Contents
Dragon Breeding
How many, how far? The Scientific Study of Dragons
Habitat Preference and the Distribution of Leafy Seadragons
Dead Weedies may Tell Tales
Call for a Better Deal for Dragons
Pipefish influenced our Earliest Art?
Smile Please
Sexing in the Copy Shop
The Dragon Lives Art Exhibition
Dragon Search (SA) Update
Dragon Search Talks
Surround yourself with Syngnathids
Dragon Search hits Victoria
Web sites
How can you help?

An important facet of the Dragon Search program is to seek to answer how and when seadragons breed and transfer their eggs and to record observations of courtship behaviour.  Divers involved in the project have described how groups of up to ten Weedy Seadragons appear to perform spiralling courtship dance.  These and other behaviours would be valuable observations to record.

Paul Groves at Underwater World in Perth, Western Australia has been involved in a breeding program for Leafy Seadragons and has forwarded the following observations from captive specimens:

The family Syngnathidae, which covers seahorses, pipefish, and seadragons is a very unique family of fishes.  Eggs are produced by the female, but then are transferred to the male for fertilisation, incubation and hatching.  In the case of seahorses and some pipefish the eggs are deposited into a pouch on the abdominal region of the males where they are fertilised.  For other pipefish and seadragons, the eggs are attached directly to the underside of the male.  In seadragons they are attached to pits on the underside of the male’s tail.  It is theorised that the eggs derive some nutrition from blood vessels in the tail of the male.

Male Leafy Seadragons are seen carrying eggs during the spring and summer months.  The young juveniles hatch out with a small yolk sac, and are free-swimming almost straight away.  They usually start hunting for small items of food almost immediately.  Young dragons are fast growing and may be mature enough to reproduce by the following summer.

At Underwater World we have initiated a breeding program to help expand our knowledge of the reproductive biology of Leafy Seadragons, with the eventual aim to release captive-raised dragons back to the wild.  Breeding seadragons is not an easy task, in fact keeping seadragons alive in captivity is a difficult process on its own.  Seadragons have very specific husbandry requirements.  They are intolerable to fluctuations in water temperature and quickly succumb if the water temperature exceeds that of their natural range.  They generally occur in deeper waters, so a deep aquarium is needed to adapt them to captivity.  They also have a specific diet of small crustaceans and hunt for food most of the time.

In the last few years we have achieved a lot.  Our knowledge of the reproductive cycle is getting broader, but still is not complete.  At Underwater World we have hatched and reared the young Leafy Seadragons from berried (egg bearing) males caught in the wild.  Some of these animals were released, with others going to other public aquariums for further research. We have also observed the courtship and pairing of male and female in preparation for reproduction but so far the transfer of eggs has been unsuccessful.  We are trying new ideas at the moment to help overcome this problem.  Unfortunately our dragons have only bred once per season.  It is uncertain as to whether seadragons can or do breed more than once per annum.

Usually Leafy Seadragons are found singly or in pairs in the wild.  In captivity they are very sociable and frequently huddle together in groups of up to four, all with fins entangled in each other’s.  With the approach of spring, male and female seadragons form pairs.  Once paired, the seadragons keep close together, sometimes entangling fins together but very rarely moving away more than one metre from one another in search of food.

After this initial pairing, the seadragons prepare for breeding.  The female Leafy Seadragon produces around 300 orange eggs within the lower abdominal cavity.  She develops a very wide girth in the vicinity of her second pair of ventral fins and down through to her anal fins.  Just before the release of eggs, her anus enlarges to several times its normal size.  During this period the male also goes through some transformations.  As the eggs begin developing in the female, the tail of the male begins to swell in size and become wrinkled.  Fine blood vessels can be seen forming in the tail and about 120 small pits or egg cups begin to appear on the tail in preparation for the receipt of the eggs.  Pits on the swollen tail of a male dragon, in the company of a female, are a good indicator of impending egg transfer.

During the weeks that these changes are occurring the male Leafy Seadragon can often be seen ‘displaying’ to the female.  He will swim alongside her in a distinct ‘head up - head down style’ swimming motion.

Sometimes she will reciprocate with a similar motion.  Occasionally he will approach the female front on, in an upside down position, as if to show off his readiness to reproduce.  The male also becomes very protective of the female during this period and will aggressively chase away any other males that come too close.  He attacks with an aggressive ‘snapping’ of the jaws, as if he is trying to bite the fins of the offending male, although the lack of teeth usually prevents any damage to the other male.

Based on our observations of captive Leafy Seadragons, the transfer of eggs usually occurs sometime at night.  We are unsure as to whether this occurs after dusk or just before dawn as we have not yet observed the transfer of eggs in captivity or in the wild.  The most recent attempt by our pair of Leafy Seadragons to transfer eggs was unsuccessful, we believe due to interference of two other seadragons housed in the same aquarium.  The eggs were released by the female and she was found floating on the surface the next morning, totally exhausted.  By the afternoon she was swimming again and feeding well.

Our breeding program is continuing.  As yet we do not know whether Leafy Seadragons can reproduce more than once a year.  We have sighted berried males in the wild from November through to March.  As the eggs only take one to two weeks to hatch, it is quite plausible that they may reproduce more than once per annum.  We are also unsure if the female can produce eggs more than once in their lifetime.  If wild female Leafy Seadragons are so exhausted after spawning, it is quite possible that they are getting washed up on beaches and dying afterwards.  Perhaps they move to deeper waters for the transfer of eggs to give the female the best chance of survival after spawning has occurred?  Females also produce more eggs than the males can hold, so perhaps she will mate with another male?  Perhaps the extras are in case some eggs are dropped during the transfer?

By Paul Groves,
Underwater World, Perth

What we do know is that we have a lot to learn and that by protecting the dragons in situ we are giving this species the best chance of survival.
 

How many, how far?
The Scientific Study of Dragons

The first scientific study of the ecology of leafy seadragons began in January 1996.  The aims are to establish how many dragons are in a particular location in Encounter Bay, South Australia, and how far they move.  Both of these aims can only be achieved if fish can be ‘marked’ in some way, so divers can know whether they are seeing the same dragons or not.  Over periods of a few days or weeks, the pattern of wear and tear of the 22 leafy appendages can be used to distinguish individual fish.  All 22 appendages have an official label, and divers can record onto a dive slate the condition of each of these, as well as taking carefully framed photographs to capture each appendage.  Part of the description for a particular dragon might be, for example, ‘lower left: tip missing; nape: broken in half; tail left: 2 mm wearing on end’.  With all the possible permutations of wear and tear to different appendages, the chances of finding two fish with the same pattern is remote.  The disadvantage of this method is that over longer periods, the pattern of wear and tear changes.  Appendages continue to wear, and broken appendages may regenerate.  A different   method is required if we are to follow individuals over months or years.  We have now established that longer term identification of individuals can be based on the delicate pattern of facial markings.  A high quality, close-up photograph of the face with good lighting is needed to allow definitive identification.

Our research team searched for dragons on over 50 dives during 1996, spread over all months of the year.  We made 45 sightings of leafy seadragons, using photographic evidence of facial patterns to identify individuals.  Chief photographer Andrew Melville has taken over 600 photographs, all carefully described and catalogued in an electronic database.  Results of this work have been extremely rewarding.  All identified sightings were of just 8 individuals.  The smallest animal was 20 cm when first sighted (27 cm one year later) and all others were around 30 cm, which seems to be the maximum size at this location.  The animal sighted the most times (on 11 occasions) was seen in January, February, July, and December.  Only one new animal was identified between April and December 1996.  The high number of re-sightings and low number of sightings of new animals indicates both that there are few animals migrating into the study area and that most animals that inhabit the area have been sighted.  We are confident that we now have quite a good idea of how many dragons live at the location.

The project is supported by SARDI (scientists Patrick Hone, John Keesing & Meegan Vandepeer) with initial funding by ANCA.

Dr Rod Connolly,
Griffith University, Queensland
 

Habitat Preference and the
Distribution of Leafy Seadragons

As part of a thesis for his Marine Biology Degree at Flinders University, Jeffrey Kwik studied Leafy Seadragons in the field and laboratory last year. During the nine month study period only twelve individual animals were sighted in situ on the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.  Animals averaged 21 centimetres in length and were found at depths ranging from 0.5 to 7.5 metres.  The sea temperatures where the animals were found ranged between 13.6 and 20.50 ⁰C.  Leafies showed a preference for seagrass and algae habitats within shallow waters.  However there is still a need to increase our knowledge of the critical habitat requirements of Leafy Seadragons.
 

Dead Weedies may Tell Tales

Les McDiarmid of the South Australian Whale Centre reported over fifteen Weedy Seadragons washed up near the Hindmarsh River Mouth at Victor Harbor, following stormy weather in the last week of February.  The animals were frozen, and Dragon Search will be examining the contents of the digestive tract and is arranging for the ear bones (otoliths) to be examined by Dr Tony Fowler at SARDI, to estimate an age for the animals.  The size of the animals suggests that they are mostly males, (females have a deeper ‘belly’).  Dragon Search would like to thank Les for his support of the project over the year and for this useful find.

If we can establish the age of these animals we will attempt to do the same with Leafy Seadragons, however we need a reasonable number of beach-washed specimens.  We can use old beach-washed specimens, so if you would like to donate your mantle-piece leafies for science, please do so.  Unfortunately during the process the ear bones need to be removed, which will destroy the head (although we will try and minimise damage) so your leafies will not be returned.
 

Call for a Better Deal for Dragons

International and Australian researchers, national and state peak conservation groups from NSW, Victoria, SA and WA, and the peak eco-tourism industry body recently called upon the South Australian Minister for Primary Industries to improve efforts to conserve and manage South Australia’s ‘unofficial state fish’, the Leafy Seadragon.

It was feared that the level of permitted taking of Leafy Seadragons for overseas and local aquaria may jeopardise research into the species as well as current and future commercial dive tourism  of local dive operators, and cause local declines or extinctions in some areas.

Over the last two years Primary Industries Fisheries have issued permits for the collection of over 40 adult leafy sea dragons from the Fleurieu Peninsula area.  The permits have been issued without any knowledge of populations or life history and with no apparent follow-up of the collectors or survival rates.

In a recent report on the International Trade in Seahorses, for the World Wide Fund for Nature and TRAFFIC International, world renown expert, Dr. Amanda Vincent, urged the sensible management of seahorses and seadragons.  Whilst the development of captive breeding programs has been suggested as one possible alternative to exploitation of wild stocks, Dr. Vincent feels that even if a captive breeding program were successful, the issue is complicated and problematic.  ‘To protect wild populations, we may eventually wish to oppose even captive bred exports, if they cannot be distinguished from animals taken from the wild,’ she said.  ‘Continued issuance of collection permits in the absence of adequate biological information on population sizes, structure and changes and proper monitoring is to be deplored.’

With the growing international and local interest in South Australia’s unique marine environment, and the rapidly developing dive tourism industry, seadragons may be worth more to the South Australian economy in their natural habitat, than exported as wild caught stock for the aquarium trade.  It creates a demand for the further taking of animals from the wild as animals in aquariums die.  Economically and environmentally, it makes sense to stop taking these fish for display until we know more about them, and monitored efforts to breed them in captivity are successful.

Researchers and conservationists also feel there is a need to proclaim the Weedy Seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus), the Leafy Seadragon’s close relative, as a protected species.  However this is only one of the conservation measures needed for both species.  For sensible management, marine reserves should be established within which no collection or disturbance is allowed.

Already community surveys, studies by Dr Connolly of Griffith University and recent work done by honours student Jeffrey Kwik from Flinders University, are revealing aspects of the fish’s lifestyle.  Leafy Seadragons appear to prefer brown seaweed and  seagrass habitats close inshore.  This means future developments along our coast that impact on seagrass habitat, such as large marinas, some aquaculture leases and waste-water outfalls, could lead to local losses of these unique fish.

STOP PRESS - Minister promises to improve
seadragon conservation measures.

In reply to concerns expressed by researchers, industry and conservationists, the SA Minister for Primary Industries, Mr Rob Kerin, has written that ‘any threat to the species must be minimised and adequate protection measures must be established to maintain this important species’.  The Director of Fisheries has been advised by the Minister not to issue any further permits for the remainder of 1996/7, with advice to be taken as to action after that period.  Primary Industries has also been asked to investigate the feasibility of marine protected areas for the habitat of both species, as well as investigate the proclamation of the Weedy Seadragon as a protected species.  We at Dragon Search look forward to working with the Dept of Fisheries on these positive initiatives.

By Tony Flaherty,
M&CCN (SA), Dragon Search (SA) Co-coordinator
 

Pipefish influenced our Earliest Art?

In a recent article in New Scientist, (2 November 1996, Australian Museum)  Cambridge and Australian National University researchers investigating the oldest ‘religion’ on earth - that of Australian Aboriginal peoples - claim that the Rainbow Serpent icons were inspired by the ribboned pipefish, (Haliichthys taeniophora).  The pipefish is a relative of seahorses and seadragons.  Basing their conclusions on statistical analysis of over a hundred paintings from the Arhnem land region, the researchers matched features of likely animals that may have served as models for the images, and found that the pipefish matched most closely, over and above those of crocodiles, snakes, kangaroos and other creatures.  The fish would not have been familiar to people living inland until the sea level rose at the end of the last ice age and washed the creature to the new Australian shores.  The Rainbow Serpent is a symbol of unity, creation and destruction.

Smile Please

Divers, do you have any good head and body shots of Leafies and Weedies?  If so, we are interested in recording them so we can keep track of individuals, especially if you have location and date details as per the survey forms.  Photos will be scanned and stored electronically, and originals returned to you.  Unfortunately, we do not have a slide scanner, so we may need to get these duplicated or laser printed, however if someone knows of a slide scanner that we could access, please let us know.  Good quality photos can give us valuable information on age, breeding status, pair bonds and possible movements.
 

Sexing in the Copy Shop

Beachcombers, we can tell the sex of beach-washed Weedies from the deepness of the body of females, and in the future will hopefully be able to tell the difference in Leafies as well.  As well as the usual details of location and date, we would like to obtain photo-copy images of your beach-washed specimens to get an idea of their sex.  You simply need to place the fish on the copier, place a light-coloured cloth over it, set the copier to a lighter tone and copy.  Then send in your photocopy to Dragon Search.
 

The Dragon Lives Art Exhibition

As a part of Dragon Search’s education program, art, wildlife and maritime lovers alike are invited to visit ‘The Dragon Lives’ Art Exhibition to be held on 14-30 March, at the delightful Sestri Restaurant and Gallery at Semaphore.  The exhibition is open during restaurant hours six days a week.

‘The Dragon Lives’ is an exciting collection of paintings, ceramics and lino prints depicting some of South Australia’s most divine creatures, the syngnathids, including the Leafy and Weedy Seadragon.  The exhibition features the works of Sue Stranger, Joe Fraser and Kangaroo Island artists Jenny Clapson and Bryon Buick.

All pieces are for sale, with part proceeds from Sue Stranger’s works going to support the Dragon Search community research project.  Admission is free and the exhibition has been timed to coincide with the activities of Seaweek ‘97.  For more information contact Vicki-Jo Russell on +61 8 8223 5155.
 

Dragon Search (SA) Update

The beginning of April brings to an end the first year of the Dragon Search Project in South Australia.  We have been fortunate to receive a second year of core funding from the Coastcare Program to continue the good work initiated in the first year.  Thanks to all of you who have contributed so richly to the project thus far and we hope that the project will continue to grow.  In April we will release our preliminary report which will look at the patterns established from the first year of data collection and any recommendations for the project’s second year.  If you would like to provide feedback on the first year of the project, please put your thoughts on paper and send them to Vicki-Jo.  We would like to triple the number of sightings recorded in 1997 and we look forward to receiving your forms and working together in the upcoming year.
 

Dragon Search Talks

A reminder that each of the Dragon Search Coordinators are available to present talks to dive clubs, community groups, or schools.  They can talk to your members about the project and what we have learned so far and will bring along a series of interesting slides.  To organise a visit contact Dragon Search in your State.
 

Surround yourself with Syngnathids

The Leafy Seadragon is without doubt one of our most spectacular Australians.  Due to popular demand, Dragon Search is pleased to be able to offer a range of fun products that will be great as gifts and will also support the project.

Leafy Seadragon T-shirts, on a cream or black background in a range of sizes, are available for $25.00 on +61 8 8302 6568.

Dragon Search Wetsuit Coolers (Stubby Holders), on a green, blue or black background are available for $7.00 on +61 8 8302 6568.

Australian Syngnathid Posters and Leafy Seadragon Computer Mouse-pads can be ordered through Dragon Search on +61 8 8302 6568.
 

Dragon Search hits Victoria

Dragon Search has begun in Victoria.  Based on the SA project the Queenscliff Marine Discovery Centre has received Coastcare funding to take the project in to Victoria.  We hope to have an article by them in the next issue of "The Dragon's Lair".  For more information contact Alex or Cath on +61 3 5258  3344 or write to them at PO Box 114, Queenscliff, Victoria 3225.
 

Web sites

Dragon Search information can be found on the Internet at:
http://www.nexus.edu.au/schools/Kingscot/pelican/index.htm
 

How can you help?

Learning about the marine environment is the best way to help make a difference. There are many excellent resources available; contact the Marine & Coastal Community Network for more general information. By reading the information and survey brochures, organising a survey dive, recording old sightings  onto survey sheets, looking out for seadragons amongst the seagrass as you stroll along the beach, contributing articles to The Dragon's Lair and letting others know about the project, you can make a significant contribution to this project.

If you would like to help the Dragon Search Project, register your interest with the Dragon Search Coordinator in your State.
 
 

© Copyright Dragon Search 2000