Jelly Blobs In Pond

[foxhaven]

On the oxygenating weed in my pond there are clear jelly like blobs - what could these be ?
Also there are little leeches in the pond - would these be harmful to frogs ?

[woofgang]

are you sure they are leeches? These are quite rare in the UK

[Togo]

Frog Spawn fox. You lucky devil.

[Togo]

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=frogspawn&;qpvt=frogspawn&qpvt=frogspawn&qpvt=frogspawn&FORM=IGRE

[Togo]

The "little leeches" are probably TADPOLES!

[Chipchopper]

Could be water snails eggs ?

[jomifl]

Fish eggs(a bit early) or snail eggs. Leeches are quite common (not medicinal leeches), when I was a kid we often caught them to our horror.

[jomifl]

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=water+snail+eggs+pictures

[Togo]

foxhaven hints in her original post to having frogs in the pond. 2+2=4.... Or 124 little frogs.

[Ratty2E]

The jelly blobs are probably snail eggs if attached plants, as for the 'leeches' they could be the larvae of damsel flies.

[jomifl]

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/wildlife/f/901/t/14147.aspx

[foxhaven]

Okay everyone - I will explain more, I don't have any fish, I don't have any frogs - the reason I mentioned frogs is because whenever I have had any they disappear within a couple of days never to be seen again [have sometimes found a dead one in garden but assumed foxes or cats have got them].
The jelly blobs don't have any 'eye' like in spawn - they are just clear and not attached in batches but at random along the plant.
The leeches are quite small and a sort of muddy brownish colour but darker at the head end, I have tried putting one on my arm to see if it would suck my blood but it didn't.

[Chipchopper]

Hi Foxhaven, just a couple of questions, I hope that may help : Are the jelly-like blobs round or elongated ? If they are sausage shaped, they could be jelly that protects snails eggs, as I suspected.
As far as I can tell, leeches appear to be attracted to warm blooded mammals and birds.
Do the 'leach-like' things, expand and contract, in length ?

[foxhaven]

The blobs are round about the size of a baked bean - I wanted to know what they are as I'm not sure if I should remove them or just leave them be.
The leeches 'stick' at one end then sort of slurp along to that end [the head?] then do it again to get along. There are lots of little black dots on the underside of the rocks that look like leech eggs [according to Google]
I don't understand what they can be feeding on.

[Tilly2]

Don't fret about it, Foxhaven. Leave them be and see what they become. Then you'll know.

[jomifl]

The kind of leeches that live in ponds in Europe suck the blood of fish and amphibians.