Pond Watch: Week 4

The tadpoles are now at that stage where they are almost fully ready to leave the spawn jelly and strike out into the world.

Basically they're tiny, overly energetic teenagers.

The pond water is currently having its annual spring algae bloom, which means it’s gone a bit cloudy.

To human eyes (mine), this looks like the pond has given up and turned into frog soup.

To tadpoles, however, this is excellent news.

The algae provides cover to keep them safer, and also gives them lots of food, so although it looks murky and, not gonna lie, deeply unhygienic, it is actually doing important things to help the tadpoles.

This is also the point where I’ll be adding a pond bomb of gelatinous good bacteria, which sounds scientific, but in practice just involves me pouring a big jelly sphere suspended in gloop into the pond.

The friendly bacteria help break down the detritus from the spawn as it rots away into the water, which keeps the pond healthier and stops everything turning into an even denser plant stew.

The tadpoles will also soon start eating all the algae so the pond should start to look clearer over the next couple of weeks.

So in summary:

cloudy water = good (right now)

tadpoles = nearly ready

pond = putrid-looking but thriving

Here's more underwater footage taken with my phone in a glass vase, because we’re all about the high spec tech here at Moss and Matchsticks.

I hope you're having a great week.

M x