Leafy Sea Dragon Classification

Leafy Sea Dragons, also called Glauerts Sea Dragons or known by their Latin name, Phycodurus eques, are a member of the order Syngathiformes.

What in the world are Syngathiformes? Syngathiformes are the order of sea life that includes Leafy Seadragons, Weedy Seadragons, pipefish, pipehorses, and more common seahorses. Most of us have had the pleasure of seeing seahorses in aquariums before. What most aquariums can’t showcase though is the rare, near-threatened Leafy Sea Dragon.

Leafy Sea Dragon Facts:

• Unlike most fish, Syngathiformes are fully monogamous. Leafy Sea Dragons mate for life.

• Syngathiformes have no stomachs. Leafy Sea Dragons have to eat constantly in order not to starve.

• The eyes of the Leafy Sea Dragon can move independently of one another. They can look in two directions at once.

• The Leafy Sea Dragon has no natural predators. In spite of this, it is classified as near-threatened.

Leafy Sea Dragon Habitats

The Leafy Sea Dragon is only found in one part of the world along the coasts of Western and South Australia, and along the coastline of the Victoria province. One of the most interesting facts about Sea Dragons is that they can traverse hundreds of meters of water away from their home and then return to their point of origin with a built-in navigational system.

The reason for the Sea Dragon’s unusual and fantastic appearance is related to the Sea Dragon’s habitat. The Sea Dragon habitat is usually temperate, sandy, and dense with kelp and seaweed. Leafy Sea Dragons evolved in their appearance to mimic their environment; the flaps of skin protruding along the Sea Dragon’s body are meant to camouflage it by disguising it as seaweed. Anyone who has ever seen a Leafy Sea Dragon in person knows that the Sea Dragon appears to maneuver, turn and float without any sort of visible locomotion. The Leafy accessories are not used for movement. In reality, the Leafy Sea Dragon moves by means of pectoral and dorsal fins along the sides of its head and its spine. These fins are incredibly hard to see owing to their being semi-transparent and quite small. This helps lend to the impression that the Leafy Sea Dragon is just another floating scrap of seaweed, rather than an animal.

The Leafy Sea Dragon’s habitat along with its sharp spines and hard plating so successfully protects it that it has no natural predators. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean this remarkable creature is safe. On the contrary, the Leafy Sea Dragon is so rare and decreasing in numbers so rapidly that it has been classified by the Australian government’s Department of Environmental Heritage as “near-threatened.”

Leafy Sea Dragon Predators

If Leafy Sea Dragons have no natural predators, what is predating on them to push them to the very verge of becoming an endangered species?

The answer is humanity. Humanity is the greatest predator of the Leafy Sea Dragon.

The Leafy dragon’s habitat is slowly being destroyed by pollution. Fertilizer run-off and sewage have been destroying the sea grass of Sea Dragon habitats. Poachers kill Leafy Sea Dragons to use their bodies to harvest ingredients for alternative medicines. Divers take Sea Dragons from their natural habitat and attempt to place them in home aquariums. The Sea Dragon requires such particular conditions though that it is unable to adapt to its new environment and generally dies within short time.

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. Australians are sympathetic to the Leafy Sea Dragon’s plight, even bringing South Australia to declare the Leafy Sea Dragon its official marine emblem. There is even a festival held in South Australia every two years in honor of the Leafy Sea Dragon. The Leafy Sea Dragon Festival promotes awareness of the Leafy Sea Dragon through the traditional arts of the Fleurieu Peninsula. The first Leafy Sea Dragon Festival held in 2005 was attended by over 7,000 people!

The only other major threat to the Leafy Sea Dragon is storm damage that destroys their reefs. Storms also wash Leafy Sea Dragons ashore because unlike seahorses, they are unable to curl their tails around grasses to stay anchored in rough currents. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done about this. If you do find a Leafy Sea Dragon washed up ashore though, you can notify authorities that there may be a brood nearby so that steps can be taken to protect them.

Leafy Sea Dragon Diet

What do Leafy Sea Dragons eat? Leafy Sea Dragons are extremely picky eaters! They will only eat mysid (shrimp-like “sea lice”), Penaeid shrimp, larval fish and zooplankton. The mysid can be either live or frozen. The Penaeid shrimp must be cultured or caught and must be live. Most of the organisms that Leafy Sea Dragons eat live on the red algae in the kelp forests of the Sea Dragons’ natural habitat.

One of the most interesting Sea Dragon facts is that Sea Dragons do not have any teeth. Most animals that consume shrimp and fish have teeth, so it is quite unusual that Leafy Sea Dragons do not.

Life Cycle of a Leafy Sea Dragon

Leafy Sea Dragon reproduction is relatively unique among fish because Sea Dragons mate for life. Before mating, potential partners perform a complex dance where they mirror each others’ movements. While mating, the female Sea Dragon places the eggs on the brood patch lining the underside of the male Sea Dragon’s tail. The Leafy Sea Dragon female can lay up to 250 eggs at a time. This is one of the only fish species where the male is the one in charge of the eggs. The incubation period for Leafy Sea Dragon eggs is eight weeks. Only about 5% of the eggs in any batch will survive for even two years. This is the point in the Sea Dragon life cycle at which Sea Dragons reach sexual maturity and can reproduce.

Another astonishing Leafy Seadragon fact is that the Leafy Sea Dragon is born totally independent. The newborn Leafy Sea Dragon eats the remnants of the yolk sac of its egg and next starts to eat zooplankton. As the Leafy Sea Dragon grows, it will begin to eat shrimp, its standard diet. The final length of the Leafy Sea Dragon is roughly 18 inches (45 cm). They can travel at speeds of up to 150 meters per hour – and that’s only what we’ve observed and measured. For all we know they can swim much faster; little is ultimately known about Seadragons. They are solitary creatures, often hovering on spot for days on end. They can travel far through, and always find their way home.

The Leafy Sea Dragon life cycle in aquariums is a very short 2-3 years – in the wild their lifespan is unknown. Leafy Sea Dragons are extremely hard to care for in captivity and rarely survive being removed from their natural habitat.