2 replies to this topic

[HamsterCrazy24]

So about a week ago I "rescued" some tadpoles from a pond that was drying very quickly. There were TONS of them and I wanted to give some a chance since we weren't expecting rain for 3 more days, and they would all be dead by then. I put about 50 in one bucket, and about 30 in another. I made sure the water was dechlorinated, and the same temperature as the little bit of water they were in. 

 

I fed them lettuce, spinach, fish food, and dethawed bloodworms. I was also giving them a small water change every day. A couple days ago I noticed one in the larger bucket was dead, I knew I couldn't save all of them, so I took it out, and thought nothing of it. The next day, I only saw a few eating at the surface, so I looked at the bottom of the tub, and all were dead. I took the few on the surface out of that tub, and put them in a small, deli container. Today, I noticed the ones in the small bucket were dying!! I've been doing water changes, and feeding them, and I don't really know what to do with the living ones now.

 

Should I put them back in the original pond? It has water in it now, or would it shock them? I feel like if I keep them any longer they'll all die. Any help is appreciated. 

[Robin~]

If anything I'd say ammonia poisoning. Even if doing daily water changes the bioload of that bucket was too high with the fact that the buckets didn't go through the nitrogen cycle at all (look it up if you don't know what I mean by that), which likely led to their death. That, paired with stress and being forced into new water conditions (like with ph, temperature (a 5 degrees F difference can kill some aquatic creatures), etc.), was likely the cause.

I think you probably should have left them tbh. It's actually illegal to keep animals like that and rehab them without a permit in some areas, so for the future I'd either let nature take its course or take them to a local wildlife rehabilitator. Not to scare, just note there are laws and stuff against this in some places

[HamsterCrazy24]

If anything I'd say ammonia poisoning. Even if doing daily water changes the bioload of that bucket was too high with the fact that the buckets didn't go through the nitrogen cycle at all (look it up if you don't know what I mean by that), which likely led to their death. That, paired with stress and being forced into new water conditions (like with ph, temperature (a 5 degrees F difference can kill some aquatic creatures), etc.), was likely the cause.

I think you probably should have left them tbh. It's actually illegal to keep animals like that and rehab them without a permit in some areas, so for the future I'd either let nature take its course or take them to a local wildlife rehabilitator. Not to scare, just note there are laws and stuff against this in some places

 

I wasn't even thinking about if the water was cycled!   I definitely won't do it again, but this is the third year that the toads laid eggs in that pond, and all three times it dried out so I thought I would save some. They need to pick a better spot to lay their eggs though. 

 

They actually lived for about 6 days before I noticed the first death, so I thought they were gonna make it. I guess I'll release the remaining few back into the pond. I guess if they die they would've been dead anyways.   

 

edit: spelling

Edited by HamsterCrazy24, 07 May 2019 - 06:59 AM.