Check you pool filter boxes!

Today I just HAPPENED to lift the lid of the filter box on my parents’ pool and found a frog in distress. The filter was whirring, sucking the water downwards where leaves and debris were trapped inside the filter basket. And at the edge of the basket, underwater, was a large Motorbike Frog (Litoria mooreii). The frog’s long legs were not quite strong enough to swim him upwards... but the filter’s whirlpool was not strong enough to suck him completely to the bottom. The poor fella was in limbo - stuck in a whirlpool!

So I reached in and lifted him to freedom, and let him ‘catch his breathe’ before I released him in my revegetated wetland (formerly a ‘dam’), and snapped the below photo. Note the big smile on his face which says he loves his new home! You can also see how much his skin colour has changed after being transferred from the pale pool surface to the leaves and logs of the wetland which are much darker.

Many people may not realise that although happy underwater, frogs are amphibians and still need to breathe air. From now on the spring and summer nights are getting warmer, making resident Motorbike Frogs start moving around (they are usually Summer breeders). If you have a pool, then naturally these creatures will be attracted to water, and could quite easily end up in the same predicament as mine did.

So the message is - keep your filters under close eye.