Metamorphosis

[Kezzab]

An overly grand, but accurate title, for a tadpole tank for the kids. £15 from POH. Going to treat it as a bit of an experiment. Not done anything yet or even really sure what the plan is - but going to go au naturale and maybe forage!

Got roundly laughed at by the missus for collecting leaves. Which is fair enough.

 

[Kezzab]

Ok, this is quite fun. After a trip to the local pond i've borrowed some plants and some livestock. It'll all get returned once the frogs are ready to release (note we have no frog spawn yet). I'm not sure what any of the plants are, i have 5 different ones. I've also borrow a small amount of'substrate'.

The water temp has gone up to 18c from probably around 6c but everything seems ok and i guess this is little different from summer temperatures.

So far we have a couple of caddis fly type larva, some water louse, various unknown nymphs, some tiny worms. Really interesting for the kids.

I'm running a filter on on it but have put sponge over the outflow to reduce the flow a lot, the pond it all came from has pretty much zero flow. No other kit, just ambient light from the window (the light in the pic is just for the pic).

The height on the left is so i can lower the water and have somewhere for the froglets to climb out on to.

Would be interested if anyone can ID the plants.

 

[Kezzab]

Inhabitants.

 

[Kezzab]

One week in and the plants seem to be doing well.

And here's one of the inhabitants in action (can't get it to embed):
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=NXgq2X1x82I

 

[Kezzab]

Aha!

 

[Kezzab]

Spawn!

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Kezzab, Fantastic project for you and the kids Love the Inhabitants

 

[Kezzab]

They live!

 

[Kezzab]

All going swimmingly in this tank. Strong growth from all the plants. Tadpoles seem happy ad have done a great job cleaning up!

 

[Kezzab]

Fairly sure this little fellow used to be living in the tank and looked rather different.

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Kezzab, Nice emersed growth from the plants looking forward to seeing the flowers The tadpoles are doing well Nice bug too did you see it hatch.

 

[Kezzab]

It emerged over night. My missus tells me it's a stone fly, which is consistent with the form of the nymphs pictured earlier in this thread. Probably my kitchen isn't its ideal habitat...

 

[Kezzab]

Here's a few pics from early this morning when the sun was quite nice.

 

[Kezzab]

First flowers and i've established what the plant is... water forget-me-not, Myosotis scorpioides.

 

[Kezzab]

We're probably approaching the point where these tadpoles need returned to the pond. I've really enjoyed this. It's turned into a triffid tank. Sure it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's certainly not an aquascape! But it's about as natural as you'll get.

 

[Kezzab]

I've upgraded for 2017, and now it's outside.And with newt spawn. Super low tech.

 

[Kezzab]

This is going really well. The 'newtpoles' have hatched and are swimming free, tadpoles getting fat. Plants growing, although with it being so cold it's quite slow. Loads of life in the tank - snails, daphnia, copepods, various invert worm/larvae. Water crystal clear. Interesting to see new things appearing.

The broken bit of Bog Bean i threw in is in leaf too.

 

[Million]

Love this. How old are your kids? I think my four year old would be very interested

 

[Kezzab]

they are 5 and 3. They like it a lot, but I suspect I'm the main fan!

 

[Kezzab]

Here we are 6 weeks in, everything seems to be doing quite well. I've done nothing except top up evaporation from the tap and add some cucumber and courgette for the tadpoles.