I wonder if such an animal exists - a leafy sea dragon? Yes, there really is such a creature. This is a fish, albeit a very unusual species.
Who is he?
It belongs to the family of seahorses, which in themselves look exotic. They call it differently. A leafy dragon, a rag, a sea pegasus - it's all about him. An interesting creature grows in length only 25-35 centimeters. Outwardly, he really resembles a dragon. A curved body, an elongated “muzzle”, thin processes throughout the body on which flat fins resembling algae grow. And he needs them only for disguise. The dragon moves only with the help of two of them: chest and spinal. But thanks to the fins, it can reach speeds of up to 150 m / h.
Defenseless creature
The deciduous sea dragon is able to change the color of its fins depending on the food. But also the color changes at the moment of danger and helps to disguise itself as the nearest plant. Deciduous sea dragon is a harmless fish. The dragon does not know how to defend itself, since it has no teeth. The only thing the fish can do is take on the color of the algae in which it hides. How does a leafy sea dragon eat ? Turns out he just sucks in food. It is mainly small fish and shrimp. But sometimes algae or even extraneous small objects fall into his mouth.
Good dad
The leafy sea dragon breeds by laying eggs. Interestingly, male individuals take care of the offspring. As you know, fathers hatched eggs in special bags for seahorses. But the leafy sea dragon, the photo of which is presented in this article, does not have such a device. Therefore, he wears eggs fixed in the lower part of the tail. Fries appear after 9 weeks. In just one go, the female can lay 250 eggs. While carrying eggs, a pair of sea dragons do not forget about courtship. In the mornings, they always swim to each other and perform a pair dance, during which they change their skin color. Eyewitnesses say it looks very romantic. Newborn dragons have a transparent body with a bluish tint. You can also see black and white stripes on their skin. Deciduous dragons, having reached the age of two years, are considered adults, although only 5% of hatched fry survive to it. Kids feed on plankton just two hours after getting into the water.
Mystery of nature
The deciduous sea dragon is an interesting creature. He lives only on the southern coast of Australia. His favorite habitat is thickets of sea kale. This type of cabbage can be found in the eastern Indian Ocean. But only in the Pacific do sea deciduous dragons live. It is very rare to see these marine inhabitants. Even the locals of Australia consider them almost mythical creatures. Often, after the climb, scuba divers claim that no sea dragon exists, because they could not see it. But this, of course, is not so. It’s just that the leafy sea dragon disguises itself so well that not everyone can notice it. To see it under water, it is necessary to look at the algae for a long time, frozen, until one of the dragons ceases to feel danger and begins to move. Then a miracle will happen: the plant will turn into a fish in front of amazed spectators.
Rare creature
The sea leaf dragon has a fellow sea weed dragon. It is so called because its appearance resembles bottom debris. Although the structure of the body and the presence of processes is very similar to a leafy dragon. Only garbage leaf-shaped fins are much smaller. Deciduous sea dragons die very often. The reason for this is both people and nature itself, which created them very tender and vulnerable. Dragons do not have enough power in their tails to cling to underwater plants. Therefore, during a storm, they are carried away and thrown ashore. In addition, people often catch sea dragons in order to have them in their collections or sell them to alternative medicine supporters. The fry of sea dragons are not yet capable of disguising themselves as well as adult individuals, and indeed do not know how to swim, therefore they often die from the attack of predators.
These fish are very beautiful and interesting creatures. Many would like to have them in their aquariums, if that were possible. From our article, you learned what a leafy sea dragon is. A report on this topic will adorn the presentation of any naturalist.