Tadpoles as Pets

Learn how to take care of tadpoles and raise them into frogs at home.

Can You Keep Tadpoles at Home?

Raising tadpoles at home is a great way to see how a frog develops. It can be a fun activity for the whole family or for students in a classroom! Before you collect the frog spawn from the wild, you need to have all the necessary equipment to keep your tadpoles safe and happy. To take care of tadpoles through their life cycle, you need a range of equipment to accommodate them throughout their life.

by Samiah Rose

What Do You Need?

To get started, gather all the materials listed below:

  • A clean plastic container or fish tank (should have about 4-5 litre capacity).
  • Pond or rain water (or even bottled water). Make sure it’s not tap water, as the chlorine in this water will kill tadpoles!
  • A calm space out of direct sunlight near a window or outside.

Finding Frog Spawn and Tadpoles

At the beginning of spring, frogs mate in ponds and lay their eggs in big clumps in shallow water.

When you’re ready to collect some frog spawn for you tank, check the edges of ponds and parks, or you can look for them in ponds in nearby woods.

When you find them, you need to be careful in collecting them. Follow these steps to keep the frog spawn healthy and safe.

  1. Bring 2 clean jars with screw top lids.
  2. Lie down at the edge of the water and carefully scoop up frog spawn or some tadpoles using one of the jars.
  3. Use the second jar to scoop some water and pour it into the jar with the spawn or tadpoles.
  4. Try to collect some underwater plants and more pond water in the second jar. When you get home to your tank, you can use this water and these plants to fill your tank.
Tadpoles in a pond – by Alan Roberts

Feeding Your Tadpoles

Young tadpoles feed by scraping at the leaves of pond weed. They also like fresh lettuce and baby spinach. Before you feed them, remember to rinse the leaves thoroughly so the food is nice and clean for the tadpoles.

Tadpoles only need a little bit of food. It is very important that their water is clean all the time, so change the leaves if they start to look sad!

As tadpoles get bigger they will eat anything they can! You can feed them with flakes of fish food from a pet shop.

When tadpoles grow legs they become carnivorous, meaning they eat meat. Small pieces of meat can be suspended in the water on a piece of string and remember to change the meat every day. They will eat each other if you don’t provide meat for them, so be sure to keep them well fed!

Caring for Your Tadpoles

Your tadpoles will thrive and grow if you take proper care for them.  See some tips for caring for your tadpoles below:

  1. Make sure the water is clean. Change the water if it becomes cloudy or if food has been left in the water for too long. Remember to only use rain water or water collected from a pond. If you really need to use tap water, leave it in a bowl for 3 days before you add it to the tank.
  2. Try to keep the water temperature constant and between 15-20°C (about 60-70°F).
  3. Never change the water temperature suddenly as this is likely to kill the tadpoles.
  4. If you leave your tank outdoors or near a window, make sure it is in a shady place and away from direct sunlight.

What’s Next?

Later your tadpoles will gradually grow front legs, lose their tails, and transform into baby frogs. Baby frogs are sometimes called froglets, and they sometimes retain their tails for a while before they are fully lost.

When your tadpoles grow legs, they will need a way to get out of the water. You can put some stones or twigs in your tank for them to climb. It might take 6-12 weeks for them to reach this stage.

Once they develop into frogs they are ready to be released at a site near or a pond. After you’ve helped raise them into adults, they can start a new life-cycle. Click here to learn more about the life-cycles of frogs and click here to explore some fun activities you can do to learn more about the life-cycles of tadpoles!

Quiz Time!

Results

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#1. Why is it important to not used tap water when keeping tadpoles as pets?

#2. What is something you can collect from the pond along with your frog spawn to put in your tadpole tank?

#3. What does it mean when we say tadpoles become carnivorous as they grow up?

#4. Fill in the blank: "never change the ______ suddenly as this can kill the tadpoles".

Finish

Remember to attribute photographs, videos or work where appropriate! This is not needed unless used online, but if you’re unsure please refer to the creative commons licence rules. For media credits of the images above, please refer to the next page.

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The Digestive System

 

The digestive system is modified to account for the change of the herbivorous diet of the tadpole to the carnivorous diet of the frog.

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The Skin

 

The skin adapts for the change from a purely aquatic lifestyle to an amphibious lifestyle.

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The Reproductive System

 

The urogenital system develops to allow for reproduction in adulthood.

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The Skeleton

 

The skeletal structure develops to accommodate the change from tail swimming to using legs to move around. The skull also needs to be remodelled for a frog's change in vision.

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The Nervous System

 

A tadpole sees from eyes that are positioned on opposite sides of the head. During metamorphosis, the optical nerves develop to accommodate a frog's binocular vision, where the eyes are positioned at the front of the head.

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1. Mating and Laying Spawn

 

Male and female frogs go to ponds in the winter. They mate in the spring, and the female lays big clumps of eggs.

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2. Frog Spawn

 

Frogs eggs are called frogspawn. Each round black egg is about 1 mm wide and is surrounded by a blob of jelly. Other animals produce spawn as well, which you can look at here.

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3. Maturing Frog Spawn

 

After a few days, the eggs begin to grow into tiny tadpoles inside the jelly.

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4. Hatchlings

 

Then the tadpoles hatch! They are about 5 mm long and they can’t swim (yet). They can bend their body from side to side using special muscles along their trunks and tails.

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5. Young Tadpoles

 

When their tail is big enough, they swim off into the pond to start to feed. At first they have gills (the pale protrusions from the head region in the left photo) so they can breath underwater like fish. Young tadpoles feed by grazing the surface of pond weeds and also eating tiny floating plants called algae.

Click here to play a tadpole feeding game called Taddypole!

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6. Maturing Tadpoles

 

Later they develop lungs and can swim up to the surface of the water to breath. The gills are absorbed back into their bodies and eyes develop. Older tadpoles are then able to feed on small animals like young insects.

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7. Mature Tadpoles

The next stage in development is to grow back legs. Tadpoles during this stage need to eat meat in order to get the proper nutrients to grow.

If you are looking after tadpoles, be careful as they can eat each other if you don't give them meat to eat! Click here to learn more about how to look after tadpoles as pets.

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8. Froglet

Finally, tadpoles grow front legs and their tail shrinks until it almost disappears. This is when they climb out of the pond and start living on dry land. Small frogs are commonly called froglets.

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9. Adult Frog

The little froglets will stay by the pond and slowly grow over the summer, eating small insects and worms. They will hibernate just like other adult frogs in damp spots near ponds from autumn until the next spring.

After four years, the new frogs will become adults and will be ready to mate and begin the cycle again.

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Copy - 9. Adult Frog

The little froglets will stay by the pond and slowly grow over the summer, eating small insects and worms. They will hibernate just like other adult frogs in damp spots near ponds from autumn until the next spring.

After four years, the new frogs will become adults and will be ready to mate and begin the cycle again.

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Desert Habitats

Desert habitats are the driest habitats in the world. Most people only think of very hot habitats as being deserts, but cold habitats can be deserts as well! Animals and plants that live in deserts have the ability to survive on very little water and animals can control their body temperatures so they stay at the right level.

 Some examples of plants and animals that live in deserts are cacti, the desert tortoise and the artic fox.

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Coral Reef Habitats

Coral reefs are found in warm tropical oceans all around the world. Coral reefs can be found in both shallow and deep water and take hundreds of thousands of years to grow! They provide food and shelter to many fish and other animals, making them habitats that are home to so many different types of life.

Some examples of plants and animals that live in coral reefs are the sea star, sea grass, the octopus and clown fish.

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