# Tadpole water and turkey basters....



## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

I was just wondering if anyone has tried rather than doing complete water changes, doing say 50% water changes and then just using a turkey baster to suck out the poo and scum in the bottom... especially with maybe species that are a little more sensitive to changes at that stage.

I have been trying that with some retic tads I have, and so far so good.


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## herper99 (Mar 21, 2008)

I don't do any water changes. The water gets nasty by the time they morph, but they are usually healthy froglets.


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

I know that a lot of people dont, I was wondering if there were any of those that prefer water changing that have tried this and had it work well for them as a sort of compromise between the two methods.


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## MELLOWROO421 (Feb 21, 2007)

I do exactly that. I get out as much of the nasty stuff as I can every week or 2 with a turkey baster, then replace the water with tad tea mixed with spring water. The only problem I have is sometimes when the water is really dirty it's hard to see the tads (especially young imitator tads). It has caused me no probs, and most of my tads have morphed out large and healthy.


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

Great Brian, I guess I just assumed that it would help the water not to get quite as nasty... I am still undecided as of yet where I lie in that debate, so prefer to ride the fence as long as possible.


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## reggorf (Oct 24, 2006)

I do that too Sarah. I dont have a specific schedule or timeframe that i do it. Pretty much just when there are a lot of nasties on the bottom.


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## cryptokat (Mar 9, 2008)

I have tried several different water methods, all producing healthy tads. My first go-round I changed the water pretty much every day because I thought they needed clean water. Another time I took out cup fulls of dirty water once in a while and replaced with clean water--which I think may have lost 1 tad to the drain  Currently I'm doing the turkey baster thing and that seems to work fine too.


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## MELLOWROO421 (Feb 21, 2007)

housevibe7 said:


> Great Brian, I guess I just assumed that it would help the water not to get quite as nasty... I am still undecided as of yet where I lie in that debate, so prefer to ride the fence as long as possible.


I am riding the fence too. I have been successful with and without water changes, and they all have been about the same size when they morphed so I am experimenting a little by changing water on some and not on others. Like reggorf said, I have no schedule for it either, just when it gets really nasty.


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## DocChris (Jul 8, 2008)

On the flip side, if we contemplate tads in regards to the human reproductive cycle, water changes may be frivilous at the least, and possibly counterproductive...

Consider that in the human fetus, the kidneys develop first, producing amniotic fluid to fill the sac. The lungs cannot develop without said amniotic fluid to help expand and strengthen them. (Yep, I just said that babies breathe their own pee in the womb.) 

Has anyone definitively compared changing water versus letting them stew in their own stuff? Tads, after all, are the embryonic stage most comparable to the fetal development stage, and I've noticed that many concepts in science overlap in the applicability to specific species, which is why we increase the vitamin intake to breeding females, including humans. 

It would seem plausible to propose a hypothesis that stewed tads (not literally, you mean what I know) would be healthier, heartier, and overall better off than those who get fresh water during their developmental stages, although obviously this approach wouldn't extend past emergence...


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## Pirateglow (Jul 29, 2008)

You can use a piece of aquarium airline tubing (the silicon kind works best) and just siphon all the waste from the bottom. This is very effective and can remove all the waste and only results in a 10% or so water change. 

I start the siphon and then place my finger over the end that drains into a bucket collecting the waste water. If the tadpole gets near or I need to switch cups I just put my finger over and it stops the siphon. Very quick if you insist on doing water changes.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

> On the flip side, if we contemplate tads in regards to the human reproductive cycle, water changes may be frivilous at the least, and possibly counterproductive...
> 
> Consider that in the human fetus, the kidneys develop first, producing amniotic fluid to fill the sac. The lungs cannot develop without said amniotic fluid to help expand and strengthen them. (Yep, I just said that babies breathe their own pee in the womb.)
> 
> ...


VERY interesting....thanks!


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## NathalieB (Apr 23, 2007)

We used to clean out the water by sucking out the poo. I worked great but is very time-consuming if you have a lot of tads.

now we have made special containers for the tadpoles. we cut the bottom of a plastic container and replace it by a plastic mesh. this container is put inside another container. the filth falls trough the plastic mesh so that the tadpoles don't stir it up all the time. this makes the water much more clearer in the long run, without taking anything out of it.


We only do water-changes when little "worm"-like things appear in the water (I don't know what it is, it happens from time to time and seems to kill the tads). Then it is very easy: we take out the inner container and put it in anothe one with fresh, room-temperature water.
for water we use 50% tap water, 30% RO-water and 20% "tadpole tea" (I boil banana and almond leaves to get a concentrated "tanine-soup")


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

Interesting Nathalie. They obviously don't seem to be adversely effected by briefly being out of the water... wouldn't have thought of doing something like that.


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## MELLOWROO421 (Feb 21, 2007)

That's a great idea NathalieB. Blackjungle has a video online I saw where they just dump out all the water w/ the tads through a strainer. The tads get caught by the strainer and put into new water. This would be an easy way to do complete water changes, and they say the tads are hardy enough to where it won't affect them. I haven't had to deal with more than 20 or so tads at a time, so I just use the turkey baster.


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