Tadpoles in a bucket

I live near a couple different nature preserves. In these preserves, they have the California red-legged frog, which is threatened (primarily in the Sierra Nevadas - they're quite plentiful by the coast).

I have a bucket on my deck that I use to collect rainwater, which I can then use to water plants. It's been sitting out there for quite some time. One day, I looked in the bucket, and I saw that there are a bunch of tadpoles in it! I've heard frogs out there at night, I guess they made good use of the water. Everything's been rather dry out here since all the rain comes in a few big events rather than consistently.

Youtube has made changes recently that seem to have broken embedding videos below a certain length on Permies. You can view a video of the tadpoles as I first discovered them here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HyJVLMlf8TI

They seemed a bit stressed in the bucket with a dwindling supply of water and zero cover. I added some pinecones, sticks, and green fodder to the bucket to make more of a habitat for them. I also added a bunch of water, although I made sure to let it sit first to allow the chlorine and fluoride to evaporate from it. City water!

I've been checking on them every day and they seem to be fine. Now that I added places for them to hide they are harder to spot, but when my shadow passes over the bucket that freaks them out and lets me see them.

Based on my research it takes ~7 months for them to become frogs. They also are expected to go dormant during the summer due to lack of water, but I'm not sure how that will work in a bucket. Furthermore, I know that my bucket will be an increasingly accessed water source by birds as the summer goes on and the puddles and wallows dry up. Once they reach adulthood they can hop out to the forest with the next rainfall, but until then I'm just checking on them once a day and adding water if needed.

They eat algae. Buy some algae tablets at a pet store. Also add water occasionally.

What a cool little habitat you've created for them! I would be careful putting too much plant material in there. As it decomposes, it can reduce the amount of oxygen available in the water, making it hard for them to breathe. If you can get your hands on any aquatic plants, that would probably be helpful for them to improve the oxygen levels and eat up any nitrates and such from the tadpoles waste. Does the bucket have any shade? Such a small volume of water is bound to heat up quickly in full sun, so might be good to keep an eye on the water temperature. Higher temps also reduce the availability of oxygen. Good luck raising your froggy friends!

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but after watching your video, those are 100% NOT tadpoles.  Those are mosquito larvae.

Bell Cedar Farm wrote:Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but after watching your video, those are 100% NOT tadpoles.  Those are mosquito larvae.

Ah, that is some good information to have! If they are mosquitoes, they'll be turning into adults relatively soon, so I'll just wait and see.

i hadn’t watched the video before. agreed, definitely mosquito larvae.

The videos of tadpoles I had seen had them much bigger than these guys, so what you're saying makes sense. I didn't realize that's what mosquito larvae look like. Thanks Permies!

Did you find out what you had growing in your bucket? I've found something similar in our back yard here

Finola Newman wrote:Did you find out what you had growing in your bucket? I've found something similar in our back yard here

Welcome, Finola. If you looked at the video, you see the larvae moving in a very characteristic way, they are absolutely mosquito larvae. Dump it!
Tadpoles are also larger, darker, less difficult to see.

Welcome to the forum.  I am sure by now the OP (original Poster) has figured out that those were not tadpoles,  That is sad ...