Weedy seadragon colour variation

IMHO, its rare to see two Weedy's close together, but I saw two skinny guy's, possibly juveniles, moving along almost in unison last Friday. Again there was sand on the outside so I moved over there and dropped onto it a metre ahead of them (Yes, I checked out what I was dropping on). To my amazement both of them came right up to me to the point that I couldn't move for fear hitting one.

I'm interested in your observations about not seeing them together. What about the incidence of weedys and leafys in the same location? I had the good fortune to encounter juvenile weedys and leafys on a twilight/night dive off Rottnest Island in WA last July.

Eleanor

I'm off to Sydney for a month on 20th April so any tips on where to dive around there would be great.

There are lots of great places around Sydney to dive, however, Sydney is a large city and the best places to dive will be somewhat dependent on where you're staying and how you're getting around. If you'll be relying on public transport, your choices are going to be limited. If you'll have a car, then it will open up a lot more places.

You can see weedy sea dragons on both the north side (e.g. Shelly Beach, North Head) and the south side (e.g. Bare Island, Kurnell) and even further afield (e.g. Bass Point/Shell Harbour).

If you can hook up with a dive club/shop, you can probably tag along on a club dive. I regularly dive with St George Underwater who mostly visit sites on the south side and can highly recommend them.

IMHO, its rare to see two Weedy's close together...

Interesting... I know I have fairly often seen 2 or even 3 in relatively close proximity - less than a couple of metres apart. This has been at Bare Island, Kurnell (anywhere from The Leap to The Monument) and Shelly Beach.

Ah... I'm talking within a metre of one another, almost side by side, like you Andrew have seen them a couple of metres apart but rarely side by side (only 3 or 4 times) even if one was feeding on a mass of mysids within sight of another.

Elanor.....if only we had Leafy's on the East coast

Scubadiva, I'd echo Andrew's comments...give us more info and we will point you in the right direction.

Aengus

Aengus, that's a phenomenal photo of the weedy eggs! You even managed the embryonic eye contact

But yes, they look a lot more like the egg colour I'm used to. Perhaps it's something to do with adult diet or developmental stage of the embryos or something.

With something so great to look at as your weedy's and leafy's, why did we have to import Lionfish into the carib instead of these?

Dave

Nice shots all. Really never cease to be amazed at the earths amazing critters.....

I've found most of our Weedy's in Albany WA to be the greener variety, however I have found an orange variation as well. The green one is the most likely you will encounter.

I wonder if the colour variation has to do with their diet?

Karl

A number of people in NSW have done Masters or PhD's on Weedy's/Syngnathids but I can't find much online right now, except for these;

http://sims.org.au/research/Booth-UTS-seadragonsuts.cfm

and you can get Booth's full report here for AU$25;

http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF05220.htm

and also related to that research,

http://weedy-seadragons.blogspot.com

There was a group in South Australia called Dragon Search and they are now Reef Watch, couple of reports here; http://www.reefwatch.asn.au/reports.html#ds

Aengus

Here's a few more from Sydney NSW, home of the handsomest weedies