What do tadpoles eat ?

I have three green frogs in my little pond and a couple of weeks ago I noticed that there were little transparent like tadpoles. I also had tadpoles from toads earlier in the season and these were completely back.

It is the first year that the green frogs have made an offspring.
Some days ago I noticed that the amount of tadpoles were very much decreased.
Is it possible that my goldfish which are in the same pond have been eating them ?

Because I feared that this was the case I managed to find 3 more of the tadpoles and have put them in a big salad bowl, with some river pebbles and a few strings of water plants. But now I am somehow worried that they might starve in there.
Does anybody knows what tadpoles eat ?

Thanks a lot!


Does anybody knows what tadpoles eat ?
Thanks a lot!

and this is its mama!

here's a good thread with suggestions on feeding your tadpoles...I'm no help...just an interested reader

gram

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/632582/

I've not seen anything like that before. What kind of frog is that please? Beautiful photographs! Thank you for posting them.

grampapa, thanks for the thread! It has helped me a lot!


Equilibrium, I'm glad you like the pictures! I looked up it's Latin name and found out it's called Rana esculenta.

If you're interested to see a lot more pictures of my frogs and from other members then look in the European forum.
Wallaby has started there a thread which is called: 'Anyone got pics. of frogs and toads?'

That really is a beautiful frog. We have so many types here that I sometimes forget that there are species everywhere... what a wonderful world!

As the proud foster parent of a zillion tads, I recommend a combination of yummy water plants (I use fairy moss).. maybe a coupla rocks with moss or algae on them, fish food (smaller is better, but they'll start pushing bigger chunks around and around which is quite comical). Like anything else, I guess, they just eat whatever is available.

Pretty Frog!!

Your tadpoles will eat fish food. Ours love the tetramin(?) pellets that we feed the goldfish.

Thanks so much all of you for your kind help!
My three little tadpoles are doing fine in the salad bowl.
I'm using the advises given by you!

Ah ha! It was started by wallaby1 not wallaby. I looked for it and couldn't find the thread until I went throught subject by subject!

For anyone else interested, PLEASE check this thread out=
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/628712/

Really great photos.

According to my 5 year olds picture book, tadpoles are vegetarians and eat algae. As they mature into frogs, they become carnivorous. (You never know what you may learn at story time).

Bonitin,

We watched 8 tadpoles grow from babes to baby frogs in an aquarium in the house. I filled it with sand and made a little shore on one side of the aquarium and a large lake on the other side. We started off feeding them dried blood worms and as the grew their legs and hopped to shore, we fed them live crickets. Eventually we released them in the yard. It was really a neat experience watching them change.

Equilibrium, sorry for the confusion about Wallaby1, I did not realise there was another one. I'm still fairly new on DG.
I also didn't know how to put in a link at that time, but now I know because Philomel from the European gardening has taught me.

Barksy, I had the same idea about tadpoles that they were vegetarians until they became frogs.

Knolan
Nice to hear your story! It was a great idea to create a little shore for them of sand. I'm going to create something similar for mine. Your tadpoles where definitly not vegetarians.

I'm still not sure if mine aren't because I haven't seen mine eaten the little water worms and other tiny water creatures that are swimming in the salad bowl filled with water from my pond.
Could it be that it depends on the different species of frogs whether the tadpoles are vegetarians or not ?
Until now mine are still doing well. I've provided them with algae and water plants and tiny water creatures.
Did you refresh the water once in a while ?

Hello Bonitin. I started off with tap water that I added drops to (just as you would any other fresh water fish tank...just follow the directions on the bottle) and I did refresh the water as it got low. I kept a big pitcher that had the drops already added to it near the tank to add as needed. I also added algae from a nearby pond. They were happy little tadpoles. I don't know if they are the reason but I have more frogs in my yard this year than I have ever had before!

Those are fantastic pictures on the wallaby1 thread. Thanks for sharing!