Weedy Seadragon(Phyllopteryx taeniatus)

Weedy seadragon which is only found in Australian water which I use 55F to 65F to keep it.This one is only a late juvenile

 

This is another weedy which is relatively bigger than the previous one. It has some externally outgrowth in its sucking snout while it is not present in the first one.

 

Both weedy usually swim in the same direction. They are social animal and its diet is live food. I used several type of food to feed them. At first, I use live mysid which is catched in Australia to feed them.

 

Later I use live shrimp larvae to feed them. I used two different type of larvae. They are called Penaeus vannamei and Penaeus japonicus. I find that they are more like vannamei which has a comparatively sofe skeleton than japonicus

 

Initially those dragon will not except any dead food. I also find that it occasionally will accept brine shrimp. I do not use brine at all due to its low nutritional value

 

The shrimp of upper photo which I occasionally will use to feed my seadragon. They accept them very well. Those are the fresh water shrimp which use to control undesirable algae growth in freshwater plant tank. It has a very soft skeleton comparing with ghost shrimp.

 

I can enhance the nutritional value of it by directly injection of vitamin and Omega3(HUFA) into those shrimp. My movie(feeding2) is the movie of feeding a sinking enriched shrimp of those kind to my dragon

 

After several mouth of training, this seadragon start to accept dead food such as dead freshwater shrimp. But I usually will give them live one.

 

The shrimp larvae which is also called mysis. I noticed that the faece of dragon has the same colour after they eat mysid and shrimp larvae. The consistency is also the same. But the faece of dragon become red in colour and is more firm in consistency after they feed freshwater shrimp . I think that fresh water shrimp is hard to digest and the nutritional content is very different from seawater shrimp and mysid.

 

The quality of shrimp larvae is very high. It is laboratory cultured and it is free of any shrimp pathogen and any kind of antibiotic. Since I work in related field, I can obtain live food for my dragon very easily

.

Those picture is the mid juvenile of my dragon. One of them also get injury on the tip of its snout. (The bottom one).

 

The weedy seadragon is a greedy feeder. It need plentiful of live food per day. They are the only inhabitant of my tank. I think that I will change them to a larger tank later.

 

I also observed that there are dominance of one over another. They will dance and seems to fight to each other. In fact, they won't hurt each other. On conclusion, weedy is not very difficult fish to keep but it need a full time aquarist to care of them.

 

Leafy Seadragon(Phycodurus eques)

Another kind of seadragon: Leafy seadragon, Phycodurus eques (it is at the initial stage of introduction into my tank)

It is a tiny juvenile of about less than 10 cm in length

 

My pair of leafy seadragon which clump together inside the tank

 

Those pair of leafy seadragon which grow to a larger size now(about 12 cm long)

Please note that new straition appear on the body of them

 

Macro view of one of them. It is now grow to a even bigger size and the spine on the body is also elongated

 

Another view of them inside my tank

 

Anothe picture again

 

One of my leafy seadragon laid egg in May, 2008. The egg dropped to the bottom of the tank.

The egg laying events were occasionnally recorded in certain public aquariums around the world.

 

INSTITUTION BEHAVIOR/
FREQUENCY		 EGG PRODUCTION?/
TRANSFER TO
MALE?
Oceanario de
Lisboa, Portugal		 Males with red tails 3 times/ no transfer to
males
Toba Aquarium,
Japan		 Dancing frequently 14 times/ one transfer,
dropped eggs
Tokyo Sealife Park,
Japan		 Dancing frequently,
males with swollen tails

 2 times/ no transfer to
male
Underwater World
Singapore		 Dancing, frequently,
males with swollen tails		 3 times/no transfer to
male
Underwater World
Perth, Australia		 Dancing, males’
tails swollen /once a year		 3 times/ no transfer to males
Zoo Basel,
Switzerland		 Possibly observing
dancing occasionally		 No egg production at this time
Omaha Henry
Doorly Zoo		 Dancing often, male
with swollen tail once		 No egg production to
date
Dallas World
Aquarium
Dancing often,
/Males with swollen tails 3 times
7 times/no transfer to
male

Some of egg laying event around the world. There are still no successful breeding of leafy seadragon in captivity nowaday.

 

The leafy seadragon passed over the top of the dropped eggs

 

The egg were collected for examination. The colour of the egg was golden yellow in colour with a central white spot.

 

Another view of the egg

 

There were approximately 60-70 egg collected and those egg degenerated after 3-4 weeks afterward.

Those eggs have to transfer to the tail of the male dragon if the breeding event is successful.

 

Link to my leafy seadragon video.

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zn729hvXY&feature=channel

 

There are several important journals that provide me valuable informations concerning seadragon and its keeping.

1. Abundance, movement and individual identification of leafy seadragons, Phycodurus eques (Pisces : Syngnathidae). Rod M. Connolly, Andrew J. Melville and John K. Keesing. Marine freshwater research 2002; 53: 777 - 780.

http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF01168.htm

2. The life history of weedy seadragons, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus (Teleostei : Syngnathidae). Kristy L. Forsgren and Christopher G. Lowe. Marine freshwater research 2006; 57: 313 - 322.

http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF05094.htm

3. Density, habitat use and behaviour of the weedy seadragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus (Teleostei : Syngnathidae) around Sydney, New SouthWales, Australia. Jaime Sanchez-Camara, David J. Booth, John Murdoch, DavidWatts and Xavier Turon. Marine and Freshwater Research; 2006; 57: 737–745.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18267797

4. Reproductive cycle and growth of Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. J. Sanchez-Camara, D. J. Booth and X. Turon. Journal of Fish Biology 2005; 67: 133 - 148.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118686604/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Movement, home range and site fidelity of the weedy seadragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus (Teleostei: Syngnathidae). Jaime Sanchez-Camara& David J. Booth. Environmental Biology of Fishes 2004; 70: 31- 41.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t4l28r871j577708/

6. Exploitation and trade of Australian seahorses, pipehorses, sea dragons and pipefishes (Family Syngnathidae) Keith M. Martin-Smith and Amanda C.J. Vincent. FFI, Oryx 2006; 40(2): 141–151.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=4F245D245CCC99DEF74C143F1D35CC2D.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=440879

7. Variations in the dietary compositions of morphologically diverse syngnathid fishes.
Alan J. Kendrick & Glenn A. Hyndes. Environmental Biology of Fishes 2005; 72: 415–427.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k1u0jw269x153742/