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Phycodurus eques
The Leafy Sea Dragon is only found in
Australia’s southern waters and nowhere
else in the world.
Description
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Leafy Sea Dragons belong to the family
Syngnathidae, which also includes the
seahorses, pipefish and pipe horses.
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The Leafy Sea Dragon gets its name because of
it’s huge similarity to actual leaves. The name
comes from the leaf-like appendages on the
body of the organism.
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The organism, when in its habitat, looks just
like a floating piece of seaweed. Their ability
to blend in with their surroundings makes it
hard for predators to find them.
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Their camouflage is so great that their
predators or their prey their prey do not
recognize it.
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The leafy sea dragon has a laterally flattened
body and swims horizontally through the
water. The balance to swim horizontally is
maintained by two pectoral fins that end as
leafy appendages.
Habitat
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The leafy sea dragon is endemic to
one area in the world, the
southern coastline of Australia.
The leafy sea dragon lives in and
among the kelp-covered rocky
reefs along Australia’s shoreline.
The leafy sea dragon spends its
entire life floating among the
brown algae, which it so
commonly resembles.
They live comfortably below the
low tide, at 3-50 meters deep.
Diet
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The leafy sea dragon has a long pipe-like snout with
a small terminal mouth.
They have a pretty strict diet consisting of plankton,
mysids and other small crustaceans.
Most of the organisms that leafy sea dragons eat live
on the red algae in the kelp forests of the Sea
Dragons habitat.
Leafy sea dragons do not have teeth, which is
uncommon for organisms that eat crustaceans.
Human Impact
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Humans have impacted the leafy sea
dragon’s survival in both positive and
negative ways.
The Australian government has
declared the species near-threatened
and enacted a law to protect them,
known as the Environment Protection
and Biodiversity Conservation Act of
1999.
Much of their endangerment is a result
of human impact, such as pollution and
poaching. Poachers use leafy sea
dragons for alternative types of
medicines. Fertilizer run-off and
sewage have been destroying the sea
grass of the leafy sea dragons habitats.
Often divers will take them out of their
natural habitat in order to attempt at
raising them in home aquariums.
Threats to Survival
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There are also some other threats that have had
an effect on the survival of the leafy sea
dragons.
Storm damage can harm the natural habitats in
which the leafy sea dragon live. The storms can
also wash them ashore because they do not have
the ability to hold themselves in place.
The combination of an armored body, protective
spines and little actual musculature make the
sea dragon relatively undesirable as a food
source but are still believed to be preyed upon
by snakes, some shark species, and some pelagic
fish.
Reproduction
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Leafy sea dragon reproduction is quite
different from other types of fish in
several ways.
One way is that leafy sea dragon’s
mate for life; they stay with the same
mate during their lifespan.
The leafy sea dragon is also one of
the fish species where the male is in
charge of the eggs. The males have an
external brood patch, on the underside
of the tail, where the female deposits
the unfertilized eggs.
The females can lay up to 250 eggs at
a single time.
The leafy sea dragon is believed to
only breed once a year.
The incubation period for leafy sea
dragon eggs is eight weeks.
Lifespan and Size
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The leafy sea dragon is born completely
independent.
Right from birth it will eat the remains of
the yolk sac.
They start off eating zooplankton, which
helps to start its growth process, until it
can begin a regular diet of plankton,
mysids, and other small crustaceans.
Leafy sea dragons grow to a length of 18
inches.
Leafy sea dragons can travel at great
speeds and lengths. They spend their whole
lives in motion.