Science Project

This is Tad, his brother Tad, and his other brother Tad. They came to us as frog embryos, part of the Frog Hatchery Kit (we sent our coupon away after the kit came).

They were the size of poppy seeds when they arrived on a cold day in January. I thought they wouldn't make it -- it was 23 degrees outside and out of the seven embryos floating in the little pouch of water, four of them looked distinctly white (frozen!).

But we put them in the hatchery and waited. Several days later there was sign of life (movement) and a week or so later there were teeny, tiny tadpoles. Now they are huge (I mean HUGE!). I took these picture a about a week ago and they are now at least double the size.

And as much as I groan about cleaning their dirty water, this is a really cool science project -- I love this kind of stuff. They will turn into Leopard frogs in a few weeks. They, eventually, will be 3-1/2 inches long and live in a terrarium. Hopefully they will not eat each other (ugh!) -- I don't THINK frogs are carnivorous. The boys will have to find live bugs to feed them (or buy mealworms or crickets from the pet store).

Hopefully they will not live as long as Goldy -- the six-year-old goldfish. We might seriously get tired of them by then and be tempted to release them into the creek -- they are not indigenous to Ohio, so I'm guessing they might cause all kinds of trouble!!