In the previous academic year I undertook a part-time undergraduate diploma at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) of the University of Cambridge. You could say that since completing my PhD, I missed being in “school”, so when I had the opportunity to set some time aside for personal development, I jumped at the chance… Continue reading Chance composition
Tadpoles (08) – Snail freedom
So, it’s been a while, mainly because nothing too exciting happened. The toads (?) have all been released so it was just snails living it up in my aquarium. This will be my final post on this topic as I released all the snails a couple of days ago! The three conically-shaped snails that I… Continue reading Tadpoles (08) – Snail freedom
Bonsai (01)
I found a little Bonsai kit at a charity shop. The brand is ‘Plant Theatre’, which I think also made the cocktail herb kit I bought a while back which worked really well! So, I will attempt to grow three different kinds of bonsai trees: Acer rubrum, Betula pendula, and Pinus mugo pumilio. The kit… Continue reading Bonsai (01)
Tadpoles (07) – Snail world
The last few tadpoles have surfaced so I released them: Many of the snail eggs have hatched and right now I can easily see dozens of tiny snails, so perhaps there are over 100 in total right now. Some smaller than others, and in the larger ones you can start seeing the patterning on the… Continue reading Tadpoles (07) – Snail world
Tadpoles (06) – Freedom
In the past two days, a couple other frogs have started to appear. I think they are all larger than Little Man, but they do still have a remnant of their tail. Last night I had three in total and realised that I wouldn’t be able to feed them anything interesting. And as Little Man… Continue reading Tadpoles (06) – Freedom
Tadpoles (05) – Snail death
It’s been five days since discovering Little Man and none of the other tadpoles have metamorphosed that far yet. The tail of at least one of them is starting to lose pigment and they all seem to be sort of sluggish: they used to swim around quite actively and now I can’t even see most… Continue reading Tadpoles (05) – Snail death
Tadpoles (04) – Life on land
Super exciting news! I was gone for four days. When I left, all tadpoles still looked like tadpoles: a grape-shaped body with a long tail, and I think they all already had hind legs but I didn’t see front legs on any of them. I gave them plenty of food hoping they would survive my… Continue reading Tadpoles (04) – Life on land
Tadpoles (03) – Egg bonanza
Exciting times! I contacted the Freshwater Habitats Trust to ask about the snails I’ve got after I took a look on their page on snails. They told me my snails are not the endangered Glutinous snail but could be the Acute Bladder snail (Physella acuta). ‘Spiral snail’ might be Margined ram’s-horn or the Keeled ram’s-horn snail… Continue reading Tadpoles (03) – Egg bonanza
Tadpoles (02) – Snail social life
So, after a day or two since setting up the aquarium, the cloudiness of the water mostly disappeared and the colour of the water has been the same since (my guess is that the ‘good bacteria’ solution is the culprit). I bought a small water plant to make the tadpoles feel more at home, and… Continue reading Tadpoles (02) – Snail social life
Tadpoles (01) – Beginnings
I collected a few small tadpoles from a local river because I am keen to see the tadpoles develop into frogs. I also took a few snails. They live in a 25L aquarium until the tadpoles are too mature to stay: I aim to release them back at the site I found them. It’s challenging… Continue reading Tadpoles (01) – Beginnings