Growth and survival performance of tropical spiny lobster (Panulirus homarus) reared at commercial sea cages: does size matter? Ilham, Bayu Priyambodo, Dea Ananda Prayogi
Marine and Fisheries Polytechnic of Jembrana, Pengambengan, Negara, Jembrana, Bali, 82218 Indonesia
Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Centre, Lombok, Indonesia
Department of Aquaculture Technology, Jakarta Technical University of Fisheries, Jl. AUP Pasar Minggu, Jakarta Selatan, 12520, Indonesia
Abstract
Spiny lobsters (Palinuridae) are important commercial seafood commodities across the globe mainly due to their meat quality and premium seafood status. The majority of spiny lobster production is from capture fisheries, where static supply or significant decline in catch has been reported worldwide in recent years. In Indonesia, cultivation of lobsters in floating net cages has been developed as an alternative to meet the increasing demand for lobster exports that cannot be met by catches from nature. In this study, we examined the production performance of tropical spiny lobster (Panulirus homarus) based on differences in seed sizes with similar quantity of stocked individuals. The trial was carried out at spiny lobster farming facilities owned by a commercial aquaculture company in Situbondo, East Java. To evaluate the effects of group size on growth performance and survival, 200 lobster seeds were stocked in each cage in three different group sizes, namely: small-size lobster or T1 (30-50 g), medium-size lobster or T2 (50-70 g) and big-size lobster or T3 (70-90 g) in triplicate. From the data obtained, it appeared that better specific growth rate and survival rate were found in T1. However, feed conversion ratio was not significantly different among those treatments. Overall, this study suggested that the capture and subsequent growout of wild post-pueruli and juveniles and the ongrowing and value-adding of adults in landbased or sea cage systems can be applied as a sustainable option of tropical spiny lobster aquaculture.
