Size of Nucleus

Here's a P.maxima. I dunno, I wouldn't want to shove big round things into his gonad. He's TOO CUTE. Just paint some eyes on him.

Pinctada maxima pearl oyster shell
 
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Heheheheh, that's hilarious! Nice to hear from you again, Effisk!!
Are you still living near "you know who's" castle???

Mr. P. maxima looks like he's ready for trick or treating!

Slraep
 
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Bad boy

Bad boy

Oh no. Step away from Pearl-Guide for a couple days and look what happens: thread deterioration. A "Bad Boy" oyster is spawned. Haha! I love it.

Effisk, Tahitian pearls don't get "processed" in Tahiti. Processed to us means altered. Altered by radiation, dye, bleach and bunch of scary chemicals that should have nothing to do with our natural gems from the sea. Tahitian pearls get tumbled but that is the extent of it. Tumbling removes a crumby organic layer that sticks to the pearl when it comes out of the water. Tumbling does not influence nacre thickness a measurable amount. Thinly nacred pearls are the result of poor growth that results from either insufficient time in the water or from oysters that have been in long enough but were inhibited from eating properly by fouling.

The MOP nuclei we use mostly come from P. Maxima though the smallest sizes (2.0, 2.1bu) come sometimes from P. Margaritifera. As I said on my website, this kind of nucleus material showed in independent tests to produce three times more A (AAA) grade pearls than the freshwater mussel varieties. I also run a company that imports these from Asia and sells to other Tahitian companies.

The solar panels we use are specially made for the marine environment. I don't know who makes them but we buy them from a local company called "Solare Energy"

Slraep, I hadn't heard about 21mm nucs either. When we seed 18mm (not exactly everyday) nucs we often have to break the hinge of the oyster to get it in. This is of course risky for the survival of the oyster, but usually the only way to get them to open wide enough.

I hadn't heard about glued beads either. It was my understanding that glueing made for bogus beads but maybe the technology has gotten better since that info.

4 to 5mm has got to very common in P. Maximas. Here in one year's growth we sometimes get "Super Oysters" capable of producing over 4mms. They are rare but pop up with decent regularity, if that makes sense.
 
Josh said:
Slraep, I hadn't heard about 21mm nucs either. When we seed 18mm (not exactly everyday) nucs we often have to break the hinge of the oyster to get it in. This is of course risky for the survival of the oyster, but usually the only way to get them to open wide enough.

I hadn't heard about glued beads either. It was my understanding that glueing made for bogus beads but maybe the technology has gotten better since that info.

4 to 5mm has got to very common in P. Maximas. Here in one year's growth we sometimes get "Super Oysters" capable of producing over 4mms. They are rare but pop up with decent regularity, if that makes sense.
Click to expand...

Geez Josh, braking the hinge! Really, that's muscling a mussel(I mean oyster). I don't think I wanted to know about that. Just like people don't want to know about composite nuclei. They use an organic protein based glue to hold the halves together so I have no idea if anything would show in an X-ray as to it not being whole.

Stuffing mini golfballs into gonads, breaking hinges---what else must I mentally block out?? Ohmmm.

4mm-5mm of nacre deposit on a 10mm pearl might be easier for an oyster, but covering 22mm is more surface area. Quite a feat. Super oyster for sure.

Slreap
 
That's right muscling or musseling pearls from selfish shellfish. The increased surface area between a 10 and 20mm pearl doesn't really factor into the oyster's growth capacity as the nacre secreting cells divide and multiply at the beginning of the pearls growth.
 
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Josh said:
The increased surface area between a 10 and 20mm pearl doesn't really factor into the oyster's growth capacity as the nacre secreting cells divide and multiply at the beginning of the pearls growth.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? Thanks. I'm not getting it.

Slraep
 
Josh said:
Effisk, Tahitian pearls don't get "processed" in Tahiti. Processed to us means altered. Altered by radiation, dye, bleach and bunch of scary chemicals that should have nothing to do with our natural gems from the sea. Tahitian pearls get tumbled but that is the extent of it. Tumbling removes a crumby organic layer that sticks to the pearl when it comes out of the water. Tumbling does not influence nacre thickness a measurable amount.
Click to expand...
I know that Tahitian pearls are only tumbled in Tahiti.

I meant that the pearls can be processed overseas, after they pass the service de la Perliculture control. That friend told me some D grade pearls can pass for B grade after being processed in China...

Here's a picture of a tumbler in a pearl farm:
perles_07_xxxl.jpg
 
Josh said:
Haha, you're making fun of me again.
Click to expand...


No, seriously. I understand that whether you shove a 10mm bead or a 20mm bead up the oyster's gonad, the healing process is such that both beads, regardless of size, get the same rapid nacre secreting cell response to coat them. But isn't it more stressfull for the oyster to keep piling nacre on a bigger surface? It's got to put out more protein and that protein has to nucleate good aragonite crystals. That can't just materialize out of thin air? There has to be more organic nutrition used and more minerals? Is the difference is size really negligible?

Slraep
 
Effisk, Yeah I don't doubt that they can raise a pearl a couple quality measures. I have heard that too.
Slraep, My feeling is that there is plenty of nacre producing capacity to go around. What is limiting is the quality of it. I think the age and health of the oyster are the limiting factors for nacre output, not the amount of surface area needed to cover. This is my intuition, not necessarily the hard facts.
 
Thanks for all of the information everyone! Sorry that I have not posted back sooner, my computer has been giving me some trouble. It amazes me that everyone knows so much.
-Steph
 
Okay, so I was off by one millimetre. My memory fails me sometimes. Biggest composite nucleus is 20mm but that was five years ago.

Here they are. Believe me now? I found the article in my pearl file so you'll have to forgive me for not posting the source. I just don't remember. Damn that failing memory.


MOP nuclei for seeding pearl oysters
From: Dr Stefan Maser (14 October 2002)

I guess you still remember that we are a manufac-
turer of perfect, round white MOP nuclei from
Pinctada maxima. Besides our very competitive
prices I would like to emphasise that our nuclei are
polished without any chemicals.
Besides unglued MOP nuclei, we produce also
glued MOP nuclei up to 20 mm diameter. In this
context, I want to point out that our used glue is
developed and applied for medical human purpos-
es and is therefore absolutely not toxic. I can say
with our seven years experience that:
• the glue has not caused any undue deaths, and
• there is no conspicuous fracturing during gesta-
tion period.
That means the expense for larger white mussel
shell nuclei is no more necessary due to the cheap-
er and absolute comparable covering of pearl nacre
on our MOP nuclei. In other words; pearl farmers
will save time and a lot of costs, they are in a posi-
tion to increase their profits significantly!
We are able to supply unglued MOP nuclei up to
12.7 mm diameter and glued MOP nuclei up to
20mm diameter.

Dr Stefan Maser
AURA Knopfdesign GmbH & Co. KG
Robert-Bosch-Strabe
14 D-72189 V?hringer
Denmark
 
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Josh said:
Slraep 1
Josh 0
Click to expand...

If you were even remotely mathematically inclined, you would forego the useless scorekeeping and realise that yours would always remain constant. A zero.

Slraep
 
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