Tadpoles

I am sometimes a bit harsh with varmints that move into my yard.  The squirrels got at my tomatoes and beans.  The groundhog eats my flowers.  The deer eat the hostas and Caladiums in the front yard.  They are NOT my loved wild animals.

There is a whole wetland and swamp and running water area across the street.  There are oak trees and stuff wild animals like to eat.  They don't need to bother me.

What they don't NEED to eat are my plants.  So I fight back a bit.  I built an entire enclose around my garden beds.  I built a tall fence 30 years ago.  The deer don't jump it.  But that doesn't stop the rabbits and groundhogs. 

The Mews take care of the rabbits.  But they can't handle a groundhog (aka woodchuck or whistle-pig).  But I can. Those normally eat lawn clover, but they sometimes decide to eat all the flowers. 

That's their end.  A hav-a-hart live cage trap is great with melon slices.  They love melons. 

I have a large tub of water that the cage fits into.   One "blub" and they go to "groundhog beyond".  If I knew a faster way, I would use it.  I hate them.  I once caught a new brood outside the den and pitchforked them!  Mom groundhog hissed at me, but I got her later.

So here is the tub.

I'm also growing aquarium plants in it.  But a frog decided to lay eggs.

Most tadpoles will not survive.  Well, think of it.  If they did, my yard would be ankle deep in frogs!  So I was curious about whether my aquarium fish would eat them (free food of high quality).

They attacked like piranha!  That was enlightening...  So I also put several into my 2 Betta tanks (one betta per tank).  One ate them and the other ignored them.  Nature is weird...

The ones in the tank where that betta didn't et them grew fast.  Betta food aggrees with them.  Today, I cleaned the tanks (monthly requirement as they have to pee in the water they live in in small tanks). 

So I netted the large tadpole in the one tank and returned them to the outdoor tub.  You wnt to know how Nature works?  They will eat their smaller siblings.  So I netted out a lot of the smaller ones.  No great favor to them.  They will be aquarium fish food.

 I watch Nature shows a lot.  Everything is eaten by something else without mercy.  Usually alive, and often ripped apart into pieces.  So I don't feel bad about feeding tadpoles to my aquarium fish or tossing a few lucky large-grown tadpoles to eat their siblings.  That's how all animals survive. 

I will have to bury the drowned groundhog though.  Otherwise the vultures find it and that IS rather gruesome.  But I bury them near specimen trees and that feeds THEM, so that is good. 

The circle of life goes on...

BTW "baby fish", once a tiny pair of eyes in the aquarium hiding in the live plants, the only survivor of a platy, is full size now.  It is my favorite for having survived all the others that wanted to eat it like a tadpole.  Some get lucky...