Let’s Study Metamorphosis – Day 18 – Tadpole Woes

It’s so hard being a tadpole mom.

I went and got big rocks from Aaron – really pretty, colorful rocks from Arizona – thanks, Aaron! I put them in the tadpole tank and one of the tadpoles hung out there all the time. He was the one who got front legs first. He could actually climb up on it.

He was hard to see when he sat on it. Camouflage, you know.

Then I was gone for the day Saturday at a seminar. When I came home, Katie said she could only find 6 of the tadpoles. I told her I needed to change the water anyway. I did, and we found the missing tadpole – dead under the white pebbles.

I put the remaining tadpoles in a small bowl of water while cleaning the tank, and 3 of them looked like they were dead in the water – all sprawled out and stiff – just floating in the water. I panicked! Katie panicked when she looked at them. We got them out as fast as we could.

Guess what? They are full-fledged lung-breathing frogs, and instead of getting bigger, they got smaller!

Three of them have all of their legs, still have a tail, and can’t survive in water anymore. And they are only a centimeter long. They became tiny when they got their front legs.

They are entirely too tiny and squishable for me to feel comfortable trying to take care of them. And I’m not sure what they need to eat.

So we took them to the lake and released them.

I worried about them, because they were so tiny that anything could eat them. They are less than bite-size.

But I would rather give them a fighting chance than to starve them or squish them myself.

Here are the last pictures I got of them before releasing them.

See how squishable he looks?!

See how hard he is to see! Drat that camouflage.

Tiny, squishable and camouflaged. Bad combination.

I took them to the lake after taking these pictures.

These guys are still here. I’m watching for their breathing habits to see when they can no longer be in the water. I only put a little bit of water in the tank and built up the other end with the rocks and beads. Now they have a way to be in the water or out of it, whichever they need. I will be releasing them soon. I can’t deal with such tiny frogs that they can hardly be seen!