Key Points of Daily Management Techniques for Sea Cucumber Aquaculture
The sea cucumber was originally named shali. Because its whole body is covered with fleshy spines and it looks quite like a cucumber, it is also vividly called “sea cucumber.” Its nutritional value is extremely high. As a precious tonic that prolongs life, it is hailed as the ginseng of the sea, hence the name sea cucumber. According to expert analysis, sea cucumbers are mainly composed of large amounts of mucin and various amino acids, and have anti-tumor, anti-coagulant and anti-aging effects.
1. Pond conditions
Sea cucumbers generally inhabit shallow seas at 3m-15m, and like to live on rocky reef seabeds with calm currents and lush seaweed, or on relatively hard muddy and sandy seabeds overgrown with eelgrass. They cannot tolerate low salinity; the most suitable salinity is 28-38. Therefore, ponds should be built in sea areas that are broad, clear in water quality, rich in bait, far from river mouths and free of pollution. Under such conditions, sea cucumbers grow relatively quickly.
Sea cucumbers like to attach to hard substrates. To farm sea cucumbers, such an environment must be specially created for them by placing stones, tiles, cement bricks and so on at the bottom of the pond to build artificial reefs. Because stones have a relatively large surface area and grow relatively much basal bait, they can provide food for sea cucumbers, so building reefs with stones has the best effect.
After the pond is built, release the seedlings. Seedling selection should emphasize early, large and strong, that is, the first batch of eggs laid is relatively robust, so early seedlings should be selected; if seedlings are relatively abundant, large seedlings should be selected as much as possible; among the large seedlings of the same batch, if they are all very large, strong seedlings should be selected. It should be noted that the stocking density must be reasonable, as excessive stocking density can cause disease.
2. Seedling selection
Select disease-free, uninjured seedlings with a size of 3cm-10cm, and stock 2000-6000 individuals per 1/15 hectare. If the stocking density is too high, it may cause disease or even result in failure to grow large, making the commercial rate too low.
3. Aquaculture management
The daily management of sea cucumbers is simple. First is water exchange. With free tidal-flow aquaculture, water must be taken in twice a day. Too little water exchange can easily lead to disease.
Sea cucumbers have a strong ability to adapt to temperature and can grow normally within a water temperature range of 0℃-20℃. However, when the temperature exceeds 28℃, measures such as shading and water exchange are needed to lower the temperature. Routine feeding management is relatively simple. Sea cucumbers mainly feed on plankton, benthic diatoms and organic debris. The bait organisms in seawater can basically meet their growth needs. In seasons with little plankton, an appropriate amount of feed can be given.
Sea cucumbers have few natural enemies, mainly Japanese sturgeon and sea bass. Once found, they should be removed promptly.