Introduction
One of the main problems in sea cucumber aquaculture is its reliance on wild stocks subjected to high fishing pressures, making it increasingly hard to find proper broodstock for large-scale production. Furthermore, these organisms lose weight and quality the longer they stay in captivity. It is time and space consuming to keep them in land facilities, and their cyclical nature makes it challenging to generate proper genetic selection efforts. For this reason, most aquaculture efforts relies on the sea ranching approach This work is the first report of a series of viable spawns by H. floridana organisms entirely produced in captivity.
Methods
Sea cucumber juveniles produced from a wild broodstock population (F0) obtained during the summer of 2022 were kept in recirculating aquaculture systems in land facilities and subjected to multiple experiments related to densities, diets, and holding tanks to evaluate suitable cultivation protocols.
In October 2023, an F1 male spawned spontaneously, prompting the use of induction protocols to determine if these organisms were viable as broodstock. Two inductions were made, the first on October 6 and the second one on October 12, two days before the new moon.
Results and discussion
All the F1 organisms that spawned were around 14 months old and were small compared to normal wild broodstock but spawned in October, out of the spawning season for the species in the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico. The average number of eggs obtained was low compared to the egg counts from wild broodstock (4,830 vs. 100,000) (Table 1).
Juvenile (F2) survival was slightly higher than that of wild broodstock (around 5 % after three months), while growth has been similar, with an average of 0.5 g after 3 months. These organisms remain in captivity with improved protocols for further research.
Conclusion
This report proves that it is possible to produce FI sea cucumber broodstock in captivity and keep them entirely in inland facilities. Further research is needed in nutrition and maintaining methods and systems to improve growth, egg production, and genetic selection strategies to generate new lines with desirable attributes.