms to the tank environment. He added some fresh water shrimp, nymphs, and a snail.

           
Today two fresh water shrimp had sadly perished overnight. The cause is still unknown. However, Mr. C noticed some activity around the fallen friends. Other tank members were cleaning them up, some tadpoles were having quite a feast, then some shrimp joined in, lastly the snail gave them a hand, NOW THAT’S TEAMWORK.

            We have noticed some benefits of having the shrimp in the tank, as they clean up any leftover food, this can be a major source of issues with cleanliness in a tank. The snail is also helping keep the tank clean.

 

Allow ourselves to introduce ... ourselves

We are a grade 3 class in Canada. We began our final science unit "Animal Lifecycles" this month. Our science teacher Mr. C ordered the class some tadpoles as a surprise. He setup an aquarium using natural materials. There is real grass, moss and soil, along with rocks for the frogs. He used clay soil to seal the water area of the tank so that the water did not spread all over. He purchased a filter/aerator and buried it in rocks, so that it was hidden and kept the tank looking nice and natural.

Right now we are trying to solve the problem of taking good pictures. Our camera has auto-focus and is not cooperating.

New arrivals

We have just received aprroximately 30 grass/leopard frog tadpoles. We have created this blog to share information about frogs and how to care for them. We hope you enjoy!