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Effect of culture methods on individual variation in the growth of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus within a cohort and family

  • Biology
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Abstract

There is substantial individual variation in the growth rates of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus individuals. This necessitates additional work to grade the seed stock and lengthens the production period. We evaluated the influence of three culture methods (free-mixed, isolated-mixed, isolated-alone) on individual variation in growth and assessed the relationship between feeding, energy conversion efficiency, and individual growth variation in individually cultured sea cucumbers. Of the different culture methods, animals grew best when reared in the isolated-mixed treatment (i.e., size classes were held separately), though there was no difference in individual variation in growth between rearing treatment groups. The individual variation in growth was primarily attributed to genetic factors. The difference in food conversion efficiency caused by genetic differences among individuals was thought to be the origin of the variance. The level of individual growth variation may be altered by interactions among individuals and environmental heterogeneity. Our results suggest that, in addition to traditional seed grading, design of a new kind of substrate that changes the spatial distribution of sea cucumbers would effectively enhance growth and reduce individual variation in growth of sea cucumbers in culture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Tianlong Qiu  (邱天龙), Libin Zhang  (张立斌), Tao Zhang  (张涛), Yucen Bai  (柏雨岑) & Hongsheng Yang  (杨红生)

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Tianlong Qiu  (邱天龙) & Yucen Bai  (柏雨岑)

Authors
  1. Tianlong Qiu  (邱天龙)
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  2. Libin Zhang  (张立斌)
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  3. Tao Zhang  (张涛)
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  4. Yucen Bai  (柏雨岑)
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  5. Hongsheng Yang  (杨红生)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hongsheng Yang  (杨红生).

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41106134), the National Marine Public Welfare Research Project of China (No. 201305043) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (No. 2012AA10A412), and the Agriculture Science Technology Achievement Transformation Fund (No. 2012GB24910656)

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Qiu, T., Zhang, L., Zhang, T. et al. Effect of culture methods on individual variation in the growth of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus within a cohort and family. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 32, 737–742 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-014-3131-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-014-3131-5

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