A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Tadpoles

How do you to control tadpoles in your DWC?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ned Berndt on July 25, 2013 at 6:27am

John,

Are we talking tadpoles like "future frogs" or tadpoles like future "tilapia". Recently my "all male" tilapia created a bunch of new tilapia...who knew. Call Scientific American!! So much for fooling Mother Nature.

The upshot was that several weeks later I found tilapia fry in my DWC. These had traveled through the plumbing, media bed gravel, siphon media guard, sump tank and more plumbing to arrive in the DWC...must have been very small fry or fertilized eggs.

I have just "captured" them and moved them back to the fish tank as they were dining on my lettuce roots. Using a pool skimmer net which I placed behind them I then used a long piece of 1" PVC pipe to get them to turn and run into the skimmer net. These babies can really fly, I mean really fast...so one by one they are all back in the fish tank.

Now I have to figure out how to prevent the next batch of babies from making the same road trip...any ideas?

Permalink Reply by Robert Rowe on July 25, 2013 at 10:11am

Install a frog shield. LOL

Permalink Reply by John E Windsor on July 26, 2013 at 5:20pm

I'm asking about pollywogs, larval frogs. My DWC is loaded with them and they are feasting on the roots of our plants. I have a small channel cat in there, in hopes that it will eat the tadpoles. I'm sure the catfish is getting his fill, but they are still in there in sufficient numbers that they are causing problems. I am curious what others are doing to curb this problem in their backyard systems.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on July 31, 2013 at 6:59pm

How big or small are these pollywogs?

Perhaps another catfish or two if they are bigger tadpoles.

If they are really tiny ones, maybe mosquito fish would be able to assist some in controlling their populations?

Or maybe some bluegill?

So far, I don't think I've experienced a big problem with tadpoles in my raft beds (at least no damage that I've noticed.) I've had tadpoles in my raft beds, ones small enough to travel through the plumbing and pump to make it all the way up into the catfish tank where the catfish decided not to eat their pellets anymore until they finished eating all the pollywogs. I figure it was free fish food for a while.