I got this really great picture of our frog spawn the other day and I just had to share it with all of you! You can see that the eggs have developed quite significantly since the first time I shared photos of when we collected them. Their gills, eyes and yolk sacs are completely visible and once in a while you can even see them wiggle frantically inside of the eggs :)
Sorry that this picture is a little grainy but I just had to blow it up larger so that you could get a good look at how they are developing. You can really see the yolk sac, his very large looking belly. The frog spawn eat the jelly substance that their eggs are made of and the nutrition from their yolk sacs until they hatch, at which time they will start to eat algae and plant matter. It's hard to believe that they started as one single yolk that split into 2 then into 4, then into 8 and so on until it actually looks like a raspberry! Eventually it starts to look more like a tadpole like the above photo :) If you want to see some really AMAZING photos of frog spawn from the time it was laid, through the cell division I just mentioned to hatching as tadpole then you have to go to THIS site!
Our frog spawn should be ready to hatch any day now so I'll share more photos with you then :)
Great pics. Was writing a post about tadpoles in our pond and thought I would look around to see what was going on in the tadpole world. Thanks for the link with the pics. They were great.
Thanks for coming by to visit the blog. We will try to keep an eye on those large tadpoles. We released them all back into pond but in a semi-enclosed area so perhaps we will see them as they evolve. Just by their size we presume they will be bullfrogs. Hopefully we will be able to recapture some of them for updated pics.
We found some tadpoles in a mud puddle and collected them. They seem to be doing well in an aquarium with rocks, shells, and marbles. I love your blog and the sounds of nature! It reminds me of when I used to sit on my back porch in MS. Thanks for sharing!
