Bart Bear's Blog

Sydney aquarium is a fascinating place, full of amazing critters. In the tank in front of me are two sea dragons. Not only that, but they are two different sorts of sea dragon. The yellow one is a Leafy sea dragon and the one hiding behind the seaweed is a Weedy sea dragon. They are relatives of seahorses but can't curl their tails around things like seahorses do, so you often find them washed up on beaches after storms. These guys are about 25 cm long and they are much easier to see in an aquarium than they are in the wild. They live among sea grass and seaweed on the ocean floor and they are almost perfectly camouflaged. The Oldies have never seen one during their snorkelling trips, and they really try hard whenever they are over likely places. Even in aquariums they can be hard to see. You have to watch and see which bit of "seaweed" suddenly darts its head out to grab small shrimps or sea lice. Actually, dragons don't have teeth and their mouth doesn't open up. The mouth is like a vacuum-cleaner hose that sucks food in. The Leafy lives around the southern and western coasts of Australia, while the Weedy is only in the southern areas. I guess that's one reason the Oldies don't see them because the water is usually so cold that the snorkelling is shorter than when we go north to the tropics.

Labels: fish, New South Wales, Sydney