The Tads Tank has been set up to raise tadpoles to increase the frog population in the nursery and surrounding forest. Eggs (or tadpoles if we are a bit late seeing the eggs) which find their way into containers are relocated into the tank and cared for until they morph into frogs and move out. We are hoping that the next lot of eggs will be laid direct into the high quality accommodation that awaits them!

Appropriately enough, we have nursery frogs in the nursery too. These frogs come from a group which do not have a free-swimming tadpole. They are very small and are known as Microhylids: which means ‘tiny tree frogs’. They occur elsewhere in the world besides Australia but within Australia, they are confined to the Wet Tropics. They are called nursery frogs because they lay a small clutch of eggs in very moist soil under rocks, logs and leaf litter. The eggs are coated with a special anti-fungal agent to help the eggs survive in a wet environment. The tadpole actually develops inside the egg and when it has completed metamorphosis, it simply hatches from the egg!