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What are Akoya Saltwater Cultured Pearls?
An Akoya cultured pearl is produced by inserting a nucleus together with a tiny speck of mantle tissue into the Akoya Oyster (Pinctada fucata martensii). Mie, Ehime, Kumamoto, Oita and Nagasaki are the major culturing areas in Japan.

Akoya pearls are the most difficult to grow due to the low survival rates of the host oysters. Less than 5 in 10 will survive the nucleation process. Of the survivors, only about 40% will successfully encircle the shell nucleus irritant with nacre. Overall, less than 5% of pearl output can be considered "high quality". Pearls4less.com agents are selecting the best quality pearls from millions of the harvested pearls during the best season.

What are Freshwater Cultured Pearls?
Freshwater pearls are easily found in bays and rivers throughout the world. They are cultivated from freshwater mollusks and are produced by Japan, China, and The United States. Freshwater shell and pearl mussels are from the family Unionidae from which about 20 different species are commercially harvested. The most common color for freshwater cultured pearls is white. There are some other natural colors, such as lavender, dark purple, cream, and pink, depending on the type of mussels. There are multiple pearl beads harvested from one oyster. They could be in different shapes: off round, button, oval, rice, etc. Freshwater pearls are generally cultured without Mother-core and thus called the "all natural product". Of course, there are people trying to nucleate freshwater mussels with shell nuclei implants in both the creatures' bodies as well as in their mantles. If successfully done, these "Freshwater Pearls" will also be round. But so far there is no great success. All of our freshwater pearls are all natural products without mother core.

What are Tahitian Pearls?
Tahitian Black Pearls (also called SouthSea Black pearls) are cultivated in the black-lip oyster found in a variety of large pearl oysters found primarily in French Polynesia. The Tahitian pearls produced have the color in natural tints of black, silver, gray, green, orange, gold, blue and purple. An adult Pinctada oyster can reach a diameter of 30 centimeters, with weight exceeding 5 kilograms (over 10 pounds). The beautiful color combined with the large size command very high prices.

What are South Sea Pearls?
South Sea pearls are cultivated using the Pinctada maxima oyster (as called the silver lip or gold lip oyster), also known as the Silver-Lipped oyster, found in the South Seas (an area centered around Northern Australia and South-East Asia including Myanmar and Indonesia). These oysters have always been prized for their famous thick shells of lustrous mother-of-pearl. In the days of fishing for the shell, these oysters occationally yielded rare and stunning naturally ocurring pearls. Southsea pearls are probably the most expensive ones on the market. They run from 10 to 20 mm, and pearls come in many light colors and overtones, such as gold, silver, rose, white, cream, and champagne.