Frog eating goldfish

[angie26]

My mum has suddenly lost all her goldfish (dead in the pond) Her neighbour, who has also lost fish, told her he had whitnessed a frog in his fishpond, unlike any other he had ever seen. It was black, very big and shiny. He said it appeared to grab his fish and somehow suffercate them. One or two had their tails bit off. He said he thought it was some sort of tropical frog, (maybe an escaped one).

He never caught it as he was so unsure of it.

Can anyone throw any light one this, as it's all very strange. I can't imagine what or where this frog is from.

[Lonnie]

There have been stories of irrisponsible pet owners releasing American Bullfrogs in various places in the Uk, these Giant Frogs would be very capable of doing what you describe, in their natural habitat, they catch and eat small birds and snakes.

I'm not saying that thats what you have, but its a distint possiblity. Try googling 'American Bullfrogs' to see if one of the different species match.

[hoover]

get over it, its only fish for gods sake.

[mandie73]

my mums friend was losing his pond fish as the frogs were using them like lilly pads and sitting on them thus suffocating them!

[Kingaroo]

surely the frog would eat the fish, not leave them floating?

[File Cutter]

I've never seen it but have heard that during the frogs mating season the males breeding instinct can drive them to cling onto fish and end up killing them. Perhaps this is what your friend saw.

[angie26]

kingaroo, I would have thought that too, but they were definately not eaten, just killed.

[angie26]

File Cutter, would that be your ordinary UK frogs, or are you talking about other foreign species?

[File Cutter]

Yes common frogs can do that.

I did see bullfrog tadpoles for sale in garden centres about 10 years ago and thought it was crazy that they were doing this given that they are from North America and could survive our climate.

It seems from this link that they were breeding here in Sussex six years ago.

http://www.english-nature.org.uk/news/story.as p?ID=12

If all the fish have been found dead I would think it was more likely caused by a disease or poor water quality. The tail damage could be a symptom or just the decay process.