To investigate the effect of low temperature treatment on growth and body wall composition of Apostichopus japonicus during aestivation, three groups of sea cucumbers (average body weight 65.26±4.37g) were cultured for 120d at different temperature regimes. Treatment A was cultured at low temperatures indoor throughout the experiment, while Treatments B and C were cultured at low temperatures indoor after aestivation for 30d and 60d, respectively. The sea cucumbers were sampled every 30 days during the experiment, and their growth and body wall composition were analyzed and compared. It was found that, the weight of sea cucumbers decreased significantly during aestivation, but increased significantly after aestivation. Low temperature treatment did prevent most of the sea cucumbers from aestivation, yet their growth performance was not as good as the other treatments. The specific growth rate of Treatments A, B and C were −0.03%/d, 0.27%/d and 0.32%/d, however, their survival rate were 91.67%, 71.43% and 53.57%, respectively. Although being cultured at low temperatures during aestivation season did not promote growth of the animals, it may contribute to higher survivorship. The nutritional components of sea cucumber body wall, ranking from high to low percentage, were moisture, crude protein, ash, total sugar and crude lipids. After being cultured for 30d, Treatments B and C showed higher contents of crude protein and crude lipids, but less moisture, ash and total sugar, compared to Treatment A. By the end of the experiment, Treatments A and C showed no significant difference (P>0.05) in body wall composition compared to their initial values; this was also found in Treatment B except its content of crude lipids, which was significantly lower (P <0.05) than the initial value. The results indicated that some of the sea cucumbers may still go aestivating despite low temperature treatment in summer; sea cucumbers generally show a rapid weight gain after aestivation, and this weight gain may not accompany significant change in body wall composition. This study would provide important data support for industrialized farming of sea cucumbers.