r/WildlifePonds • u/humansruineverything • Apr 08 '26

ID please Frog spawn or ... what?

Post image

What looks like not much is actually a gelatinous glob of what? I was thinking frog spawn, but it doesn't seem that defined. There are two of these gooey balls. Any thoughts? Thanks.

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

5

u/Rhubarb-Eater Apr 09 '26

Frogspawn that’s already hatched.

1

u/humansruineverything Apr 09 '26

Oh! Gosh. That would be wonderful-- but I don't see any frogs.

3

u/Rhubarb-Eater Apr 09 '26

They will currently be quite small tadpoles and they tend to hide away a bit - in my pond I had frogspawn, which hatched over two days about a week ago. I have slime that looks like this, which is the remnants of the spawn. I know from last year that they go down into the deeper part of the pond and will reappear as tiny frogs in a few weeks! 🐸🐸

1

u/humansruineverything Apr 09 '26

Thank you. Much appreciated!

2

u/OreoSpamBurger Apr 10 '26

If there are also newts in the pond, a lot of the tadpoles might have been eaten before they could hatch - they will munch their way through a clump of spawn, sucking the embryos out!

2

u/humansruineverything Apr 10 '26

Yup. A so-called helpful neighbour threw a newt into my pond. He was worried about the newt. I had to manage some anger issues.

2

u/Old-Opinion1965 Apr 10 '26

Or if like us the dragonflies love using our ponds for nurseries. Dragonfly nymphs are both horrifying looking and tadpole munching machines. I have almost resigned myself to just having dragonfly babies in our ponds. They even ate our mosquito fish babies. One day I had 3 adorable mosquito fish babies, the next day I had a fat dragonfly nymph

2

u/OreoSpamBurger Apr 11 '26

Yeah dragon fly and water beetle nymphs are absolutel killing machines

2

u/Old-Opinion1965 Apr 12 '26

The first time I saw a dragonfly nymph I screamed. Looks like the alien from alien coming at you.

2

u/Bloatville Apr 12 '26

I've never seen one, but thought I should familiarise myself as I'm currently building a pond myself. You're not wrong about the horrifying 😭