Vegetable food for Tadpoles

Steve Martin
July 1998
Last update: 17 August, 2002

How many of us have had tadpoles from one species of frog or another that eats vegetation? Yet little written advice is available which might tell us which vegetable matter they eat. We once received about a dozen Xenopus tadpoles that were fed on a diet of 'nettle powder'. ‘So?’ I hear you say. But that left me with the problem of locating a supplier of the stuff which was more difficult than you might think. Having run out of the little that my friend gave me, I tried drying my own nettles, but the tadpoles died.

Earlier this year, Kevin Du Rose gave me a few Red-eyed Tree frog tadpoles which he had been rearing on a combination of a green hair alga - which grew in the aquarium - and fish flake. Kevin experienced some degree of spindle leg and was unable to account for it (tell me who can!) though many of the young were reared to metamorphosis successfully. We had been discussing diet when I found a new vegetable food for fish in a local aquarist shop. I thought this might help fight the spindle leg.

The food is called Seaweed Selects, a mixture of natural dried seaweed (Macroalgae). Produced by Ocean Nutrition, San Diego, this food is for the feeding of fresh water fish and proved acceptable to my three Red-eyed tadpoles. However, whilst one of them developed into a froglet, the second one died, unable to break free its two front legs. The third one is still a tadpole three months later, although it appears perfectly happy. I still feel that this food could provide tadpoles with a good diet, but I don’t have a large enough trial sample. If anyone fancies putting this seaweed through its paces, contact me and I’ll send some up to you. The cost of 12g is £3.99 and appears to last for ages.

Notes: 
Foods: Nettle powder: 500g @ £12.63; crumbles for older tadpoles and young frogs (Xenopus) 500g @ £3.19; both from Philip Harris Education, Lynn Lane, Shenstone, Lichfield, Staffs. WS14 0EE Telephone: Scotland 0141 952 9538; NE to S. Wales 01543 482200; S. Coast and West Country 01543 482204. You will have to inquire before you will be able to order. For any other items like these e.g. living cultures of Drosophila etc., it’s worth inquiring from them, although they will be relatively expensive.

John Skillcorn