Sea cucumber (<i>Holothuria tubulosa</i> Gmelin, 1790) culture under marine fish net cages for potential use in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA)

Abstract

In this study, integrated aquaculture of Mediterranean sea cucumber species <i>Holothuria tubulosa</i> under finfish net cages was investigated. To evaluate whether <i>H.tubulosa </i> can be reared under net cage farms without additional feed and to compare growth performances, three underwater ranches (10x10m), just below a net cage (A), between the net cages (B) and 750 m away from the net cage systems (K) were set. Fifty sea cucumbers (92.81±2.29 g) were placed into each research station and growth performances like specific growth rate (SGR) and weight gain were observed for 90 days. SGR of sea cucumbers in stations A, B and K were 0.32±0.04, 0.22±0.02 and 0.10±0.01 %/d, respectively. The highest mean weight gain 31.11±0.84 g was recorded at station A where the lowest was in station K as 8.89±0.12 g. Organic carbon and organic material amount of research stations significantly affected the final mean weights of sea cucumbers where the highest growth was determined at the stations A and B. The results suggest that integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems combined with finfish and sea cucumber <i>H. tubulosa</i> under net cages would provide by-products to aquaculture farms without an extra feed costs in the Mediterranean Sea.