VARIATION OF TEMPERATURE AND ZEOLITE APPLICATION ON SIMULATED TRANSPORT OF CULTURED JUVENILE SEA CUCUMBER (Holothuria scabra)

Sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra) aquaculture practice required different sites for the juvenile and grow-out phase. While broodstock conditioning, spawning, and nursery phase were mostly conducted in an indoor hatchery, the juvenile needs to be reared outdoor in saltwater pond, sea pens, or ex-situ grow-out sites. However, information on optimal transport condition with regards to post-transport survival from the hatchery to the grow-out sites is limited. These gaps of knowledge required immediate research since the demand for sustainable sea cucumber culture is constantly increasing, whether for commercial or conservation (restocking) purposes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of transportation methods of juvenile sandfish by combining temperature and zeolite treatment. The variation of temperature (low and ambient) combined with the use of zeolite treatment on simulated transport condition of sea cucumber juvenile were evaluated in this study. This experiment used 3 (three) replicate groups consisting of 10 (ten) individual hatchery-produced sea cucumber juvenile (less than 0.1 g weight) held in 4 (four) different treatments of temperature and zeolite addition to medium water for 12 hours duration of simulated transport. The monitoring result of water quality (pH and ammonia) and the survival rate of sea cucumber juvenile observed within 7 (seven) days post-transport suggests that pH and survival rate were affected by the temperature regime and zeolite addition. The addition of zeolite and the increase of temperature tend to decrease pH values. However, the excessive decrease of temperature should be avoided during the transportation process as it tends to reduce the survival rate of sea cucumber juvenile.