swimmers!

Four days after the last tadpole update, we observed some of the tadpoles begin the process of wiggling free from their jelly surroundings. 6 days later (as of today), out of the entire mass of about 100+ eggs, about 12 have successfully left the mass and are now spending most of their time clinging to the side of the aquarium or a rock and occasionally swimming about. The rest of the mass has turned green with algae and has sunk, rather lifeless looking, to the bottom.

the first tadpole to hatch and attach itself to the side of the aquarium

I am concerned about the oxygen content in the water and haven't been able to find any information about whether they need something to oxygenate the water or not. I remember years ago coming across a stagnant pool of water, created by rain on some solid rock formations, and it was loaded with big, fat, healthy looking tadpoles. Where they had hatched from their eggs, there were no plants, no water movement, nothing special at all and yet they were thriving. I am left puzzled as to why ours have had such a high mortality rate under nearly identical conditions.

using its pointy head and rapid swishing of its tail to wiggle from from its jelly encasement

Anyway, the ones that did hatch are surviving quite nicely so far. We've read that while they are small, they live mostly on tiny particles of plants and algae. We've been feeding them the suggested frozen, then thawed, then mushed up, lettuce leaves. We haven't witnessed them eating anything yet and wonder if it is some time before they need to or if they just don't like the lettuce. Time will tell, I suppose. So far we haven't even been able to make out anything resembling a mouth on them so maybe it is just early still.