Food Composition in the Hull of Sand Cucumber (Holothuriascabra) Kept at Floating Net Cages

Abstract

Food is one of the factor which is important in determine organism viability in nature. Studying various kind of food which is consumed by an organism can be used as basic data in the preservation of the organism, so that the water resources decrease at nature, because environmental degradation and capture can be overcome by cultivation. As well as other aquatic organisms that are cultivated, sea cucumber can also be cultivated. Cultivation of sand cucumbers in floating net cages based on the existing cultivation facilities with the aim of policulture cultivation to maintain sand cucumbers together with other aquatic biota such as fish. The purpose of this study is to know what types of food that exist in the hull of sea cucumbers which kept in the floating net cage with sago palm waste treatment and chicken manure. The research was conducted from August to October 2016, starting with sand sea cucumber sampling which was kept in floating net cage with treatment of sago palm waste (A), chicken manure (B) and mixture of both (C). The research was continued by analyzing the contents of the hull ofsea cucumber in the biology laboratory of Darussalam University of Ambon. The results of the research found that the food composition in the hull of sea cucumber with three treatments were dominated by the Diatom or Baccilariophyceae class of fitoplankton consisting of 113 species belonging to 35 genus.