Holothuria scabra are tropical sea cucumbers that are widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and are consideredto be a delicacy in China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.Since they can be easily harvested in the wild, populationsin sea beds around Plug-in Stove Hotplate Thailand have been decreasing.This problem has led to the construction of hatcheries and growoutfacilities in order to effectively culture these high-priced species.
However, there is a disadvantage in farm-grown productionof these species due to its slow growth as it usually takes two years from hatching to marketable size.To increase its growthrate, we have tried co-culturing H.scabra with red tilapia under 30 ppt seawater.
We found that insulatd food jar growth and survival of thesea cucumbers was significantly higher when being co-cultured than when being cultured alone, while the growth ratesof red tilapia showed no change or showed an increase.This co-culture would be a strategy to improve inland culture perfor-mance of H.scabra, during which income from growing red tilapia is achieved.