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Weedy Sea dragons are found off the coast of South Australia and Tasmania. They can be found in the sea grass beds along the shore, on rocky reefs and swimming around piers found in sheltered and shallow water. Weedy sea dragons can be found in water found shallow water and to depths up to 50 feet.
Description:
A Weedy sea dragon looks much like a piece of seaweed. It has seaweed appendages on its body. Their body color is orange to red, with bright blue stripes, yellow markings and white spots. The weedy sea dragon has no internal skeleton instead its body is protected by bony plates of armor. Their tail is not prehensile like that of a seahorse.
Habits and Adaptations:
The weedy sea dragon is a very slow swimmer, using its dorsal fin to move through the water. Using the pectoral fins and nodding its head the dragon can change direction. Air in the large swim bladder allows a dragon to stay at a certain depth. They look like drifting seaweed this allows them to hide among the sea grasses. Sea dragon’s mouth is like a drinking straw. It just sits and waits for food to swim or float by, and then it just “slurps” it up. They have no teeth.
Diet:
Weedy sea dragon feed on zooplankton. The young dragons will eat copepods and rotifers and adults feed on mysid shrimp a small shrimplike creature.
Breeding:
Like the seahorse the males gives birth. Unlike the seahorse the male sea-dragon does not have pouch or pocket. The male sea dragon has a brood patch on the underside of its tail. The female will lay 100-250 egg on the patch. She will attach them to the brood patch the male will fertilize them. The brood patch is made up of blood rich tissues in the shape of cups. In each cup an egg is placed. In about two months the baby dragons hatch. Once they are born the young are on their own. Breeding season is from August to May. A male has two hatches in a breeding season.
Conservation:
The sea grass and seaweed beds of Western Australia where Weedy Sea Dragons live are under increasing threat from pollution and excessive fertilizer run-off. The dragon’s biggest predators are humans. They are collected dragons for the pet trade and for oriental medicines. Although all sea dragons are protected in Australian waters since 1991, many unscrupulous collectors still take them. These collectors have stripped many areas bare in their hunt to find sea dragons to sell. Divers often chase and harass sea dragons in an attempt to get the perfect picture. The South Australian government allows one brooding male to be collected each year. The captive-bred hatchlings are sent overseas for education and research programs.
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