a nursery for tiny baby tree frogs
Eutrophication is when the phytoplankton population explodes and depletes all the oxygen and kill all or most of the animals.
This happens when nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients build up and cause the algae to bloom.
The ecology in Experiment Tank #6 crashed from Eutrophic Collapse.
How did it get overwhelmed with nitrogen and phosphorus?
Because so many frogs laid so many clutches of eggs in it. Clutch after clutch.
Continue reading “Eutrophic Collapse”
This is a young adult Green Frog. It is much smaller than the old blue-faced males in the ponds, but it is still an adult and reproductively active, capable of laying a clutch of several hundred eggs in a night:
I had some downcycled plastic barrels that I had previously used as rain barrels before discovering how much maintenance it took to ensure mosquitoes weren’t reproducing in them.
I cut these in half and plugged any holes and set up eight of these as breeding tanks for mosquito fish and tree frogs on my back patio.
The total volume of material in each tank is less than 15 to 20 gallons, with a rim of about 10 inches extending above the top of the water.
I added water and clay to each of these tanks and then seeded the microflora and fauna with mud and water samples from the ponds.
I let that brew for a week, and then I added plugs of aquatic plants from the ponds: water hyacinth, elodea, duckweed, and hair algae.
I also added more clay and topsoil for the minerals and to increase the biomass.
Continue reading “Experiment Tanks”
Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) apparently lays larger clutches than I have seen in the past.
Previously, all the clutches I observed were smaller and broken up into different clumps separated by floating vegetation.
I speculated that was because the mating parents were avoiding the larger Green Frogs.
I’m not sure why the eggs in tank #4 are so numerous and all clumped in one area the same way the clutches of Green Frog eggs have been.
I certainly hope this isn’t because this is the first clutch laid where the parents weren’t pursued.
Note that these eggs were laid within the past 12 hours and the yolk is still spherical. Within 24 hours the yolks will become flattened embryos.
Continue reading “Frog Eggs: Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis)”
At the bottom of this post are two videos of tadpoles of the Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) swimming in experiment tank #6. One video is from June 27, 2022, and the second is from June 30.
Juvenile Green Frogs have laid several clutches of eggs in all eight experiment tanks. Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) have also laid several clutches of eggs in every tank as far as I can tell.
Continue reading “Videos of Tadpoles Swimming in Experiment Tank #6”