Young weedy seadragons are born independent and receive no parental care after they are hatched and released into the external environment.

After the female weedy seadragon deposits the eggs into the male’s brood patch and the male carries the eggs until they hatch, the young receive no parental care because they are released into the external environment.

After hatching, young weedy seadragons spend two or three days in the yolk sac of the egg, where they continue to be nourished. After the young leave the yolk sac, they are independent and begin feeding on copepods and rotifers shortly after.

^{• Image | © VirtualWolf, Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-SA 2.0)
• Sources | (Dawson, 1985; Forsgren & Lowe, 2006; Frostic, 2000; Morrison & Storrie, 1999; Pollom, 2017; Sanchez-Camara, Booth, & Turon, 2005; The Wikimedia Foundation, 2019)}

Learn More About the Weedy Seadragon