Effects of water temperature, age of feces, light intensity and shelter on the consumption of sea urchin feces by the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Yu, Yushi; Sun, Jiangnan; Zhao, Zihe; Ding, Peng; Yang, Mingfang; Hu, Fangyuan; Qiao, Yihai; Luo, Wei; Chang, Yaqing; Zhao, Chong

doi:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2022.738134

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Interest is primarily driven by shellfish and finfish aquaculture proponents who are thinking of farming California sea cucumbers at existing suspended shellfish culture sites or finfish net-pen sites. That concept fits well with the principles of integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) [6], whereby cocultured deposit feeders (e.g., sea cucumbers) may help to ameliorate increased organic loading associated with aquaculture via their feeding activity, which recycles nutrients and bioturbates sediments [7][8][9][10][11]. The first objective of this study was therefore to determine if high densities of California sea cucumbers on shellfish aquaculture sites were able to fully or partially mitigate the increased organic loading associated with farming activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

California Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus californicus) Abundance and Movement on a Commercial Shellfish Aquaculture Farm

Curtis,

Pearce,

van Dam-Bates

et al. 2023

Diversity

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California sea cucumbers (Apostichopus californicus) are often abundant at oyster farms in British Columbia, Canada both on the suspended gear as juveniles and on the seafloor beneath them as a mixture of juveniles and adults. Their natural abundance, high value, and potential to mitigate benthic organic loading has led to an interest in their coculture with oysters. Whether farmed sea cucumbers ought to be contained to physically separate them from wild stocks is debated. The present three-year field study examined the movement of wild California sea cucumbers on/off an operational oyster farm (~3000 m2) to help inform future sea cucumber aquaculture development. Sea cucumber effects on organic loading, immigration to/emigration from the farm, and the efficacy of various containment-material mesh types and sizes were examined. Juvenile and adult sea cucumber densities on the farm steadily increased from the end of winter through the end of summer, likely due in large part to juveniles falling off the suspended oyster gear, which occurred at an average rate of ~780 ind d−1 (for the whole farm) in the summer months. The largest increase in abundance on the farm was observed between January and March/April, when the population increased by 100–350 ind d−1. Between late summer and early winter, sea cucumbers emigrated from the farm at a rate of 50–90 ind d−1, neither juvenile nor adult densities on the farm changing appreciably over the winter. The sea cucumber density showed a progressive decrease in the first 20 m from the farm, after which the animals were scarcely noticed. Apostichopus californicus did not significantly decrease sediment organics beneath the farm compared to a nearby control site, but such an effect may have been lost due to their seasonal feeding cycles and/or the presence of other benthic grazers that were not part of our exclusion trial. Overall, our findings suggest that the separation of farmed and wild California sea cucumbers on a shellfish farm can only be guaranteed through containment, given the dynamic immigration and emigration patterns of wild stocks. Through laboratory trials, we found that individuals of A. californicus were able to squeeze through mesh as small as 32% of their contracted width and could escape fenced areas (90 ± 4% escape from nylon fencing and 40 ± 8% escape from VexarTM fencing) unless the fencing extended above the water surface (where there was no escape from either type).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

California Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus californicus) Abundance and Movement on a Commercial Shellfish Aquaculture Farm

Curtis,

Pearce,

van Dam-Bates

et al. 2023

Diversity

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“…We recorded the experiment for an hour using a digital camera (Legria HF20; Canon, Tokyo, Japan). We subsequently calculated the number of grasping times and the staying time in both the feces side and the feed side to determine the food preference of sea cucumbers according to our previous method (Yu et al, 2022).…”

Section: Food Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of sea urchin feces on behaviors, digestion ability, growth, and resistance of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Qiao

Ding

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Improving the aquaculture production efficiency by appropriate diets is an essential approach to meeting the increasing market demand for sea cucumbers. The feces of sea urchins, which contains various enzymes and microorganisms, is a potentially cost-effective food for sea cucumbers. To assess the usability of the fecal diet, a five-week laboratory simulation is conducted to investigate behaviors, digestion ability, growth and resistance ability of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus fed with fecal diet at water temperatures of 15°C and 5°C. In the present study, A. japonicus fed with fecal diet shows an obvious preference to fecal diet rather than prepared feed at water temperatures of both 15°C and 5°C, which suggests that the feces is an applicable diet for A. japonicus. Furthermore, small A. japonicus fed with feces (group F) shows significant advantages in intestinal community richness, community diversity and intestine protease activity to A. japonicus fed with prepared feed (group S) at 15°C. These results indicate that the fecal diet provides benefits to digestion ability of small A. japonicus at 15°C. Weight gaining rate is significantly higher in the A. japonicus fed with feces than that in A. japonicus that were fed with feed or not fed with food (group C), which suggests that the direct improvement of the production efficiency at 15°C. The advantages in intestinal bacteria, protease activity, and growth are consistently found in group F compared with group S at 5°C. In addition, the composition of intestinal bacteria indicates that sea cucumbers may inherit the intestinal bacteria of sea urchins through fecal consumption. This suggests that the fecal diet enhances the digestion ability and enzyme activity at low water temperature and thus improves the growth of sea cucumbers. Furthermore, sea cucumbers fed with sea urchin feces have the highest survival rate among the three groups in exposure to an acute salinity decrease at both 5 and 15°C, indicating a better resistance to low salinity. This provides a new insight into the geographical expansion to low-salinity areas in sea cucumber aquaculture. In conclusion, the present study suggests that sea urchin feces have a great potential for the application in improving the production efficiency of sea cucumber aquaculture.

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Effects of dietary Bacillus baekryungensis on body wall nutrients, digestion and immunity of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Liu

Bai

et al. 2023

Fish Sci

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Effects of water temperature, age of feces, light intensity and shelter on the consumption of sea urchin feces by the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Cited by 8 publications

References 32 publications

California Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus californicus) Abundance and Movement on a Commercial Shellfish Aquaculture Farm

California Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus californicus) Abundance and Movement on a Commercial Shellfish Aquaculture Farm

Effects of sea urchin feces on behaviors, digestion ability, growth, and resistance of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

Effects of dietary Bacillus baekryungensis on body wall nutrients, digestion and immunity of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

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