[Irish]

Paul,

Please, Good and Kind Sir, I need to pick your brain for a little knowledge and advice!

In the ever changing story of my two lily ponds I had an unexpected surprise this morning. There are new eggs, string type, that are suspended between two grass leaves that touch the water.

Now, I've never had eggs this time of year. Plus there simply aren't enough eggs in the string mass to be toads. Those eggs weren't there yesterday and today they are about the size of a dull pencil point. They are much too big to be dragonfly ... besides the dragonflies have already covered all the lily pads with eggs.

Could they be goldfish eggs???? Most of the twenty+ fish in the pond are three years old at a nose to tail measurement of about 3 1/2" to 4" long. Are these fish big enough to spawn???

Hoping that you answer is a yes as I have never had fry in the pond before. What a delightful first that would be. Thanks in advance for any ideas you or anyone else who has a goldfish pond might be able to offer!!!!!

Susan

[AlArchie]

I'm not Paul, but they sure look like frog eggs to me!

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

if it hops like a frog, and croaks like a frog......it must be a.........carver! LOL

[Irish]

Hey Al!

I thought so too at first glance. They're the right size ... plus they are a string mass. But my hesitation is that the air temperature here is 90+ degrees and the water temp is running close to 80 degrees. The only frog eggs that I have had ( about five years worth) have always been laid in the early spring around 60 to 65 degrees ???? I mean the ice is barely off the pond when the forg eggs appear.

I may well be very confused on this point, perhaps frogs lay eggs where ever and I just don't know it.

Susan

PS ... While proofing this I just realized that I didn't say they are in the pond that has heavy filtration with a moving water surface from the pump outlet. So these are not in the still water pond.

[Paul_Guraedy]

Susan they sure look like either frog or toad eggs to me. Frogs have more than one clutch with the succeeding ones being smaller. Not sure about toads. However, the definitive answer can be found by going to

www.fishpondinfo.com/egg.htm

This site has information on identification of pond eggs. Should you not be able to make an identification, there are a series of questions to answer, send them in, and identification will be made for you.

Hope this helps and let us know what hatches.

[Irish]

A new batch of frogs or toads would be fantastic! With the spring batch grown and gone (sigh!) it will be a delight to have new tadpoles! In fact, around here, any egg is a gift to be cherished.

Thanks Paul, I'm off the check out the website.

Susan

[Irish]

Paul,

Thanks for the website. It helped me identify them as Green Frog eggs. And! This morning I found him/her sitting in my margin grass flower pot! Plus, by the photos on the site I now know that my first batch of frog eggs were wood frogs! So that will be wood frogs, toads, and green frogs all in one year.

Again, - Thank you all!!!!

Susan

[Paul_Guraedy]

Susan, glad that I could help. Maybe you are assisting in lowering the level of mosquitoes and threats such as west nile virus.

I don't know why I had not noticed, and visited, the dog art link on your messages. What a fantastic website! I have had several people ask me about doing a relief of a specific breed and have put them off. I may have to reconsider.

We have had rottweilers for years and I may start with this familiar breed. In spite of their reputation they are gentle and wonderful dogs, if not trained or allowed to become agressive. Unfortunately, their short life span (bigger the dog, shorter the life), my wife's severe dog allergies and our rv travels indicated, when I lost my last rotty, that we should reconsider having dogs.

I have never been a small dog type; but, we learned of the Coton de Tulear and my wife wanted a dog! Called the non-allergenic breed (no shedding or dander), these dogs are marvelous. Just a white mass, so not much of a subject for a carving though.

Anyway, just wanted to say that you have provided me with a valuable website in return.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Hi Paul...you might consider a shih tzsu as well, don't shed, terrific little companion dogs, we had a dobermann, german shepperd etc and went to a little dog and love this one!

[Irish]

Big dogs are wonderful. We have had a long run of labrador retrievers and golden retriever mixes through our live time. But my favorite breeds are the small hounds ... bassets and doxies. Both have that great laid back, napping on the sunny side of the porch attitude that the large breeds have but being bassets and doxies they also fit perfectly in my lap for some shared cuddling at the end of a hard day!

Any of the wire haired dogs are considered safe for people that have allergies.

Susan