Frogasmic

[aubergine]

We have a big old bathtub in our backyard, which filled with rainwater a month ago and soon after, tadpoles. I've been feeding them and they are just at the turning-to-frogs point now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/aubergine/FrogTadpole3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/aubergine/FrogSizeComparison.jpg

Size comparison with adult, note frogpole on left-hand side (same as in above picture.)

[TrinityJayOne]

That's pretty cool. How big are they roughly? I hope you're prepared for the noise they're going to be making shortly!

[HiredMan]

Yay frogs! :D

[Stevorooni]

Potential names for frogs:

Kermit
Hypnotoad
The frog formerly known as Prince
Slippery

[HiredMan]

The big fellah in the last pic looks pretty Hypnotoad-y...

[aubergine]

It's strangely difficult to get a photo of them from the front.

The babies are starting to venture out, found two of them pasted to my front door under the light tonight. I wasn't 100% certain they weren't cane toads until that.

[aubergine]

That's pretty cool. How big are they roughly? I hope you're prepared for the noise they're going to be making shortly!

I'll have to take some kind of comparison pic. I imagine they'd compare with a five cent piece. They actually shrink when they transmogrify from "adult tadpole" to "baby frog" in much the same way an egg contains something smaller than itself - I think in this case they somehow "repurpose" their protein and probably shed a lot of water and stored energy to make the change.

More pics.

Tadpoles eat dogfood.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/aubergine/Frogs8.jpg

Clearer picture of frogpole, the tail withers like an umbilicus.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/aubergine/Frogs9.jpg

This is a monster cane toad I caught.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/aubergine/Megatoad.jpg

Comparison pic with an average size adult toad.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/aubergine/Megatoad5.jpg

[Manny M]

Christ that's a huge toad. So what would you do with something like that? They're a pest, so would you kill it?

[aubergine]

To give the froglets the best possible chance, I've been gathering up the toads from the yard most nights, and sometimes from further afield, and freezing them in an ice cream container. I ate the ice cream first. I read about the freezing thing in an article on humane ways to kill toads.

They actually eat the frogs and I even caught one once in the act of chasing down one of my froglets. Toads will eat anything smaller than themselves.

However, I'd have kept that big bastard as a pet if I'd had a means to keep him that I wouldn't deem cruel. But I didn't so he hits froze.

[Manny M]

Freezing or creating a CO2 chamber are the best ways (they do the same for feeder mice).

I'm a huge reptile fan myself, but if it was a tossup between leaving mother nature to do its thing and losing the frogs, or taking out the toads, i'd freeze toads any day. Especially those horrid pests.

[HiredMan]

I love this thread, go frogpoles!

Make sure to keep us updated on the colony's growth aub :)

[aubergine]

Mainly I'm waiting for them all to move out of home. It's been over two months now and there's still lots of tadpoles in there, although the vast majority of them have gone now (either hopped away or eaten or dissolved into frush.)

I've actually mainly been concerned with hunting cane toads. I have seen an increase in green frogs hopping around the yard at night while grabbing toads though.

Saw a rarely-seen and awesome Bandy Bandy snake the other night. It's like a lolly made of snake. Apparently they live underground and only come out at night.

I looked into setting up a terrarium to keep some of the frogs in but just don't have the funds to set up something I'd be comfortable imprisoning an animal in. I think I should grab one of the froglets next time I see one though and keep it in the aquarium I bought (which I put some new tadpoles I found in a puddle in, not sure they aren't toads though. ****ing toads are rife here, see thirty toads to every frog, and I'm certain it's the same three or four frogs I see, but a new batch of toads each time, given I kill them all!

[Saxby]

I've heard that flamethrowers are quite effective and you'll probably need one soon as they multiply.

[Manny M]

Saw a rarely-seen and awesome Bandy Bandy snake the other night. It's like a lolly made of snake. Apparently they live underground and only come out at night.

Jesus Christ! That shit's akin to seeing a Mewtwo in Pokemon!

Damn shame you didn't take pics.

[aubergine]

It had vanished again by the time I got back with the camera sadly. I'd never seen anything like it.

It's sad that I haven't seen baby frogs for ages now. There's maybe 20 or less tadpoles left (the super-slow developers) and I can only hope some frogs made it out alive past the birds and cats and toads.

My frog raising efforts have devolved almost entirely into cane toad extermination, which is sad and possibly futile.

[Mr Pie]

Go french on their arse's.

[Saxby]

Jesus Christ! That shit's akin to seeing a Mewtwo in Pokemon!

Damn shame you didn't take pics.

Damn shame you didn't capture and TRAIN IT!