Frogs dying

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Anemone

Anemone

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Jul 9, 2007
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Northeastern Maryland
Does anyone have any idea why frogs are dying in my pool? We live near a woods with a pond. Over the years we have taken hundreds of live frogs out of the pool and relocated them to a different pond about a mile away. In the past 2 days we have found 3 dead frogs in the pool. The pump was either off or on bottom drain. It is a vinyl inground pool. The water quality has been a little off and I am now working to correct it but it definitely has been worse before and no frogs died.

This morning the pH was ~8, chlorine 0, alk 80, water clear, no odor. The other day we did have about 6 inches of rain, but I took 2 live frogs out shortly after that. I check the pool twice a day and have rafts and other things the can get on.

Could it be something in the water that I am not checking for like ammonia, nitrates, or phosphates? Any suggestions would be very welcome. I really don't want to see any more frogs die. Thanks.
 
Thanks for the reply Dave. I really appreciate any thoughts.

It could possibly be the pH but it was up to 8.2 and I have slowly been bringing it down. It is now 7.7 :-D
CCs have been running about 0.5, so I am thinking that might not be the problem.

I am really feeling bad for the little guys.
 
Chlorine will kill the frogs. For a while during the summer I would find 20 dead toads a day in my skimmers. This was with a clear, normally chlorinated pool ( around 6 ppm fc with 40 ppm cya). When my pool was a swamp this spring, the frogs prospered in my pool
 
I've always figured that frogs like bogs...

Poor froggies! It very well could be that they are sensing the algae bloom before you can see or smell it and are attracted to that. I'm not so certain the chlorine kills them although I'm not a herpetologist so I don't actually know. My theory on animal deaths in pools is that the skimmers catch and drown them. If the animal was ingesting pool water in some way (gill/oxygen transfer, consumption, etc.) the chlorine could be detrimental but I don't think just swimming around in it can be any worse for them than it is for us.

You could perform an OCLT after dosing to high/target level tonight (test after dosing). If something is consuming chlorine (even without CC) it'll show on the OCLT. When your chlorine is 0, you can't really even test for CC so it sounds like at the moment you don't have a result for CC. Get some chlorine in there (dose to high/target now) and run a CC test as well.
 
Are they true frogs or toads? The true frogs should not have any problems in the pool, but toads will drown after awhile. I also live close to a swamp and pull bullfrogs, Leopard frogs, and toads out frequently. Occasionally I'll find dead toads in the skimmer, but I don't remember ever finding a dead frog. Maybe they got into some pesticide somewhere?
 
Thanks, I really appreciate the suggestions, please keep them coming.
Oh and Frogabog - I love your name!

I will try to answer a few questions.

The chlorine levels have been good until the big rain. I got "swamped" with other things, didn't get chlorine in and it went to 0. I have occasionally found frogs dead after the pool was shocked so high chlorine levels do kill them but they are normally fine with normal levels in my pool. This time though, the chlorine was low. I now have the chlorine back into normal range and so far it seems to be holding. I will know more by tomorrow

Bottom drain only was on so they definitely didn't get caught in the skimmers. I really hope I am not headed for an algae bloom but so far the water looks great.

Yep, definitely frogs! I am a naturalist from way back. These are Northern green frogs to be exact and all about the same size. Not tiny but not real big either. We also get bull frogs, leopard frogs, and the occasional toad in the pool. The adult toads rarely drown (probably since I check it at least twice a day) and we have floaties for them to climb on) but the young ones in the spring sometimes do. I think they may be too small to pull themselves up on the floats.

I am still totally baffled. We have never had them die like this. One summer there must have been a bumper crop because I lost count after I had taken 200 frogs out by July but they were all alive.
 
maybe this is a hijack but it's frog related.

We have toads all over our yard. Pool is above ground so no issues. Well last week I had a mouse trap in the garage go MISSING! Looked everywhere. I had just set it the night before and questioned the whole family. I couple days later found the trap in the opposite corner 20+ feet away with a poor toad with one leg caught. I was really baffled for those two days on what ran off with my trap.
 
Bama Rambler said:
If you have zero FC you probably have some CC's and that may be it. Also your pH is high and that doesn't help either.
Click to expand...
Bama and frogabog have made a good point here I think. I would check your CC level with your FC level close to shock level. From all you have said, it sounds like you might be fighting something. If you want, post a full set of test results fc,cc,ph,ta,ch,cya. Also, it sounds like you are having a hard time keeping ph down. When you are up at 8.0+ it is possible you are much higher and just don't know it. I would think this could kill frogs.
 

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Thankfully, things were better last night -2 live frogs. Nothing this morning.

fsteve65 - NOT crazy at all. Love, love that!!! I ordered 3!
I had seen the skamper ramp but I wasn't sure about using it on a vinyl pool and I wasn't convinced that the real little guys could figure out to go to the end of it to get on.
The critter skimmer was another option but I tend to use the bottom drain more. Though I may try them too. So excited to try the frog log. I will report back later on how it works.

Sportsman - So sorry to hear about the toad. Was it a snap trap or a sticky trap? I am afraid to even ask but....was the toad ok?

linen, Bama, frogbog, and anyone else who may be interested.
I increased the chlorine a bit but didn't get it up to shock levels. The chlorine held steady at 7 over night.
This morning:
fc = 7
cc = 0
pH = 7.5
ta = 90
cya = 30
ch = n/a

linen - thanks! I was hoping that I wasn't fighting anything and so far I don't think I am. On the pH front, I am not really having a hard time keeping the pH down. It went up with all the rain lately (it always goes up when we have lots and lots of rain) and I just hadn't gotten it back down. Before the rain, it was about 7.8.

Again, thanks for the comments. Everyone gives me something to consider.
 
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