The interesting thing about leafy seadragons is that the males get pregnant with the babies and give birth to the young ones Like their seahorse relatives, male seadragons brood the eggs, which are incubated on a brood pouch on the underside of the tail The males hatch two clutches of eggs in a year out of which only 5% will survive.
Hector Marchena
They reach sexual maturity by one to two years of age, at which time the males court females
A female produces up to 250 pink eggs
They are fertilized when she deposits them onto the male's tail The eggs attach to a region called the brood patch, which supplies eggs with oxygen until they hatch. Leafy seadragons usually live a solitary lifestyle When the time comes, males court the females, they then pair up to breed
From the moment they hatch, leafy seadragons are completely independent By the age of two, they are typically full grown and ready to breed Their ability to blend seamlessly with seaweed is so effective that even predators often overlook them. Seadragons attain sexual maturity at around 28 months, and congregate every winter to search out mates
The remainder of the time, they lead a mainly solitary life among the many weeds, dwelling for wherever between 5 and ten years.
Although both weedy and leafy sea dragons have prominent appendages, they are most pronounced in the leafy sea dragon, in which they appear to break up its body shape and allow it to blend in with surrounding vegetation. Male seadragons are responsible for childbearing Three hundred or more eggs are fertilized during the transfer from the female to the male The male incubates the eggs in a brood patch on the underside of his tail and carries them to term, releasing miniature seadragons into the water after about six to eight weeks.
As with its seahorse kin, a male leafy sea dragon carries its mate’s eggs until the eggs hatch But unlike seahorses, male sea dragons don’t have a pouch Instead, a male sea dragon carries the eggs on the underside of its tail in a brood patch that develops as mating season approaches.
