# tadpoles



## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

SO.... my 12 year old daughter decides to bring a tadpole home from school today. She felt bad because no one could care for it over the summer. Wellllll.... I have no idea how to care for it either lol. Obviously, its not going in my cichlid tanks. I have a 5 gallon tank with 5 glow fish (arent they danios?) that they could occupy together, if they are able to. She brought it home in a zip lock baggie with 2 inches of water in the bottom. The best I could do temporarily was to add about 3 inches of water into the bottom of an empty/cracked 5 gallon to get it out of the baggie. No filtration, no nothing.

Can this tadpole survive in the 5 gallon with danios? I have zero knowledge on tadpoles, other than they turn into frogs if we're lucky.

eta... and will they eat fish food? what should i be feeding this thing? i have NLS, cichild flakes, algae wafers, tetra flakes and brine shrimp pellets.


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## Mr.Dempsey (Jan 4, 2012)

I think the danios would be a little nippy toward the tadpole, but you could try it (if it does die you could get out of having to take care of a frog later on in life ) but I think you could get away with it in a nice sized bowl with 100% water changes ever other day and dont need a heater cause its a native.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Check out this thread.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=245045


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

DJRansome said:


> Check out this thread.
> viewtopic.php?f=7&t=245045


Thanks, DJ! Unlike that poster, I'm a little apprehensive about putting the tadpole in with my cichlids. For some reason, I just cant bring myself to do it. I think of the tadpole as "dirty". I pride myself in pristine conditinos in my cichlid tanks... I'm very OCD about water changes and vacuuming, etc. I think if I put that tadpole in my tank and it infested my tank with disease or killed some of my fish, I'd absolutely have to flush the lil bugger lol.

I've done some reading and I think it will survive okay in the 5 gallon with no filtration with mega water changes. I need minor adjustments (places to hide/gravel on a slant so it can crawl out of water when it grows feet). I'm still confused about what to feed it... I dropped some fish flakes in yesterday and it doesnt appear he touched them. I didnt know they eat algae... maybe I'll try to drop an algae wafer for him just in case. I'll be doing some more research to see if I can think of something better to feed it.


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## NYPDMOUNTIE (Jan 10, 2012)

What type of tadpole is it. Toad? Frog? They can definitly survive with no filtration. They will eat boiled lettuce. It's a whole different story caring for them once they do grow feet. I raised many as a kid.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I would not do it either, but since you were possibly going to do it, I thought the other post would be interesting.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

If it's a native species, I would release it. I'm sure that if it was in a classroom, someone found it locally or bought it from a lfs. Generally the larger ones that are an olive green color with black spots are bullfrogs or green frogs. If it is very small and dark, you probably have a toad tadpole. If you do decide to keep it, keep in mind that growth is slower in most frogs, and bullfrogs may take a few years to go through metamorphosis. Toads grow very fast, and need something to haul onto once they complete the change... otherwise they will drown.


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## Pizzle (May 24, 2011)

Please don't release it into the wild. While probably being illegal, it is also unethical. First there is the risk of misidentifying it as a native species. Second is the risk that it may have picked up some disease which could have a detrimental effect on a wild population. Once aquatic life has been removed from the wild, it shouldn't go back.


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