Abstract: Sea ranching has become one of important ways to mariculture sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicas.As economic deposit feeder species,the sea cucumber has shown promise of removing and recycling the organic materials in the sediment and can play an important ecological role in the maricultural ecosystem.In order to understand the feeding eco-physiological characteristics of sea cucumber A.japonicas,feeding behaviors of different sizes of the sea cucumber at different temperature and feed quality conditions were observed.In this paper,the sea cucumbers were divided into 4 experimental groups by the wet weight.The feeds with different organic contents were got by mixing different ratios of kelp powder and sea mud.5 temperature levels,i.e.(5.1±0.4),(10.9±0.7),(12.5±0.6),(14.2±0.7),(16.1±0.6)℃ were set.The results showed that OC and body weight,had significant influence on the ingestion rate of A.japonicas,however,the interaction of OC,WW had no significant influence on it.The relationship between ingestion rate(OIR)and organic content of feed(OC)could be described as OIR=a×OC/(OC+b),where a,b represented OIR_max,half-saturation constant,respectively.Moreover,the relationship between OIR and water temperature(T)could be described as OIR=c×T²+d×T+e,c=-(0.007 5-0.016 4),d=0.298-0.769,e=-(0.742-1.977).Water temperature(T),wet weight(WW)had a significant influence on feeding behavior of A.japonicas.The interaction also had a significant influence on OIR,but not on AE.In addition,stepwise regression got the relationship of OIR T,WW or OIR OC,WW as follows:OIR=12.55×WW^-0.361+7.92×OC/(OC+4.373)-4.70 or OIR=2.2×WW^-0.384+0.033×WW^-0.384 ×T²+0.077×T respectively.The covariance analysis results showed that the correlation coefficient of the equations reached a significant level.The results suggested that water temperature and food quality were the key factors affecting the feeding ability of the sea cucumber.Through this experiment,we got the necessary parameters for capacity assessment model,such as maximum feeding rate and half-saturation constant of feeding,which will further help to set up the carrying capacity model of sea cucumber farming.