Does anyone have experience stocking frogs or tadpoles into a pond? We have a 35 acre pond and 7 2-3 acre ponds on our property in north Texas that used to be loaded with bullfrogs. I've seen a steady decline in frogs over the last 15 years and now cant remember the last time I saw or heard a bullfrog. I've read that certain frog species are considered invasive and dont know what species we had, but would love to bring them back. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

Frogs are very sensative to water quality and their numbers are decreasing world wide along with most amphibians due to water quality and climate changes

They are the "canary in the coal mine" both globally and in micro ecosystems like your ponds.

If you had robust populations and now they are gone; I might check water quality, habitat such as cover, breeding areas, unusual predation and other factors in order to understand why they disappeared in the first place before spending time and money stocking.

Could find an issue that could impact more than the frogs in the future.

But that's my .02. There are experts in here who can chime in.

Good luck and I'll be glad to help you test fish those ponds anytime

Look around for possible herbicides or pesticides that may have somehow washed or drifted into your ponds. They are very sensitive to that.

Great topic

Also does anyone know of any bullfrog breeders in texas and lousiana?

I love bullfrogs and the evening sounds they generate. Any ideas why your population took such a precipitous decline?

Has anyone used chemicals to treat the water, weeds, shoreline, etc?

Before restocking, I think I would try to determine the cause of the decline.

For my micro-pond, I buy supplies from Nelson's (http://www.yelp.com/biz/nelson-water-gardens-and-nursery-katy) and they do sell tadpoles.

By the way, one female bullfrog lays about 20,000 eggs so you can quickly repopulate if conditions are right.

I grew up by a creek, I can sleep like a rock when the bullfrogs croak, especially with thunder in the background......

When I worked in behind the Pine Curtain (in the woods near Crockett) and got around by dinosaur cart, I used to go up North to the vast wastelands and dry places from Big D to Amarillo from time to time, sometimes with bull frog tadpoles along with fish. I saw a few things....

First, especially when its really dry, and the lakes or ponds are far apart and only loosely connected by a system of dry gulches and creeks, bullfrogs don't always do a great job of colonizing such places. Although I have seen bullfrogs in some surprising spots. They are great colonizers, and can migrate a long ways, but need substantial water to reproduce and live around.

Next, bullfrogs are very active predators and eat lot. This means they eat a lot of each other, as well as a lot of other things, like crawfish, insects, small turtles and snakes, even things like birds. For that they need a lot of territory, and are territorial. So they will leave an area that already has too many bullfrogs to support. This is why a huge hatch of thousands of tadpoles ends up being only a few adult frogs.

Finally, if for some reason the population is depleted, it may need help rebounding in the form of stocking. Although chemical contamination is a possibility, the kinds of things typically used in and around fish ponds aren't usually going to run the frogs off or kill them. There are tons and tons of frogs at almost any fish hatchery, and especially hatcheries raising fish for things other than food (ornamentals and for pond stocking) almost every chemical known to man is or has been used without getting rid of the frogs. Believe me, if hatcheries knew a chemical that made frogs go away they'd use a lot of it. Frogs eat a lot of fish as well.

And, I will add a hearty endorsement for Nelson Water Gardens in Katy. They are great folks and will help with almost any issue to do with water. Of course ornamental ponds being their bailiwick, but they know a lot about all kinds of things, and I'm talking about the staff as well as the owners. That place is worth a car trip jut to go and see. Bring plastic.....you'll need it, nobody leaves there without finding something they cannot live without. Call first if you intend to purchase tadpoles.

Thanks for the recommendation of Nelson Water Gardens. I will give them a call. As far as i know, there are no issues with chemicals/pesticides on our place. It is 400 acres with nothing "commercial" within 5 miles. I've always wondered if there is a correlation between the decline in the quail population and the decline in bullfrogs. They seem to have started their decline around the same time and are both pretty much wiped out. We are in Grayson County.

Interesting point. Here at my place in East Texas, there is not a quail to be found..and I used to have several coveys. In fact, I'm releasing some birds to try to repopulate this spring.

I have noticed a decline also in bull frogs but not as precipitious.

Interesting point.

Back when I was riding a dinosaur to work in Crockett we also raised quail. Bobwhite and pharaoh. I learned the decline in the bobwhite population was due primarily to the invasion of Solenopsis invicta or imported fire ant. when the quail egg is about to hatch, and the chick inside uses its egg beak to "pip" the shell, before the chick can get out, fire ants go inside the shell, kill the chick and carry it out of the shell a piece at a time. In more recent times the quail seem to be making a bit of a recovery, at least around here, likely they have modified their reproductive strategy to allow for the fire ants.

Bullfrogs would tend to decline in numbers with drought, or with a depleted food supply, either from competition with other predators or from some other cause.

BTW, if buying bobwhites for release......make sure they have not been "de-beaked" and have been "trained" as to what is food in the "wild." We had better success keeping them close to release points by first improving the habitat, making plantings of food plots, putting out some feed, and keeping a couple of "call birds" in a nearby cage for awhile. Also, like so many other animals, genetics is important with quail. You will want a variety that does well in your area.

I've done all the above...except the "call birds". That's a good idea and I'll keep a couple in with the chickens to do that function.

Between lobster, yellow perch, and quail, I think quail takes number one as table fare, as long as its bobwhite quail.

The last few times I've found quail on the menu in a high end eatery, it has always been pharaoh quail, which is just not the same thing at all.

Now a lot of them places has "frogs" too. But the frogs came from Brazil. still the same frog, still pretty tasty, though.

I use to fish a golf course in OKC with the Mother Of All Frog Ponds! Even with all of the "run off". The bass that they supported were too good to be true!