DSE Home > Coasts and Marine > Marine

The marine faunal emblem for the State of Victoria

Weedy Seadragon - Phyllopteryx taeniolatus

Photos
Video

Information
The Weedy Seadragon was selected as Victoria's official marine faunal emblem by public nomination and was proclaimed by the Governor in Council on 31 October 2002.

Distribution
The Weedy Seadragon represents the delicate and beautiful world found beneath the waters of Victoria’s unique marine environment. Weedy Seadragons are only found in southern Australian waters – living in coastal waters from Newcastle NSW to Tasmania to Geraldton in Western Australia – with their range centred around Victoria.

Part of the family Syngnathidae (pronounced SING-NAY-THID-AY), which includes seahorses, pipehorses and pipefish, the Weedy Seadragon is related to the Leafy Seadragon, which is South Australia’s marine State emblem.

Weedy Seadragons are beautifully coloured, dainty, timid animals that swim slowly and gracefully. They can grow up to 46 cm in length.
Photo: Weedy Seadragon

Habitat
Forests of brown kelp and seagrass meadows (mainly Amphibolis sp) are vital habitat for the survival of Weedy Seadragons in shallow waters. In deeper waters they prefer to live amongst offshore reefs containing sponge gardens and brown kelp.
Long leaf-shaped flaps of skin protrude from stalk-like bony projections at intervals along the top and bottom of the body. This enables
seadragon’s to perfectly camouflage within their habitat and be easily overlooked.

Breeding
Breeding occurs annually, usually in late Spring when the seadragons pair up. Like their pipefish and seahorse relatives, the male seadragon broods the eggs.

With Weedy Seadragons, up to 300 eggs can be laid by the female underneath the male's tail, where they are brooded. The eggs are bright pink when fresh and darken as they develop. They hatch after two months as 25mm long miniature versions of the adults, but grow quickly to 7 cm within about three weeks. By four months they are about one quarter of the length of an adult and after two years have reached their maximum size.

Weedy Seadragons can probably live up to ten years in the wild.

Diet
Diet consists mainly of small crustaceans. Young feed almost exclusively on mysid shrimp. Adults will feed on mysids, other small shrimp and crawling crustaceans, including squat lobsters.

Using its long thin tubular snout the Weedy Seadragon captures food by a powerful suction action, drawing water and prey rapidly into its mouth. Special muscles in the snout can widen it to capture different sizes of food.

Conservation Status
The Weedy Seadragon, as part of the Syngnathidae family, is fully protected as ‘Protected Aquatic Biota’ under the Victorian Fisheries Act 1995.

Where can Victorians experience the world of Weedy Seadragons?
In the wild, if you look carefully, you may be rewarded with a view of this amazing creature hovering around piers near clumps of brown kelp, along the edges of seagrass beds and in deeper water amongst sponges and brown kelp forests on offshore reefs.

Snorkellers and divers can observe Weedy Seadragons in many of the Marine National Parks and Marine Sanctuaries situated along Victoria’s coast, near Portland, Point Addis, Queenscliff, Barwon Heads, Portsea, Rye, Flinders, Wilsons Promontory and Gippsland.

On land, most days you can view our beautiful emblem at the Melbourne Aquarium.

Care when observing Weedy Seadragons
Weedy Seadragons are very delicate fish. Thye are easily injured and should not be handled.

Click on the still and video images below to see the Weedy Seadragon in its Victorian habitat.

Photos
Photo: Weedy Seadragon
Photo: Weedy Seadragon
Photo: Weedy Seadragon
.
Sub adult at Flinders Pier
Image: William Boyle		Male with eggs at Flinders Pier
Image: Rudie Kuiter		Juveniles at Portsea
Image: Rudie Kuiter		.
.
Photo: Weedy Seadragon
.
Photo: Weedy Seadragon
.
Photo: Weedy Seadragon
.
Juvenile at Flinders
Image: Rudie Kuiter		Male with eggs at Flinders
Image: Rudie Kuiter		At Portsea
Image: Rudie Kuiter		.


Video

The following video files are in MPEG format and should launch the media player available on your system (ie. Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or Real Player). If you do not have any of the above players on your system you can download the free players from Windows Media, QuickTime or Real.com.

Please select either option 1) or 2) depending on your internet connection:

1) Low bandwidth (modem connection) users:


2) High bandwidth (DSL or broadband) users:


printer friendly version