After the read of this article, you will learn about different types of Mother-of-Pearls are obtained from different animals. Who are they?
What animals produce pearls?
Mother-of-pearl is the iridescent inside lining of a mollusk shell. It is most commonly found in three types of mollusks—pearl oysters, freshwater mussels, and abalone.
What are pearls made of?
Mother-of-pearls are from shellfish, and there are many kinds of shellfish, such as abalone, mussels, oysters, giant clams, and so on, that produce pearls.
But the most common, large production, good quality, to be considered the sea pearl shell. The mother-of-pearl oyster belongs to the bivalve group, which, together with the mussel and the scallop that we will talk about later, is a species that lives with its filaments attached to rocks, coral reefs, gravel, or other shells.
What is a mother-of-pearl shell?
The mother-of-pearl shell is a general term for the animals of the family Mollusca, class Valvularia, order Heterostyla, family Pearlysidae.
The two mother-of-pearl shells are unequal, the left shell is slightly convex, the right shell is flatter, usually with a foot filament opening, the shell top before and after the ear, the latter ear is larger than the front ear, and the shell surface is often with scales.
There is no water pipe, and the foot is tongue-like. Lives in the tropical and subtropical oceans, with the filaments fixed in the low tide line below the shallow sea rocks and coral reefs live!
The pearl oyster is a warm seafood, very common on China’s coast. There are many types of pearl oysters, including mother-of-pearl oysters, Pinctada martensii, penguin oysters, etc.
Among them, the mother-of-pearl oyster is the most common. So the mother-of-pearl is the most common.
Where do pearls come from?
Nacre is very common, but producing beaded pearls isn’t, Pearl farmers or oyster farmers simply scoop the mollusks out of the freshwater, sea, or farm they are grown in.
Habits of Pearls are obtained from different animals
Different Mother of Pearls are obtained from different animals that have different habits.
Seawater is clear, and the current is not rapid, from the intertidal zone to more than 10 meters deep mixed with gravel on the muddy sandy substrate life.
Different Mother of Pearls are obtained from different animals’ normal life requirements of seawater temperature are between 15-25 degrees Celsius, the water temperature exceeds 30 degrees Celsius or below 13 degrees Celsius, and the ability to lose normal activity.
The mother-of-pearl layer of the shell is thick, and it is an excellent species of seawater-cultured pearls, capable of producing large-high-quality pearls.
Guangxi Hepu has been famous for the superior quality of pearls produced by pearl shells since ancient times. The South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute has utilized large mother-of-pearl shells to cultivate large pearls that are rare in the world.
The mother-of-pearl shell culture to the calm waves of the inner bay, sand and mud, rocky reefs and gravel on the seabed, and the current is not too intense place is appropriate.
The spawning period is from May to September. In the salinity of 27 ~ 31 ‰, the water temperature is 26 ~ 29 ℃ under the right conditions, the development of the surface plate larvae needs 18 ~ 20 days. Bait can be cast flat algae or diatoms.
The mother-of-pearl oyster has a strong ability to adapt to the high salinity environment and a poor ability to adapt to low salinity.
The mother-of-pearl oyster meat is edible, the mother-of-pearl shell can be used as raw materials for shell carving, conch shells, and MOP buttons.
The different Mother of Pearls are obtained from different Shells, what are they?
There are many types of mother-of-pearl shells, including mother-of-pearl oysters, white mother-of-pearl oysters, black lip mother-of-pearl oysters, Pinctada martensii, penguin mother-of-pearl oysters, and so on.
There are four main shell types of Mother of Pearls are obtained from.
(1) The large mother-of-pearl shell, also known as the white pearl shell, can cultivate white and gold-colored pearls. South Sea pearls are obtained from this type of mother-of-pearl shell.
(2) Black Mother-of-pearl shell, also called black lip shell, is used to cultivate black pearls. The Tahiti black pearls are obtained from this black-lip mother-of-pearl shell.
(3) Pinctada martensii mother-of-pearl shells, which are generally used to cultivate marine pearls. The mother-of-pearls and South Pearls are obtained from this kind of mother-of-pearl shell.
(4) Penguin mother-of-pearl oyster, a new species of pearl-cultivating shells in recent years, is mainly used to cultivate epiphytic pearls. Epiphytic pearls are obtained from this Penguin mother-of-pearl shells.
Species distribution of shells with pearls are obtained from
The mother-of-pearl Shell, which produces good quality mother-of-pearls, is the main species of pearl farming in China.
Mother-of-pearl Shell is distributed along the coasts of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Taiwan from the south of Chiba Prefecture in Japan to the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Australia.
What shell has pearls in it? Where do we get pearls from?
Mother of Pearls is made by marine oysters and freshwater mussels as a natural defense against an irritant such as a parasite entering their shell or damage to their fragile body. We can get the mother-of-pearls from the oysters below showing.
Gold-lip shell, specializing in the production of yellow pearls, the color of gold. Golden pearls are obtained from these gold-lip shells.
White shell, also known as the large mother-of-pearl shell, is the production of pearls with larger particles, known as the South Seas pearls.
The white pearls are obtained from shells south of the Philippines, Hainan Island, Leizhou Peninsula to the west coast of Australia, the Solomon Islands and the Malay Archipelago, and other places.
Black-lip shell, producing black mother-of-pearls. The black pearls are obtained from these black-lip shells.
Ikebukuro, belonging to the land lakes, and rivers. which grows pearl shells, for the nucleus-less pearl. The nucleus-less pearls are obtained from these river shells.
Do all shells have the mother-of-pearl?
Pearls are harder to come by than mother-of-pearl because they aren’t guaranteed to be included in any mollusk. All mollusks create a mother-of-pearl protection coating if they make nacre. This makes pearls more expensive and valued in the jewelry market than mother-of-pearls.
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