big tadpoles died this morning

This morning about 9:00 I went out to check the pond & feed the fish,
everything looked good.

About 10:30 I glanced out the window and saw a couple of what I
thought were dead fish floating, so rushed out and found two tadpoles
floating heads up, tails down. They were about 3-4 inches long, with
small back legs and no front ones, though one of them had small
nodules where the front legs would have formed.

Their "faces" were coated in a whitish material, and they weren't
moving at all. I examined them and added them to the compost pile.

Immediately checked the water quality, everything was "normal" to
"ideal". Water temp is a bit higher than I'd like, running about 76-78
Fahrenheit. Not much I can do about it. Hoping the water hyacinth will
help shade it when it grows a bit more.

About 2 hours later, a third dead tad showed up, same story, only it
looked like the skin on his "face" & head had been stripped off
somehow. Eyes whited over like the others. Very odd.

The fish seem to be fine, hanging around under the water hyacinth,
nibbling at the roots, chasing each other around a bit, etc. they'll
come up to feed when I toss pellets in, none seem to be discolored or
anything untoward.

Any suggestions from the group? Are tads subject to "ich"? That's what
it looked like more than anything else in my experience.

TIA
Mike
Mike Patterson
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