Leafy Seadragon

Let’s play ‘Hide and Seek’. Can you find the leafy seadragon?

Leafy seadragons are aquatic animals native to the southern coast of Australia, and are found in water with maximum depths of 50 metres (164 feet).
‘Leafy seadragons’ are also known as ‘Glauert’s seadragon’ and ‘leafies’, and Australia’s state of South Australia has them as its marine animal emblem.
Though it is related, a leafy seadragon is not a seahorse, but a species of seadragon, and it has the scientific name Phycodurus eques, being from the family Syngnathidae, the family of seahorses and pipefish.
The typical length of leafy seadragons ranges from 20 to 35 centimetres (8 to 14 inches), and they tend to be a yellow and green colour with black patches.
The diet of leafy seadragons typically consists of plankton, shrimp and fish larvae, which are consumed via an intriguing, long cylindrical snout using a suction force.

In the leafy seadragon reproduction process, females produce pink eggs, numbering around 250, that are transferred to males, who carry the eggs on a special patch on their tail until they hatch, and during the process, the eggs change colour.
Leafy seadragons have many appendages that form on their body that look like leafy branches, and these cause the fish to be camouflaged by having the appearance of seaweed.
On average, only one in twenty leafy seadragons survive until adulthood, and when they do, they have a lifespan of two to ten years.
Leafy seadragons are listed as ‘near threatened’ due to loss of habitat from pollution and accidental catching by commercial fisheries, as well as their collection for the pet industry, and they are now a protected species.
Leafy seadragons are slow movers, swimming via their transparent fins and appearing to drift like seaweed, although they are sometimes stationary for days.

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