Why are my frogs dying?

[waruikazi]

I live in Darwin and I have built a big frog pond in my back yard. In just the past couple days the tadpoles have been morphing. Yesterday i found one frog that was severly deformed, it only had three legs and the legs that it did have were noticeably undersized. obviously this one died. But since yesterday i have seen another four frogs that have either completed their morph or close to it, sitting dead on the bottom of my pond. From what i can see it is only the green tree frogs not the brown poke poke frogs.

Any ideas on what it could be?

This is my pond

 

[MrBredli]

Can they get out of the water easily?

 

[cris]

Is there anything to allow frogs that cant climb to escape from the pond?

 

[waruikazi]

They have lily leave they can climb on and i have found them crawling up the besa block before. I also have a paice of wood in the corner that leads out of the pond and some gaps in between the blocks to let the water out that the frogs could aslo crawl out of.

 

[pythoness]

Toads? all my frogs died when a toad started to take a swim in their pond.

 

[waruikazi]

Well that could be it but i don't hink so. I built this pond to keep the toads out and i don't hink the taods have quite reached us yet, they'll be here by christmas i reckon but not yet. Do you guys think it's worth reporting to frog watch or some group like that?

 

[Bug collector]

my dad said: the shed roof with the gutter goes into the pond. the leaves in the gutter rot and produce tanin (?) tanic acid, and also bird poo from the roof produces a high level of phosphorus. these would build up in the pond and affect the frogs.

 

[Bug collector]

** especially if theres rain after a long dry period.


(lol dads over my shoulder)

 

[waruikazi]

Hrrmmm good point... Doesn't seem to affect the tadpoles though. Thanks for that, good food for thought.

 

[Bug collector]

dad said: the frogs may be more vulnerable coz they absorb stuff thru their skin, do tads do that??

 

[cris]

I think its most likely that they are having trouble getting out of the water, species that cant climb will need a ramp of some sort to be able to get out.

 

[Bug collector]

what about the deformed legs tho?

 

[angel_saza]

Could be either a pollutant in the water affecting the growth of the frogs or just a mutation that's unfavourable.. It's natural. Ask about it on this forum, it's specifically about frogs www.frogs.org.au/community

 

[waruikazi]

GTF definately climb and they have alot of platforms to climb on so i'm sure that's not the problem. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

[JasonL]

Cytrid virus kill frogs as they morph or within the first couple weeks.

 

[bunnykin]

thats what i was thinking too jason. But how would the virus get to the pond ?... i guess the frogs carry it ? how would you get rid of it?

 

[JasonL]

the fungus is water borne, it infects the water. all it takes is one infected frog to jump into the pond and it will be spred to all. Adults can often live with the fungus but their offspring will all die as soon as they morph. It's this reason you should use tap water for frog (not tadpoles though)

 

[JasonL]

add salt to the water, but in places with heaps of frogs it will be re-infected in no time anyhow.

 

[hugsta]

Chytrid Fungus can also be transfered via bird droppings. So as mentioned before, if your rain water from your roof is funnelled into your frog pond, when it rains it could wash the fungus into your pond. Once the pond is contaminated you may as well kill everything in it. It is like OPMV of the frog world. Also the main casue of the southern corroboree frog being wiped out.

 

[nuthn2do]

The only thing apart from Chytrid i can think of is the water quality. Rain leeching through those spiffy new bessa blocks is got to upset the PH big time.