Analysis of Productivity of a Polyculture Container for Suspended Rearing of Abalones and Sea cucumbers

Abstract

We have developed a polyculture container which is preferable for rearing of abalones and sea cucumbers in East Sea. To test the rearing capacity of the polyculture container, 50, 75 and 100 sea cucumbers ranging from the body length of 7-9 cm were cultured in three containers including 500 abalones with the shell length of about 5 cm, respectively. It was revealed that preferable density for sea cucumbers was 52-72 individuals in the polyculture container. Glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase and glutamate pyruvate transaminase were analyzed with Reflotron kit to investigate the health degree of abalones in two polyculture containers including 300 and 500 abalones with the shell length of about 5 cm. Glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase has been an important tool to know myocardial infarction, disease of liver, and destruction of muscle. Next experiment was conducted to determine the effects on growth of abalones and sea cucumbers in polyculture container. Experimental findings, RNA/DHA ratio, DNA and RNA contents (ug/mg) were not significantly different among all groups. The results imply that the method of polyculture can be rearing with sea cucumber without growth retardation of abalone. Production ability between polyculture container and the container used in south sea were carried out using suspended culture method during 8months. It was revealed that abalones and sea cucumbers are faster growing in polyculture container than in container used in south sea. Therefore, polyculture container is considered more appropriate for the abalones and sea cucumbers culture in East Sea.

A Study on Polyculture of Oyster (Crassostrea gigas), Sea Squirt (Halocynthia roretzi) and Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) Under a Hanging Culture System

“…In the study of Oh et al (2013) the maximum distance of movement was 0.75 m at a water temperature of 10 °C, 0.1 m at 13 °C, and 0.2 m at 19 °C. Nam, Lee, Moon, Kim & Hwang (2011) carried out an experimental polyculture of abalone and sea cucumber and found that sea cucumbers grew at an average monthly rate of 5.4 g in the east coast type of farm and at an average monthly rate of 4.8 g in the south coast type. The present study showed a continual growth without estivation, which was assumed to be because the animals were reared at temperatures below 20 °C at a depth of 15 m. Lee, Gil, Lee, Kim & Hur (2018) presented that sea cucumbers with an average weight of 2.3 g grew to 12.5 g in an experimental area of reefs after 1 year with a specific growth rate of 0.03 g/day.…”

“…It is expected that this study will contribute to increase income of aquaculture farmers and it would help to improving the environment of aquaculture farms. There are numerous studies on the sea cucumber polyculture using abalones, oysters and scallops which were designed to identify the function of sea cucumbers to feed on organic matter and wastes produced by different farmed animals (Paltzat, Pearce, Barnes & Mckinley, 2008;Nam, Lee, Moon, Kim & Hwang, 2011;Li, Dong, Gao & Zhu, 2014). Yu, Zhou, Yang, Ma & Hu (2014) studied polyculture of fish and sea cucumbers by placing sea cucumber nets under the bottom of a fish cage.…”

“…Seabed under hanging culture farms is mostly muddy without rocks and pebbles, thus it is not considered a suitable place to rear sea cucumbers (Kim, Son, Cho & Jin, 2016). Various studies have been conducted on polyculture of sea cucumber such as polyculture of abalone and sea cucumber (Nam, Lee, Moon, Kim & Hwang, 2011); polyculture of scallop and sea cucumber in cages rearing scallops (Yang, Hamel & Mercier, 2015); sea cucumber-based polyculture using hanging strings or rafts (cage culture) to utilize high filtration capacity of shellfish (Paltzat, Pearce, Barnes & Mckinley, 2008); capacity of sea cucumber to consume scallop feces (Yuan et al 2008); the impact of polyculture on stability of farming facility (Mu & Song, 2005); study on the problem of water temperature (Xing, Liu, Yang, Zhang & Zhou 2012); utilizing shelters for indoor farming; sea cucumber physiology (Kim, Son, Cho & Jin, 2016) and distribution (Kim et al 2017b); as well as shellfish filtration in hanging culture in the coastal ecosystem (Jaramillo, Bertrain & Bravo, 1992;Hatcher, Grant & Schofield, 1994). However, the feasibility of sea cucumber polyculture on seabed under oyster and sea squirt hanging culture farms installed on the surface and middle layers of water has not been yet explored.…”