This gonad enhancement study investigates the effect of different fresh and formulated feeds and feeding regimes on the growth and gonad quality of wild‐collected adult sea urchin, Tripneustes gratilla, under farm conditions for over 18 weeks. In the first 12 weeks (phase 1), urchins were fed fresh Ulva rigida (U); a 50:50 mixture of fresh U. rigida and Gracilaria gracilis (UG); fresh G. gracilis (G) and a formulated diet 20U (containing 20% U. rigida), and in the final 6 weeks (phase 2) of the study, diet was changed to a formulated feed (20U diet). By the end of phase 1, urchins fed the 20U diet produced gonads (50.72 ± 5.4 g) that were significantly heavier (p < .001) than the gonads of urchins fed the fresh seaweed diets (U, UG & G). By the end of phase 2, gonad weight of urchins in treatment groups UG‐20U and G‐20U were similar to those fed the 20U‐20U diet. Gonad colour of urchins in the G‐20U treatment became significantly lighter (ANOVA, p = .029) and poorer quality, compared with urchins in the U‐20U group. This gonad enhancement study, conducted on wild‐collected adult T. gratilla, has shown that a formulated feed (20U diet) can enhance gonad growth and produce commercially acceptable gonads. This farm‐based study supports previous findings from aquarium‐based studies by our group and indicates that short‐term sea urchin gonad enhancement can be carried out under farm conditions in South Africa.

中文翻译：

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新鲜海藻和补充海藻的配方饮食对农场条件下捕捞海胆曲霉的生长和性腺质量的影响

这项性腺增强研究调查了在农场条件下长达18周以上的不同新鲜饲料和配方饲料以及喂养方式对野生成年海胆Triptripstes gratilla的生长和性腺质量的影响。在最初的12周（第1阶段）中，向顽童喂食了新鲜的硬叶乌尔瓦（U）；新鲜的僵硬的乌贼和Gracilaria gracilis（UG）的50:50混合物；新鲜的G. gracilis（G）和20U（含20％的刚性链霉菌）配方饲料，在研究的最后6周（第2阶段）中，饮食改为配方饲料（20U饲料）。在第1阶段结束时，喂食20U日粮的顽童产生的性腺（50.72±5.4 g）明显较重（p <.001），而不是用海藻的性腺喂食新鲜的海藻饮食（U，UG和G）。到阶段2结束时，UG-20U和G-20U治疗组中海胆的性腺重量与20U-20U日粮中的相似。 与U-20U组中的海胆相比，G-20U处理中的海胆的性色明显变浅（ANOVA，p = .029），质量较差。这项针对野生采集的成年T. gratilla的性腺增强研究表明，配方饲料（20U日粮）可以促进性腺生长并生产商业上可接受的性腺。这项基于农场的研究支持了我们小组基于水族馆的研究的先前发现，并表明可以在南非的农场条件下进行短期海胆性腺增强。