4.3. Possibility of co-culture of fish with sea cucumbers
The survival of A. japonicus juvenileswhichwere deployed at themiddle
layer below the fish cages during 238 days was very high (96%).
Moreover, all 9 juveniles used for the long-term (545 days) monitoring
grew to the marketable size, indicating the possibility of IMTA in which
finfish and sea cucumber are co-cultured. Advantages of the suspended
culture of sea cucumbers below fish cages include that (1) sea cucumbers
are able to avoid conditions of low salinity, high temperature (sea surface),
and deoxygenation (seabed) as well as benthic predators such as
sea stars as previously reported for field and/or aquaculture populations
of A. japonicus (Dong et al., 2008; Hatanaka et al., 1994; Hu et al., 2010;
Yamamoto et al., 2003) and that (2) there is an abundant supply of
food originating from fish feed.