Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Sea Dragons are the most magnificent and extraordinary of all ocean fish.

Sea dragons are like seahorses, they are a type of pipe fish. Sea dragons are found in Australian waters and belong to the same family as sea horses but differ in 3 main ways - Looks, they have "appendages" from their body which look like ether weeds or leafs
Sea Dragons are arguably the most magnificent and extraordinary of all ocean fish. The sea dragon’s body is hard, almost like armor. Sea dragons like to eat tiny shrimps known as 'sea-lice', plankton and small deep sea fish. They don't have any teeth so they eat by taking in small amounts of water containing their prey.

There are two types of sea dragons Australian waters:
• Leafy Sea dragon
• Weedy Sea dragon

Leafy sea dragon



The leafy sea dragon is also called as Glauerts Sea dragon. Which belong with family Syngnathidae. It is found along the southern and western coasts of Australia. It grows about 20–24 cm (8–10 in). They feed on plankton and small crustaceans.
As with seahorses, the male leafy sea dragon cares for the eggs. Leafy sea dragons take about 28 months to reach sexual maturity.
Sea dragons are difficult to maintain in aquaria. Success in keeping them has been largely confined to the public aquarium sector, due to funding and knowledge that would not be available to the average buff.

Weedy Sea dragon :



Weedy Sea dragons are only found in southern Australian waters. It also belong with family Syngnathidae. Weedy Sea dragons can grow to about 46cm in length. They are orange/red in color with numerous whitish spots on a lot of their body and along their tube shaped snout. The weedy sea dragon is very similar to the leafy sea dragon, but some extent weedy sea dragon is double sized than Leafy Sea dragon.
Weedy sea dragon does not have as many protrusions extending from its body, and appears more streamlined and sleek.

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