Abstract
Abstract: The food consumption rate and absorption efficiency for different foods of the sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus Selenka, were examined in laboratory experiments. Four types of food were provided:‘ sediment’, ‘ sediment and suspended particles’, ‘ sediment and seaweed’ and‘ seaweed’. The consumption rate did not vary between seasons, with the exception of summer, when A. japonicus did not feed at all. However, there was a variation in consumption rate among different food types; daily consumption rate per dry body-weight varied from 0.61to 1.50g/g-body-weight for sediment-based foods(‘ sediment’ and‘ sediment and suspended particles’);and from 0.10 to 0.30g/g-body-weight for seaweed-based foods(‘ sediment and seaweed’ and‘ seaweed’). The consumption rate tended to decrease with increasing total organic carbon(TOC), total nitrogen(TN), and total phosphorus(TP)content in foods. The absorption efficiency(AE)varied precisely among food types. In contrast, the AE varied between seasons only in sediment-based foods. The AE for dry-weight, TOC, TN and TP varied from-3.6 to 56.1%, 18.3 to 51.8%, 16.5 to 56.2%and5.6 to 68.4%, respectively, and tended to rise with increasing TOC, TN and TP content in the food.
