What is a weedy seadragon?
The weedy seadragon, also called the common seadragon, is a colourful fish related to seahorses that lives among kelp and seaweed off southern Australia, including around Sydney and Tasmania.
Weedy seadragons grow to about 45 centimetres long. They are reddish with yellow spots and purple-blue bars, and have fewer and smaller leafy appendages than leafy seadragons. They drift slowly over reefs, kelp and seagrass beds.
Their range stretches from around Port Stephens in New South Wales, south through Victoria and Tasmania and west to Western Australia. Divers can see them at sites such as Kurnell and Bare Island in Sydney.
Father's care
As with seahorses, males carry the fertilised eggs on a brood patch under the tail for about a month until they hatch.
The weedy seadragon is the marine emblem of Victoria.
In 2015, scientists described a third seadragon species, the ruby seadragon, found off Western Australia. It lacks leafy appendages and lives in deeper water. Weedy seadragons are protected, and warming seas and loss of kelp forests are concerns for their future.
Did You Know?
Weedy seadragons feed by sucking up tiny shrimp through their long, tube-like snouts.