Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been thinking of getting some amphibians for a while and I think I may have just found the opportunity. I went hiking today and found a small pond with a ton of tadpoles. I would like to take a few back home and raise them up as pets, at least for a while. I would at least like to raise them up to watch the process. I'll probably release them when they are frogs.

I was hoping someone could tell me what they eat and some basic care, or at least point me to a care sheet for raising tadpoles. I know that they like still water, do I still aerate the water they are kept in or will this disturb them too much? I also seem to remember that they eat spirulina. Is this correct?

As far as what they are. I don't know if any of you can tell me, but they didn't have any legs yet, were about 1cm long (not including the tail) and were very dark, almost black. There were frogs at the same pond (possibly the parents) whose call sounded like a loose banjo string being plucked. Can anyone identify them for me?

You can actually set up tadpoles like fish. A full of half 10 gallon tank of water. They will eat fish flake (mine LOVED the algea sinking wafers)

Once they start getting legs you'll want to lower the water level a bit and start building up a land area so that they can get out of the water when they are morphed.

It sounds like the tads you are seeing are probably wood frogs but I'm not 100% sure. Hard to tell until they actually morph.

The frogs with the banjo sounding call are green frogs, most likely. They grow to be about 3-4 inches long when adults, the tadpoles change when they're about 2 inches long. You might have stumbled upon some of their tads, or they might even be from a wood frog or some other type of frog, depending on what state you're in. Most tadpoles from the US require similar care; a tank at least 2 gallon for about five of the tadpoles you described works well, with stagnant wawter that you change half of every week, more often if there's alot of uneaten food/debris building up. If you let a coating of algae buildup on the tank glass, they'll eat that. I feed my wood frog tadpoles some crumbled fish flake food every morning and they go crazy for it. They'll also eat boiled romaine lettuce.
Keeping the tank in a warm location will help the tads grow faster, but too much sunlight/UV can actually harm them; I keep mine in a shaded sopt in the house with an aquarium light on a few hours a day.
It's a good idea to add some gravel to the tank floor, to provide a secure spot for the tads to rest, and a few live plants from the pond would be good too, as long as they are removed as they decay. Unchlorinated water or aged/treated tapwater is needed. Or you could use water from their original pond as long as you sift it through a net to remove any small bugs and dirt.
Keeping tads is alot of fun when they start changing into frogs. Just don't overcrowd them, because it's been shown that tadpoles in crowded situations will not all develop at the normal rate, some will turn out smaller.
Finally, when the tads are sprouting limbs, provide a sloped gravel bank for them to climb out onto; the froglets can actually drown without it! Here's a pic of a green froglet.

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*~Ginevive~*