• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.796-800
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• 2014

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the growth and body composition of juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus in integrated culture with abalone Haliotis discus hannai or rockfish Sebastes schlegeli. Triplicate groups of sea cucumber averaging $1.2{\pm}0.05g$ were cultured alone or with abalone or rockfish for 12 weeks. Survival of sea cucumber was not affected by co-culturing (P>0.05). Weight gain of sea cucumber cultured with rockfish was significantly higher than that of sea cucumber cultured alone (P<0.05), and did not differ from that of those cultured with abalone (P>0.05). These findings indicate that co-culturing sea cucumber with rockfish effectively improves the growth of sea cucumber.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2016

The sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus is a commercially valuable aquaculture species in Korea. Aquaculture species require specific nursery culture conditions to increase survival and growth rates. Sea cucumbers hibernate during the high temperatures of summer and during the low temperatures of winter, and suboptimal temperature conditions decrease sea cucumber growth and survival rates. The natural South Korean environment is very unfavorable for culturing sea cucumber; therefore, developing a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) capable of breeding and growing sea cucumber year-round is necessary. The aim of this study was to investigate growth performance of juvenile sea cucumber in a RAS. Growth and survival rates of juvenile sea cucumber were high during our 24-week experiment. Sea cucumber survival rates were 87.8-93.3%, and specific growth rates were 0.4689-0.7846.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.785-789
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• 2014

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding by different feed types (powder, crumble and pellet) of two different feed formulations with simple dried (D) or extruded (E) conditions on growth and body composition of juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. Triplicate groups of sea cucumber averaging $1.2{\pm}0.05g$ were fed each of the D1, D2, EP1 or EP2 diets for 12 weeks. Survival of sea cucumber fed D2-crumble was higher than that fed EP2-crumble diet (P<0.05). Weight gain of sea cucumber fed EP1-powder was higher than that fed EP1-crumble and EP2-crumble diets (P<0.05). These findings indicated that simple dried feed could use independently feed type for sea cucumber culture and powder type of extruded feed is also good for sea cucumber culture.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.26-29
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• 2016

This study investigated the effects of dietary inclusion of sea mud on growth and body composition of juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. In experiment 1, three experimental diets containing sea mud at the level of 0, 30 and 60% were prepared. After feeding trial for 7 weeks, survival was not significantly different among groups. Final mean weight of sea cucumber fed the experimental diet without sea mud supplementation was significantly higher than that of sea cucumber fed the diet containing 30 and 60% sea mud. In experiment 2, three experimental diets containing sea mud at the levels of 0, 15 and 30% were prepared. After feeding trial for 19 weeks, survival was not significantly different among groups. Final mean weight of sea cucumber fed the diet without sea mud supplementation was not significantly different from that of 15%, but was significantly higher than that of sea cucumber fed the diet containing 30% sea mud. It was concluded that dietary inclusion of sea mud may inhibit growth of sea cucumber.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.279-283
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• 2013

We tested the effects of various distillers dried grains (DDGs) in a formulated diet on growth and body composition of juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. DDG is a solid residue obtained by filtering an aqueous mixture of fermented rice with Aspergillus oryzae and yeasts. Six isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets (DDG0, DDG-G, DDG-C, DDG-K, DDG-W, and DDG-P) were formulated to contain 20% DDG obtained from different Makgeolli factories. Juvenile sea cucumber (average weight, $2.1{\pm}0.02$ g) were randomly distributed in eighteen 50-L rectangular plastic tanks (40 L of water each) in a seawater flow-through system at a density of 50 juveniles/tank. Three replicate groups of sea cucumber were fed each of the six experimental diets at a feeding rate of 5% body weight per day for 22 weeks. At the end of the feeding experiment, survival and weight gain of the juvenile sea cucumber were not affected by the type of dietary DDG (P > 0.05), and the proximate and amino acid compositions of the whole body were not affected by dietary DDG diets (P > 0.05). These results indicate that rice-based DDG is a potential dietary ingredient that could be used at dietary concentrations of up to 20% for growth of juvenile sea cucumber.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.400-407
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• 2019

The optimum growth temperature of sea cucumber is $18^{\circ}C$, above $20^{\circ}C$, the appetite declines and the digestive tract is atrophied. At $25^{\circ}C$ or more, it is known that the digestive tract is degenerated as growth is stopped by minimizing metabolic activity. Because of these physiological and ecological characteristics, the growth period of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus is relatively short in the natural environment of Korea where four seasons are clear. Therefore, maintenance of water temperature in sea cucumber culture is very important. This experiment was conducted to investigate the growth and lipid compositions of sea cucumbers at high temperature. Results showed that the growth and survival rates of sea cucumber were not significantly different until $26^{\circ}C$ (P>0.01). The fatty acid compositions of total lipid of sea cucumber tended to increase with saturated fatty acid content and decrease with n-3 fatty acid content at higher water temperature.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.232-240
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• 2019

Approximately 80% of the world's sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicas are processed into dried sea cucumbers. The hot air-drying method is currently used in industry, but it has many problems, such as a short drying time, severe browning, high nutrition loss, and low recovery. In this study, the moisture absorption rate, dry recovery rate, and lipid nutrient composition of sea cucumber dried by heat pump decompression and with a hybrid dryer were investigated. The moisture absorption rates for hybrid-dried sea cucumbers at 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 h were 241.3%, 427.7%, 652.0%, 721.0%, and 742.2%, respectively. The moisture absorption rates for hot air-dried sea cucumbers were 155.8%, 240.0%, 390.3%, 655.5%, and 667.4%, respectively. Thus, moisture absorption was faster and greater with hybrid drying than with hot air drying. The dry recovery rate at 24 h was greater for hybrid-dried sea cucumber (70.7%) than for hot air-dried sea cucumber (59.8%). Saturated fatty acid contents of the hybrid- and hot air-dried sea cucumbers were 30.0% and 37.5%, respectively. Moreover, greater ${\Sigma}n-3$ polyunsaturated fatty acid content was found in hybrid-dried sea cucumber (15.8%) than in hot air-dried sea cucumber (11.7%).

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2010

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary lipid sources on the growth and fatty acid composition of juvenile sea cucumber. For 12 weeks, three replicate groups of sea cucumber (average weight 1.4 g) were fed one of three diets, containing squid liver oil (SLO), soybean oil (SO), or linseed oil (LO) as a dietary lipid source, or a control diet (CON) without added lipids. Sea cucumber survival was not significantly different among dietary treatments (P>0.05). The highest weight gain was observed in sea cucumber fed the SLO diet, whereas the weight gain of sea cucumber fed the SO diet was the lowest among dietary treatments (P<0.05). No significant differences were found in the moisture, crude protein, crude lipid, and ash contents of whole sea cucumber body among dietary treatments (P>0.05). Concentrations of 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 were significantly higher in sea cucumber fed the SLO diet than in those fed on the other diets. The highest 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3 contents were observed in sea cucumber fed the SO and LO diets, respectively. The results of this study suggest that squid liver oil could be used as a good lipid source in formulated diets for juvenile sea cucumber.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.161-167
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• 2016

The effects of fermented fecal solid diets on the growth of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus was investigated in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) during a 90-day experiment at 16.5-17.5℃, 32±0.5 psu salinity, pH 7.9-8.2, and 5.2-7.1 mg/L dissolved oxygen. The aim was to determine the feasibility of RAS fecal solid waste as a renewable feed for A. japonicus. In this study, unfermented fecal solid (UF), fermented fecal solid (FF), and commercial feed (CF) diets were used. The results showed that the growth rate did not differ significantly (P>0.05) between A. japonicus fed FF and CF; however, the growth rates of A. japonicus fed FF and CF were ~50% higher than that of those fed UF. Thus, utilization of fecal solid by A. japonicus may overcome the problem regarding accumulation of RAS waste. Use of a fermentation process would improve utilization of fecal solid as a renewable food source for A. japonicus.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.366-371
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• 2017

Six experimental diets for juvenile sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus were evaluated and compared with current commercial diets. Sea cucumbers (50 per tank; initial mean weight $2.3{\pm}0.1g$) in three replicates of seven groups were fed one of six experimental diets (ED1, 20% wild-harvested Sargassum thunbergii powder; ED2, 20% commercial S. thunbergii powder; ED3, 20% Undaria pinnatifida and Ascophyllum nodosum powders; ED4, 40% U. pinnatifida and A. nodosum powders; ED5, 10% brewer's yeast; and ED6, 10% sea shell powder) or a commercial diet (CD) for 28 weeks. The survival rate in all groups was 85-94%, with no significant difference among the experimental groups. The mean body weight of the sea cucumbers was significantly different among the experimental groups 6 weeks after the feeding trial. The final mean weight of the sea cucumbers was highest in ED1, ED3, and ED4, followed by ED6, ED5, ED2, and CD, in decreasing order. The results of this study suggest that U. pinnatifida and A. nodosum powders could provide a substitute for the S. thunbergii powder commonly used in commercial sea cucumber diets. Thus, the EP4 diet formulation, which contains no S. thunbergii, could be used as a practical feed for juvenile sea cucumbers.