A Southern California aquarium has built the world's largest habitats for sea dragons. The Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego opened this month. They hope it will lead to the lesser-known kind of seahorse, leafy sea dragon being bred for the first time in captivity. The Birch Aquarium has three leafy sea dragons including two males and one female. Mystery Sea Creature Found in Thailand: Fishermen Baffled to See Weird Marine Animal Caught in Their Net, Watch Video.

The 5.5-meter-long tank also has 11 weedy sea dragons. It contains 20,062-liter water and which is especially for the smaller leafy sea dragon. It grows only about 36 centimetres in length. The tank also has grassy plants, with sand at the bottom and rocks. The rare sea creatures which are native to Australia are threatened by pollution, warming oceans and the illegal pet and alternative medicine trades. Mystery Sea Creature Washes Ashore Canterbury Beach in New Zealand.

Here is the picture of the sea dragon:

Leslee Matsushige, the aquarium's associate curator said, "They look like something out of this world. When people see them move, you hear them say, 'What? That's alive? Wow! That's crazy.'" Dayton News Daily quoted Steven Kowal, a visitor to the aquarium as saying, "It literally just looked like a piece of kelp. It was crazy to me that it was, like, actually living and swimming around, so that's cool. I've never seen anything like that."

Watch the video below:

Scientists hope the sea dragons copy each other in a courtship dance before the female deposits her eggs onto a side of the male's tail. Just like seahorses, the male carries the baby and gives birth. Sea dragons swim by spinning translucent fins and their tails act as rudders. The creatures do not have natural predators as their slender bodies are covered with bony plates.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 23, 2019 08:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).