weedy seadragon price

You need special licenses too keep them and a really huge tank.
It will cost thousands just to get a tank and the rights to own one.
 
I don't have any now, but I've gotten them in the past and a store here in FL listed them last summer on special order for only $475.00 each. When I had mine they were a little less and I got them from a wholesaler in LA (I think it was aquatic depot before they moved in the early 90's) They require cooler water, I kept them in the low 70's in summer and room temp in winter, back then I lived in San Diego. Don't know about needing a special permit to keep them, but you do need paperwork to import them. Good luck if you get any, I loved mine, but its one of those "too many fish, too little time" things.
 
or i doubt that you owned a real weedy seadragon. like stated above.. very difficult to obtain and costly.

unless they were imported illegally of course
 
I got mine from the same people who imported them when Scripps got the first ones they had, there is no mistaking the real weedy sea dregons, I had the leafy sea dragons available at the same time, there is no other fish that look even close to them. they are not that difficult to obtain if you are willing to pay, and they are imported from time to time legally, like I said last summer the store had a whole shipment of temperate australian fish including the blue devil the western devil, conspic angels, several of the really wierd box fish and some really interesting temperate file fish, all legal and imported from australia. I didn't buy any at that time, but I saw them. And since he was the importer and selling retail, they were for sale at or around wholesale prices, much less then I've seen them offered elsewhere.
 
I know there are 2 breeders in Australia of weedy sea dragons and I used to work with a collector who used to export the temperate water species from here as well as the tropical fish such as personifer, scribble angels, butterflies and clown fish.
I have the opportunity to purchase a license that entitles me to collect weedy sea dragons and just wanted to know if it is worth me spending nearly $500 000 to collect rare species if I cannot sell the fish.
 
everybody would love to own one of these. i believe endangered species should only be kept in captivity in public aquariums for awareness and educational purposes, not for any individual's gain.
 
Not to start an argument, but I used to belong to a freshwater club that only bred endangered animals, there is no money or interest for many of these animals to be bred by the governments and pollution is one of the biggest threats to all aquatic animals, it is people who love the animals and buy them that helps fund and protect any given sp that is able to be maintained in captivity. One thing you should know is many public aquaruims don't breed very many of the animals they have, they just display them (I know this from experience working with 3 different aquariums and 1 natural history museum) for public awareness and to fund other projects that they may be working on. Just think about it, there are lots of weedy sea dragons in aquariums, why don't they just breed them instead of import new ones? The reason is it isn't economical for them to do it. That is not to say that they don't do good for a species or the environment, just that it is individuals with a love for a species that often do more with their rescources then a public aquarim or zoo (for example, there are more endangered tigers bred privately then by zoos). Just something to think about.
 
FYI: The Dallas World Aquarium has a breeding project for Leafy and Weedy Seadragons, as well as "weedy" pipefish (look very similar to weedy seadragons).
 
Dallas Aquarium is one of the sponsers who gave breeding stock to the freshwater breeding program I was talking about, good people who work there with a lot of concern for the animals and that is one reason they breed and give out stock to others willing to give them the time and care to breed.
 
They can grow to 18 inches and need a 500 gallon or larger aquarium. They are strictly temperate species and should not be kept above 65, so that means a large chiller.

I have a video of the Aussie guy who has bred and raised both species. He has a permit to take a limited amount of pregnant males and he has had no trouble raising them but the weedies have never mated and bred in his tanks.

Back around 2005 the price was about $2500 each. I have no idea what they cost now or even if they are legal to have at all. Catching them in the wild without a permit is illegal in Australia.
 
philter4 said:
Dallas Aquarium is one of the sponsers who gave breeding stock to the freshwater breeding program I was talking about, good people who work there with a lot of concern for the animals and that is one reason they breed and give out stock to others willing to give them the time and care to breed.
Click to expand...

Mmmm... DWA isn't exactly come across clean and wholesome in their intentions: http://www.care2.com/causes/how-did-dallas-aquarium-almost-get-away-with-taking-8-endangered-pygmy-sloths-from-panama.html

They had paperwork but failed to talk to conservationists/scientists about the effects of taking animals out of a natural population. Ark-ing animals is one thing, but collecting them and looking shady about it makes you wonder...
 
Hi be weary of this I am one of only 2 persons I know of captive raising weedy sea dragons and no one is doing leafies any more as the only permit that was issued was cancelled a few years ago, neither of us who raise them have them on frozen.
And when you click on thier contact link it offer you to open a gmail account

Steve
 
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