Guess who's getting Weedy Sea Dragons again!

[AquaticEngineer]

I know this isn't a nano reef fish, so these guys aren't going in most of our tanks, but just couldn't resist sharing that I'll be bringing in weedy sea dragons again this year!

 

Here's a pic of me with one of them from the last time I brought them in a couple years ago  
 

 

[vlangel]

Very cool.  I keep seahorses so of course anything about seadragons intrigues me.  I don't know much about them except that they are very rare and protected and that Ocean Rider has been trying to raise CB seadragons for a while now without success.

[flatlandreefer]

Really neat! What do you mean by bringing in weedy sea dragons, are you keeping them in a display tank or for other purposes?

[AquaticEngineer]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 1:33 PM, flatlandreefer said:

Really neat! What do you mean by bringing in weedy sea dragons, are you keeping them in a display tank or for other purposes?

I'm importing them from an Australian collector who is permitted to take a few berried males each year.  He keeps the adults until the eggs hatch out in captivity, then raises and sells the captive hatched young.  I collect and sell temperate livestock from the west coast of the US, but when there is super cool temperate species available to import I bring those in for sale also

 

 

[lkoechle]

So cool.  Sea dragons are my favorite.  I don't know if I would ever have the balls to care for one.  You sell them for like $2k or more right? any fish over $100 makes me real nervous to keep. let alone one as much as a horse!  Absolutely beautiful though.

[vlangel]

I thought the price was more like 10k?

[lkoechle]

8 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I thought the price was more like 10k?

I dont remember anything than it being put, perhaps for the best, far far far out of my reach lol

[Lypto]

that's awesome, such neat animals. I'm curious if feeding the sea dragons larval (zebra) fish might be the key to breeding them, like comb jellyfish, nobody could breed more than one or two a batch and now Monterey Bay Aquarium can make them in the thousands. Horses might need a really big boost in energy to spawn.

[vlangel]

11 hours ago, lkoechle said:

I dont remember anything than it being put, perhaps for the best, far far far out of my reach lol

Oops, I have that wrong because I am mixing up weedy seadragons with leafy seadragons.  Its the leafy seadragons that cost so much and have not been successfully bred in captive conditions yet.

[Lypto]

I just found a great page on weedy sea dragon breeding at the aquarium of the pacific:

http://fusedjaw.com/advancedcare/reproductive-husbandry-of-the-weedy-sea-dragon-phyllopteryx-taeniolatus-at-the-aquarium-of-the-pacific-in-long-beach-California/ 

[AquaticEngineer]

On ‎3‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 5:24 PM, vlangel said:

I thought the price was more like 10k?

Yeah the Leafy Seadragons are much much more

[BattleAthletics]

Wanted to see these at the dallas world aquarium!! Line was around the corner though, with 2 kids thats an impossible feat.

[1.0reef]

Such awesome creatures, PIA has some and are going to try and breed them.

[StinkyBunny]

On 3/15/2017 at 6:17 PM, AquaticEngineer said:

I'm importing them from an Australian collector who is permitted to take a few berried males each year.  He keeps the adults until the eggs hatch out in captivity, then raises and sells the captive hatched young.  I collect and sell temperate livestock from the west coast of the US, but when there is super cool temperate species available to import I bring those in for sale also

 

 

I see them quite regularly on a Sri Lankan suppliers list and they are not cheap, about $4500 retail. He captive raises them as well as 4 other species of seahorses. Anyway, that's pretty cool that he can do that and you can offer them for sale!!

[Brigitte]

I don't see any recent posts regarding Sea Dragons, but some information I have gathered in 2021 about them is the following: Sea Dragons are endangered and highly protected, they only live and thrive in a very small area off the Southern coast of Australia, only one impregnated male is given or donated each year to large aquariums and institutions, they are not available for private sale anymore, that even in specialized environments with experts at work, Sea Dragons have not yet been bred in captivity with any success, the main reason being that even marine biologists just cannot replicate their natural environment well enough, so perhaps a millionaire may be able to buy one, but today I would think this would be highly unlikely, for the waters where they naturally live are patrolled day and night, you can't find them anywhere else in the world nor get away with taking one away from this tiny area where they live, and even if you managed to illegally capture and get one home, it wouldn't live very long, maybe long enough to rip off some rich person, so forget about it! That said, seahorses (which are the closest thing to a Sea Dragon) can be found in the oceans all over the world, easily bred in captivity, and seahorses are not only sold as aquarium pets, but are also sold as dried snacks and for medicinal purposes in places like Japan. Nature takes care of itself, and I for one don't believe that human beings are any real threat to the animals or wildlife on this planet, mankind ought to spend time protecting, preserving, and caring for his/her own, and then consider how best to not get unnecessarily involved with the animal kingdom we share this planet Earth with.  

[Tired]

Don't know where you're seeing that they've never been bred in captivity. And the problem isn't maintaining them, several places have had them for awhile. The problem before that wasn't about replicating their natural environment, it was just about food. 

https://aquarium.ucsd.edu/conservation/our-work/seadragon-breeding-programs

 

Pretty sure they aren't patrolling the entire Great Barrier Reef day and night, specifically looking for people hunting sea dragons. And clearly the guy who made this thread imported them somehow. I doubt it was illegal, since he's posted it publically. 

 

And seahorses are notably threatened by being collected for snacks and medicinal purposes. Only some of them are easily bred in captivity. 

 

You also really, REALLY need to take a look at the number of species that are endangered or extinct entirely as a result of humans. We're absolutely a threat to loads of wildlife. 

 

Also, we need to be involved with the animal kingdom, we're part of it. We can't seal ourselves in boxes and never touch nature again, that's not healthy or realistic for us at all. We just need to be much, much more careful than we currently are.