Fish Files in your Backyard
Leafy Seadragon (Phycodurus eques)
Where do I live?
I love to live over sand patches and in kelp reefs in temperate waters. A perfect place for me is the southern and western coast of Australia.
What do I look like?
I look very similar to a common seahorse but have leafy appendages that help me to camouflage into kelp reefs. My appendages are not used for movement and I generally glide slowly through Australian waters. Fully grown, I reach approximately 45 cm.
What do I eat?
My favourite food is larval fishes if I can find them. I also eat amphipods which are small shrimp-like crustaceans. I eat by sucking these tiny creatures into my tiny mouth.
What is unique about me?
I have no predators! This is due to a combination of my superb camouflage adaptation as well as a collection of tough jointed plats and dorsal spines.
How Common am I?
Many people want to take me home to their aquariums, which at one point brought me very near to extinction. These days, there are very strict rules regulating my export which has helped to replenish populations in my native area.
Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma flavescens)
Where do I live?
I love to spend my time in shallow reefs between 2 to 46 meters in depth. The best place for this is in the Pacific and Indian Oceans west of Hawaii and east of Japan.
What do I look like?
I am in the surgeonfish family and can reach about 20 cm long and 2 cm in thickness. During the day I am a very bright yellow colour. At night, however, my colour fades and a brown patch develops. This allows me to blend in with my surroundings better at night.
What do I eat?
If I am left in the wild, I love to eat benthic turf algae and other plant matter. When I’m kept in captivity, however, people usually feed meat/fish based aquarium pellets to me. This is not good for me in the long term.
What is unique about me?
In the wild I am very friendly to marine turtles. I provide them with a cleaning service for their shells and in return I get a yummy algae snack for my efforts.
How Common am I?
I am less susceptible to disease than other tangs, which makes me a common fish in reefs. However, I am also the most common saltwater aquarium fish. This high demand for me in captivity is damaging my native population.