Pond Life

Watching a Pond Grow

April 2008

Well as I said on the March page I have decided to attempt to show the spawn changing into mini-Frogs. At the end of March the spawn was still just little black balls in the newly laid jelly, but after a week and abit it started to develop into Tadpoles.

In this picture you can see the black balls have been replaced by a longer and thinner black blob. This is the embryo starting to turn into a fully functioning tadpole not just a jumble of multiplying cells.

Above is the whole clump at the same time as picture 1.

About 5 - 6 days later you can clearly see the spawn taking on a tadpole like appearence. By this time if you waited carefully you would be able to see them move every so often.

They have now hatched out of their eggs and are in a large jumble clingling to the spawn and using up the remainder of their yolk sack (food source connected to them). After they have used the yolk sack they will eat the jelly.

This is about a week and abit after the last picture and by now the Tadpoles are swimming around freely eating algae and small things that can be found easily in the pond.

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At the same time the pond has been waking up from its winter sleep and has started to grow. The Marsh Marigold (I i think thats what it is) is in bloom and other plants are about to flower.

The reeds and grasses have also started to grow slowly.

The main difference so far has been the Beach area. It is looking really good with the pond plants starting to cover some of the stones and the grasses continuing to grow well. The bog has also done well so far and I have re-dug around half of it and added a proper Carnivorous plant bog which is filled with peat. I will show the CP bog in the months to come as it grows.

Next Page : May 2008