Abstract
A study was conducted from July 2013 to June 2016 on production rate, quality, and color of pearl, cultured at Trishal, Fulbaria and BFRI (Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute) of Mymensingh region. Freshwater pearl producing mussel, Lamellidens marginalis was used in this experiment. Eighty mussels per decimal were stocked in integration with fish culture. Three ponds from three locations were used. The area of each pond was 40 decimal having water depth of 1.5m in Trishal, Fulbaria and BFRI respectively. Water temperature, pH, Ammonia, Dissolve oxygen, Alkalinity, Ca2+ and Phytoplankton (× 103) ranged from 25.37-28.730C, 6.2-7.92, 0.02-0.3mg/l, 5.09-6.08mg/l, 100.17-191.50, 15.31-25.87and 48.99-63.45, respectively. Survival rate of the operated mussels were 30.62%, 34.62% and 40.25%, respectively. After 3 years of rearing, 53%, 76% and 93% pearls containing mussels were harvested from Trishal, Fulbaria and BFRI respectively. After final harvesting total pearl production, its quality and color were observed and found better at the location of BFRI, followed by Trishal and Fulbaria. Research study concluded that, the quality of pearl depends on intensive care, proper management, suitable water quality parameter, sunlight penetration, food availability and soil quality of the culture pond. 
 J Bangladesh Agril Univ 17(3): 424–429, 2019
Highlights
Pearl is one of the most attractive objects considered as symbol of beauty and known as “Queen of Gems”
China is the first largest pearl producing country and 95% freshwater pearl in the world market comes from China
L. marginalis was selected because it was identified as the best pearl producing mussel species for mantle transplantation in Bangladesh (Hossain et al, 2004)
Summary
Pearl is one of the most attractive objects considered as symbol of beauty and known as “Queen of Gems”. Pearls were known as a symbol of royalty, wealthy and powerful people (Pandey and Singh, 2015). The mussels secrete objects, called nacre to cover the external substance as a protection mechanism. The layer of this covering is deposited on the aggravation, resulting in a shining and glittering creation of a precious stone (Pandey and Singh, 2015). Cultured pearls are human creations formed by inserting a tissue graft from a donor mussel, upon which a pearl sac forms, and the inner side precipitates calcium carbonate, in the form of nacre or "mother-of-pearl" (Misra et al, 2009). China is producing an estimated of 800 to 1000 metric tons of freshwater cultured pearls annually (Dan et al, 2001)
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