Studies of pearl culture in freshwater mussel, Lamellidens marginalis (Lamarck)

Abstract

Studies were carried out to produce pearl in freshwater mussel, Lamellidens marginalis by inseminating process. Ceramic and plastic beads of 1-2 mm diameters and mantle pieces of 2 sq. mm size used as nuclei and graft respectively to produce pearl. It was noted that 15.1% of the total inseminated mussels formed matured pearls whereas 27.3% of them formed seed pearls and 57.6% of the mussels did not produced any pearl and 25% were found dead.