Sea Dragons

Click on any image to view details and order.

There are two kinds of sea dragons. The WEEDY sea dragon (Phyllopteryx Taeniolatus) and the LEAFY sea dragon (Pycodurus Eques). The leafy having more camouflaging leaf- like appendages than the brightly colored weedy. Both exceed superlatives of description and are hard to fathom even when confronted with living proof.

“My first introduction to either of these amazing creatures was by way of an old engraving of a seadragon’s skeleton. I thought at the time that it was probably artistic imagining, but drew a copy anyway, ……I was so intrigued.” – R.van Genderen

Closely related to seahorses, dragons are larger, with the leafy attaining lengths of 18 inches or more. Like seahorses they are toothless and feed by sucking up crustaceans through their long narrow snouts. In procreation, the male aids the female by carrying her fertile eggs to term, not in a brood pouch as in the seahorses, but on the underside of his magnificent tail. Sea dragons are unable to grab and anchor with their tails like seahorses, yet float hidden among the rocks and sea grasses in the shallow turbulent waters of Southern Australia, swimming on the brink of extinction.