Shell Weight and Length Accretion of Conus sp., in Cage Captivity at Intertidal Zone of Kailolo Village, Central Maluccas District

Abstract

Conus sp., lives in intertidal zones that has ecological, biological and economical functions of alternative protein food for local villagers of Kailolo village, Central Maluca District, Maluca Province. The increased exploitation of Conus sp. by local villagers without any consideration of its size, decreses its population in the natural habitat. Seafarming efforts to sustain the organism population and the organism as a animal seafood is needed, hence it has to be conducted a cultivation or culture. Lane (1998) stated that Conus sp., was hategorized into Phylum Mollusca that is existence and life in intertidal zone with highly total population because of the availability of its feed and supported environment. This process can be carried out by marine culture in intertidal zone. How does the accretions weight and length of the Conus sp., after feeding by additional feeds in cage cultivation in intertidal zone of Kailolo village, Haruku Sub-District? Is there any effect of additional feed to the organism density based on length and weight of body in the cage process of the area? This research is a field experiment used ecological approachment that culture organism by giving additional feed by using planted cage in the intertidal zone of Kailolo village, Haruku Sub-district. Physical and chemical sea water quality parameters of environment considerably support the growth process of Conus miles and Conus ermeneus in each cage, such as temperature is in ranged of 28⁰C - 28.1⁰C in sunny day and 26.3⁰C - 26.4⁰C in the night; pH is about 7.8 in sunny day and 7.6 in the night; Dissolved Oxigen (DO) is in ranged of 6.62-6.63 and 6.78 – 7.41 in the night; and water current is about 0.36 m/s – 0.4 m/s. Growing length and weight of Conus miles shell after feeding by fish flesh shows differences. In first cage, the growth shell of both species, C. miles and C. ermeneus, are in ranged of 4.15 mm – 4.72 mm and 4.25 mm – 5.78 mm, respectively. Moreover, the weight of C. miles in this cage is in ranged of 13.2 – 18.5 grams. On the second captivity, growing weigth of C. ermineus is about 16.5 grams – 37.7 grams. However, 15 individus of C. miles and C. ermineus at the third captivity grew at weight about 14.0 grams – 28.4 grams. There is an influence of additional feed by fish flesh and worms towards C.miles and C. ermineus in the captivity process. This influence varians significantly at rate 0.000<0.05.

Keywords: growth, feeding, Conus sp.