The Museum of Western Australia has a new feature on its web site which has pictures of the frogs you can find all over WA and audio of their individual frog calls!
To visit this great new service click here
Archive for the ‘Frog Facts’ Category
Protein for Pygmy Perch
April 9th, 2011 by LisaGary’s Tip of the Month
It is a fallacy that fish will only grow to the size of their pond. What growing bodies really need is a balanced array of vitamins and proteins with trace elements too, just like humans. Your Pygmy perch will greatly benefit from this ideal and rather inexpensive additional feeding program I have been using with great success…
King prawns!
No, not for you. For your Pygmy perch! Buy a few of the cheaper ones (raw), take off the head, shell and de-vein them, then wrap them individually in a small piece of cling wrap and freeze them. They will last up to 4 months or longer, so only buy a few at a time.
The good thing about raw food is it will last longer, fish will gain maximum growth from it and it is easy to handle and store in the freezer. I have about 30 or so Pygmy perch and only feed them once a week as a supplementary food to keep them strong. They will usually browse on the tiny pond life and what falls into it such as mosquito’s etc.
Feed your fish with prawns once a week and only one very thin slice of prawn per 10 fish. Cross cut a section of prawn as thick as a razor blade and then finely slice and dice this small piece – an ideal finished size is about as big as a pin head. It is not hard with some practise. Do not mash it. Then carefully scrape it off the cutting board into a cup with about 20mm of water in it and swish it around with a fork to separate any lumps.
Now, if you have water snails in your pond (best found near the surface at night), crush one up with two small stones left at the pond edge for this purpose and wash the mess off in the water and watch them rip that apart!
One snail a week and one prawn every 3 months is all it will cost you to keep them in top shape and they will gain full size very fast, but don’t overfeed them as it only makes them sick and fouls the water. Pygmy perch are rather a small fish reaching 60mm, so the bigger you get them the healthier they will grow and be easier to see.
Minerals are another good idea for healthy fish. Add one heaped tablespoon of natural rock salt - NEVER IODISED SALT - to your pond per 1000 litres once a year. If you only have a small pond a teaspoon is enough. It is rather vital that fish and frogs have sodium in their diet as it has been known to also keep other diseases from affecting your frogs, fish and pond life. Here, in Western Australia, our scheme water is rather soft and as I only add rain water from my tanks it is very much needed for my ponds.
One last thing – Before you tip the food mix into the water, tap gently with your finger nail on the side of the pond a few times then pour it in. Your fish will quickly learn that this sound means dinner. My fish are trained to come to the edge as soon as I pass by. When friends arrive you can show them the fish by tapping a few times and they will come over fast! Who wants to miss out on King Prawns!
The Frog Chytrid Fungus and Frog Friendly Pond Plants
February 15th, 2010 by LisaThere is a danger when buying plants for your frog pond. They may harbour the deadly frog fungus which is decimating frog populations world wide.
According to the NSW Environment and Climate Change web site, scientists think the decline and disappearance of some frogs species in Australia and overseas may be partly due to a disease caused by a Chytrid fungus. The fungus attacks the parts of a frog’s skin that have keratin in them. Since frogs use their skin in respiration, this makes it difficult for the frog to breathe. The fungus also damages the nervous system, affecting the frog’s behaviour.
If you are planning to buy pond plants consider sourcing them from stores which have a healthy frog population. That way you will know the plants are fungus free.
Two such stores which I have found in Perth, WA are Watergarden World on Erindale Road in Balcatta and the City Farmers store near Herdsman Lake. Both stores offer a variety of great pond plants and are good sources of advice as well. They both also have many varieties of frogs which have taken up residence in their ponds and gardens and they always seem to have plenty of fat tadpoles swimming around.
If the frogs vote these habitats as safe and sustainable then I think we can feel safe buying their products for our own back yard havens.
Link to a Frog Info Site
April 15th, 2009 by LisaThe Frog Doctor directed me to a fabulous site about Western Australian Frogs. Check it out at Perthnow.
Sweet, clean air
January 13th, 2009 by LisaWhen tadpoles first emerge from their eggs their gills are on the outside of their bodies, like little fans on the sides of their head trapping oxygen for the taddy to breath. Because they are so small at this stage it is not easy to see and they quickly develop and their gills are incorporated into their bodies.
Because frogs often lay their spawn in still water, as the puddles dry up, they lose their oxygen content and so the tadpoles need to find air in different ways. This is why you often see tadpoles popping to the surface for a quick gulp of air before diving for their hiding spot on the bottom of a pond again. They are just trying to breath.
Frogs also have a curious relationship with oxygen. Their skin is a very porous membrane and so substances pass easily through it. So oxygen from the water in which they are swimming is absorbed through their skins and this is why they can swim under water for a long time to evade a predator. They literally breath underwater!
This ability to absorb things through their skins is also why we need to protect our ground water from chemicals. Anything that is present in the environment will be absorbed by the frogs and this can be very hazardous to their delicate systems.
Competitive Edge
May 8th, 2008 by LisaMotorbike frogs are very competitive survivors.
One of their little tricks for eliminating the competition is to exude a chemical as they emerge from the water in the last stages of developing from tadpole to frog. This chemical has the effect of inhibiting the development of other tadpoles in the pond. The tadpoles don’t turn into frogs and therefore don’t compete for food with the lucky fellows who did.
It seems to me that this chemical builds up as more froglets emerge until the concentration is enough that it has the desired effect on all the remaining tadpoles. Pretty slick, huh!
Another nasty trick is associated with their hunting style. Motorbike frogs are motion hunters. They will eat only things that move and are of a suitable size. Unfortunately, this includes smaller frogs. Yikes! This is a very effective way of eliminating upcoming threats to the food source.
Motorbike frogs grow in proportion to the amount of food they eat and, so, the more they eat the bigger they get. It is very important to them, therefore, to protect their claim on the food in their environment. It’s a Frog eat Frog world!
