Tadpole tales

Most of my readers know that I have a small water feature built into a corner of my deck. When the deck was built, 10 summers ago, I decided I didn't want the complications of fish and water lilies, mainly because of the many racoons who hang around our yard at night. All I wanted was the sound of water, so I bought a pump, a core-drilled rock, and some liner material from Water Arts and we set up a small water feature in what is essentially a box, about 3 feet square and 12 inches deep.

I soon discovered that I had to add some plant material, because otherwise the algae takes over. I tried water hyacinth and it spread quickly over the surface, but then the racoons, during one of their nightly revels, decided to play with the plants and pretty much destroyed them. After a few other experiments, I settled on salvina, a small floating aquatic plant that spreads quickly over the surface, and oxygenators, plants that resemble underwater ferns, that live under the surface and maintain a good level of oxygen in the water. I simply bought a bag of oxygenators and a small container of salvina every spring, added them to the water when I set up the pump and all seemed to be well.

Until this year.

Two Thursdays ago, I was near Water Arts, so went in and bought the 2 plants. Friday, I cleaned out the water feature, filled it using the garden hose and set up the pump. I had put the plants in a couple of buckets filled with water from one of my rain barrels, because I know plants don't like chlorinated water. For the same reason, I did not dump the plants in for a couple of days, so the chlorine in the water I had added with the hose could dissipate.

A few days later, I glanced into the water and noticed that the salvina was looking rather bad - in fact, it looked brown and dead. I wondered if I had inadvertently introduced something toxic into the water when I cleaned off the liner before filling the water feature. I mulled over the situation for a couple of days, then decided to take out the oxygenators, which looked still reasonably healthy and I put them in a bucket of rainwater again. I also noticed at this point that the dead salvina was disappearing.

A couple of family members have given me small ceramic frogs to adorn my water feature and the racoons, during their nocturnal carousings, often knock them into the water. Sunday morning, I noticed that all 3 frogs were missing and I peered into the water to find them. That's when I saw these tiny black creatures, about 1/4 inch long, zipping about in the water. At some point in the distant past, I must have seen a nature program about frogs and I instantly recognized them as tadpoles. I have tadpoles in my water feature! I announced to the world. (Well, actually I announced it to my daughter, because I was talking to her on the portable phone at that point)

So, now what? I consulted the Internet for information on how to raise tadpoles and found out I should feed them boiled lettuce. I have a lot of a japanese salad green called mizuna growing in my vegetable garden at this time, so I took some leaves, steamed them in the microwave, and have been dropping little bits in a couple of times a day. And there does not seem to be any salvina left in the water.

Yesterday, I went back to Water Arts to consult with the owner who had sold me the salvina. She was as surprised and charmed as I was by the idea of tadpoles in my water feature. And she figures the little creatures first ate the tiny roots of the salvina, causing the little plants to die, and then they ate the dead plants. The oxygenators are a rougher textured plant and probably more difficult to chew. But my water feature has no algae - which is very unusual as well as desirable. So, the tadpoles must be eating any algae that is forming.

As I said to the woman at Water Arts, I feel I am in an ethical dilemma: should I simply empty the water feature, discard the tadpoles and start over with fresh water? She said; "oh, you can't do that" - meaning, kill the tadpoles.

But, here's the thing: can I keep this tadpole thing going over the summer? If they keep the algae from forming, I am very happy to have them live in my water feature. But, they will grow and start turning into little frogs, and I suspect when they are big enough to be noticed by the racoons - who seem to figure in this story much more than I would like - they will simply become hors d'oeuvres at the nightly party. So, am I simply raising food for the blasted racoons?

All I wanted was the sound of water bubbling through and around rocks, and I am now caught up in a moral dilemma.

I will let you all think about it, while I go steam some more gourmet greens for my tadpoles - nothing but the best for these babies.