World Aquaculture 2023

May 29 - June 1, 2023

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

PERFORMANCE OF SANDFISH SEA CUCUMBER Holothuria scabra JUVENILES IN AN IMTA SYSTEM WITH FORKTAIL RABBIT FISH Siganus argenteus

Dr. Manoj R. Nair 1 and  Kathleen Cañete Dacanay 2

1 College of Micronesia Land Grant Program (NIFA,USDA), Aquaculture Research, Extension Training and Technology Development PO BOX 1179, Kolonia, Pohnpei FM 96941, Federated States of Micronesia

 

2 Our Lady of Mercy High School, Kolonia, Pohnpei, State, Federated States of

  Micronesia

 



The College of Micronesia Land Grant Program has undertaken the development Hatchery based Sandfish Sea cucumber, Holothuria scabra farming technology for local community based economic development, future commercialization and aiming at restocking the depleted stocks in the wild. In this regard, an experiment was conducted to find out the effect of polyculture on the growth, survival of Sandfish Sea cucumber, juveniles in floating Ocean Nursery Hapa Net System – II with and without Forktail Rabbitfish (Siganus argenteus) fingerlings in an IMTA polyculture system.   The experiment aims to find out if any significant improvements in the growth and survival of juvenile Sandfish Sea cucumbers can be achieved by polyculturing them with Rabbit fish fingerlings. Sandfish sea cucumber juveniles were stocked at 20 pieces per floating hapas in duplicates as controls and a second treatment batch of 20 juveniles were grown in poly culture with 100 Rabbitfish fingerlings in duplicates. A third treatment of just 100 Rabbitfish fingerlings were grown in duplicates. The experiment was run for 30 days at the end of which time the growth (length and wet weight) and survival were tabulated for each treatment by measuring all surviving animals of fish and sea cucumbers. The Rabbitfish were fed daily a commercial feed at 5 % body weight in both the treatments while the control animals of sea cucumber juveniles would be just grazing on algae from the hapa net enclosures. Results showed a significant increase in growth of sandfish juveniles and Rabbitfish fingerlings in terms of wet weight when both were poly cultured in an IMTA set up than separately. No significant improvement in survival was noticed among the treatments. The results show promise for polyculture of early sea cucumber juveniles with pelagic fish like Rabbitfish in an IMTA setup.