I have a garden pond which I aquired when I moved house about one year ago.
The pond is home to a variable population of frogs - anything between six and sixteen - and six goldfish.
In the spring, much frogspawn was in evidence.
However, I have not seen a single tadpole or froglet.
So, the question is: do goldfish eat tadpoles?
Or is there some other explanation for the absence of tadpoles?
Goldfish are vegitarians, they did not eat the tadpoles. The tadpoles likely grew legs and went on, that is became frogs, or some other predator (owl, racoon, etc) ate them. However, some other predator would have eatan the goldfish, too, so I believe they likely became frogs. These things happen, I understand that in Florida the pet shop supplier was surprised when the catfish they were stocking just walked off and infested the state.
No, goldfish are just oriental carp and they are the ultimate omnivores and wil happily eat vegetation, carrion, live prey or simply mud. The certainly will and do eat both frog and fish spawn. I’ve never heard of them specifically eating tadpoles, but since they will readily eat invertebrates and smaller fish I can;t see it being out of the question.
It takes a good period to progress from spawn to frogs, a fortnight at least. They don’t just hatch out and turn into frogs in one evening. Assuming Gaius was being even casually observant he would have seen the tadpoles if not the frogs.
When I was little I caught some tadpoles. My parents put them in the covered goldfish tank on my dresser for lack of anything better to do with them until they could buy a more suitable home. In the morning the tadpoles were gone, every single one of them. Do you think they evaporated? Grew legs overnight, got the cover off themselves, and put it back on once they were out to cover their tracks? Me, I think they were eaten.
How about clarifying the above?
How many goldfish? How big or what size?
How many tadpoles? How big or what size?
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When I was little I caught some minnows in a pond in some NYC park. Three of them. I brought them home and dumped them in my five gallon goldfish bowl. In less than two minutes my two only slightly larger than “feeder-size” goldfish had devoured all three, which were easily as long as them, if less bulky by half. I saw one minnow literally wripped in half.
If any potential tadpoles had no or poor cover, I’d vote for the goldfish.
I was only about five at the time so I didn’t do any measurements but… there were fewer tadpoles than fish (probably 3 or 4 tadpoles, 5 or 6 fish give or take a fish or tadpole) and they were a lot smaller than the fish. Maybe 1/2 the fishes’ sizes.
Yup, goldfish will eat pretty much anything, but if I’m not mistaken, tadpoles will eat tadpoles too.
Thanks everybody. I guess the goldfish are guilty as charged.
For those who are wondering:
There are six goldfish each between six and eight inches long. I saw loads of frogspawn, but over the following weeks after all the eggs must have hatched (that is, all the spawn disappeared) I saw not a single tadpole. I feed the fish each day and would have a good look. There is quite a bit of weed in the pond and it needs a bit of clean out every couple of weeks. Each netful of weed would typically contain at least one adult frog, which I would allow to escape, but I have never seen a single tadpole or froglet.
As a follow up question, what should I do next year to ensure that at least some froglets develop? I am guessing, put some spawn in a jar or somesuch. What do tadpoles eat (apart from one another)?
You could probably put it in an aquarium or even a large pan, plastic bucket, etc. Tadpole diets vary with species, but most eat algae and detritus. You can probably feed them boiled lettuce or maybe spinach.
See here for some pointers on tadpole care.