Culture technology of sea cucumber

Sea cucumbers are recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica: "the body color of sea cucumbers is black and brown, and the meat is waxy and thorny. It not only has the best quality, but also has the effects of tonifying kidney yin, promoting pulse blood, treating dysentery and ulcers. Because its medicinal properties are warm and tonic, it is full of enemies of ginseng, hence the name sea cucumber. "

As sea cucumbers generally take 3-5 years to grow, and most of them grow in the deep sea with a water depth of 5, 6 meters to 20 meters, the growth cycle is long, and it is not convenient to harvest, so the annual harvest is far from meeting the needs of the market.

In recent years, the artificial breeding industry of sea cucumbers in China has developed rapidly, which provides mature technology and sufficient seedlings for the large-scale breeding of sea cucumbers. According to the geographical advantages of different coastal shoals and island harbors, summarize and explore a variety of new techniques for artificial culture of sea cucumbers with different forms and methods.

Marine raft method

Raft culture is the artificial culture of sea cucumbers at sea using cages similar to fish culture. In the sea area of raft culture, it is best to choose an excellent harbor surrounded by mountains on three sides, slow leeward flow and a water depth of 5-9 meters. The cage is made of plank or moderately thick logs with a side length of 4 meters or 6 meters, and the height can be set at 3-4 meters according to the depth of the sea and the tidal range.

In spring and autumn every year, when the sea temperature reaches 8-12 degrees Celsius, it is the best time to release sea cucumber seedlings. At this time, the sea cucumber seedlings in the breeding workshop are about 200-400 per kilogram. Because the individual is large and strong, the survival rate can reach more than 95%. Like this 6 meters square cage, you can put about 200 sea cucumbers per kilogram or so 20-25 kilograms.

In the sea area with more bait and floating mud, the food on the cage can basically meet the needs of sea cucumbers. If you find that there is not enough food, feed it. The easiest way is to choose the sea area with unobstructed water and drag some sediment rich in microorganisms to supplement it, or you can feed it with some synthetic bait made by algae. Usually often check whether the cage is damaged, timely remove fish fry, crabs, starfish and other natural enemies, as well as oysters, sponge and other sundries.

The biggest advantage of raft-cultured sea cucumbers is convenient management and high harvest rate, which generally takes about 2 years to harvest finished sea cucumbers.

Beach captive cultivation method

Where there are shrimp ponds and salt ponds, they can be cultured with a little modification. You can also dig civil ponds on the beach. It is usually chosen to build a pool on a tidal flat which is not easy to be damaged by wind and tide. The size and shape of the pool depends on the geographical environment, generally required to be not less than 50 meters long, not less than 30 meters wide, and the water depth is between 0.8 and 1.3 meters at the lowest tide. The "captive pond" is equipped with one or more entry and exit gates, and filters should be installed at the gates to prevent the entry of fish and various enemies.

The bottom of the pond simulates the natural shape of the sea floor, with stones and hollow bricks stacked into long ridges, leaving room for sea cucumbers to live and settle. The bottom of the pond should maintain the original ecological environment of sea cucumbers as much as possible, and all kinds of seaweed such as kelp, undaria, seaweed and adhesive diatoms should be transplanted. Before throwing seedlings, the breeding land should be disinfected and exposed to sunlight. Disinfection is generally sprinkled with lime water.

The seedling density in the pond is generally 10-15 per square meter. The water exchange in captivity of the beach mainly uses the rising and falling tide range of the sea water to exchange water, and it can also use artificial water exchange. It is generally required that the daily water exchange rate is about 1 pound, 3-1 stroke, 4 or so. Natural food is the main food for captive sea cucumbers, and artificial synthetic food is added according to seasonal water temperature, individual sea cucumbers and stocking density.

Captive sea cucumbers have the characteristics of small investment, easy to manage, close to the natural environment, high recovery rate and fast growth. The growth cycle of captive sea cucumbers is generally about two years.

Submarine cultivation method

This method is mainly to make up for the lack of natural reproduction of sea cucumbers, through the artificial release of sea cucumber seedlings to increase the density of sea cucumbers, so as to increase the yield of sea cucumbers. In the spring and autumn season when the water temperature is suitable, when the natural water temperature reaches 8-10 degrees, choose a sunny and calm day, put the sea cucumber seedlings of more than 3 centimeters into net bags or bamboo baskets, dive into the sea floor and put them among the reefs, let them crawl naturally, evacuate, and freely choose a place to settle down. The density of the bottom broadcast is generally 7 per square meter. During the bottom sowing, we should pay attention to the temperature difference between the temperature in the pool and the temperature in the sea area, which generally cannot exceed 2 degrees. The sea area should choose the running water is gentle, the bait is rich, the enemy harm is less. The sea area alternating between gravel and sediment.

The main characteristics of this method are simple and easy to operate, low cost, sea cucumbers grow in the natural environment, the growth rate is fast, generally 2 years can be harvested.

In general, the combination of raft culture and beach captive culture, raft culture and seafloor culture is a more scientific culture method.

Artificial culture of sea cucumbers is a new mariculture project in recent years. Due to the increasing maturity of culture technology and the rapid development of culture area, it has expanded into an important pillar industry. We believe that with the continuous progress of science and technology, it will have an important impact on the artificial culture of sea cucumbers and the intensive processing and comprehensive utilization of sea cucumbers, and usher in a better tomorrow for our lives.