Monster tadpole in my pond!

[Vron]

Spotted this today about grape sized - its body is about 2.5cm long x 1.5 and the tail is about 3cm long. No signs of legs or arms forming! Is it a freak - all the others are normal sized? Or is it a Toadpole?

Apologies for crap pics but its not an underwater camera!

[davepoth]

It could be a newt?

[Vron]

Turnips said:

This.

YES ! That's made my evening I want some newts in the pond

Edit: Shouldn't newt tadpoles have feathery gills? This one doesn't?

Edited by Vron on Saturday 9th July 20:19

[Mubby]

pond-ness monster

[JFReturns]

Normal size for a toad tadpole!

[GTDNB]

more likely to be a bullfrog than a newt imo. I've got a pond full of newts but have never seen a tadpole that size.

[SmokinV8]

defo not a newt, we have 100`s of baby newts in our pond and baby newts have feathery gills

[otolith]

I suspect it is simply a common frog tadpole expressing the cannibalistic phenotype. Under certain circumstances, tadpoles will change their shape and behaviour and devour their peers, growing and developing much more rapidly as a result.

[Sam_68]

otolith said:

I suspect it is simply a common frog tadpole expressing the cannibalistic phenotype. Under certain circumstances, tadpoles will change their shape and behaviour and devour their peers, growing and developing much more rapidly as a result.

^^^ This.

You also sometimes get tadpoles that 'overwinter' and only develop into frogs in their second season, which obviously have a head start in terms of size (and are often cannibalistic to boot).

As SmokinV8 says, its definitely not a newt tadpole - they look quite different... they are long and slender (lacking the 'teardrop' head/body of frog and toad tadpoles), with feathery gills.

Very unlikely to be a different species (like a bullfrog), 'cos you'd have dozens of them... a sole survivor from a batch of spawn would be most unusual!

Edited by Sam_68 on Monday 11th July 09:01

[Brabus Jord]

This is a bull frog Tadpole