Saturday, December 6, 2014

Creature Feature #412: Leafy Seadragon

The Leafy Sea Dragon is a delicate and bizarre fish, a member of the Sea Horse Family. He can be found around the southern coasts of Australia, where his leaf-like fins allow him camouflage amongst the seaweed. His prefered diet is zooplankton, which is sucked up through his pipe-like snout. He is solitary except during breeding season, when the female will deposit her eggs - up to 250 - onto his tail. Here they remain for 9 weeks, when he will help them to hatch by rubbing his tail against seaweed and rocks. Young are independent from hatching but only 5% survive to adulthood.

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