Holothuria spinifera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Holothuria spinifera | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Echinodermata |
| Class: | Holothuroidea |
| Order: | Holothuriida |
| Family: | Holothuriidae |
| Genus: | Holothuria |
| Species: | H. spinifera |
| Binomial name | |
| Holothuria spinifera | |
Holothuria spinifera, the brown sandfish, is a species of sea cucumber in the family Holothuriidae. It is placed in the subgenus Theelothuria, making its full name Holothuria (Theelothuria) spinifera.[2] In India it is known as cheena attai or raja attai. It lives in tropical regions of the west Indo-Pacific Ocean at depths ranging from 32 to 60 metres (105 to 197 ft). It is fished commercially to produce beche-de-mer.
Biology
Holothuria spinifera is a scavenger, sifting through the sediment on the seabed with its tentacles. It usually spends the day buried in the sediment and emerges at night.[4]
Research has been undertaken into the reproduction and life cycle of Holothuria spinifera with a view to breeding it commercially for aquaculture or for sea ranching. In a study in India, several adults were caught by hand and placed in a tank. Spawning took place spontaneously with a male liberating sperm in a white strand. A female responded by producing a spurt of eggs that were fertilized in the water column. The larvae were pelagic and developed rapidly, being fed on microalgae for the first ten days. For the next four days they passed through the non-feeding, barrel-shaped, doliolaria stage and moved about in the tank. They then settled on the bottom and underwent metamorphosis into pentactula larvae with five short tentacles at the front and two tube feet at the back. By day twenty, the tentacles and feet were more distinct and the first thorny protuberances were visible on the body. In the study, mortality of the larvae was about 95%, but this high rate was partly due to predation by copepods which the researchers were unable to eliminate from the tank.[3] Other studies have investigated how best to stimulate spawning and the optimum conditions of temperature, pH and salinity for rearing the larvae, the best diet to feed and how to stimulate them to settle.[5]
