[Katherine]

Hi,

Please advise me on how to go about buying young fresh water mussels for farming.

I am in South Africa and as far as I can tell there are no farms here. I would like to purchase some young mussels and bring them back to my country for farming.

I would appreciate advise on where to buy them, what species are best, climate considerations and also import and export processes.

Thanks,
Kathrine

[jshepherd]

I would say that would be close to impossible. People farm the mussels in China and sell to pearl farms, but I cannot imagine how they would transport these live mussels to you. Import restrictions would probably be the least of your problems.

If you want to farm, look for a native mussel.

[Kevin Canning]

I agree, its going to be pretty hard to convince any developed nation to let you import a potentially invasive species and honestly you shouldn't try. Like Jeremy says, see whats available locally and try that.

[Valeria101]

Are there no pearl-producing mussels or saltwater bivalves in South Africa?

Just curious...thinking of the trial with Woodi's in Pisa and the Cortez pearls, etc. with their common grand idea to venture the use of natural conditions for product differentiation, basically. Kind'a interesting, I think...

Not a serious question. A bit philosophical, perhaps.

[Caitlin]

I believe there are freshwater mussels all over the world. If you lack them in your local rivers and ponds, it would be because of pollution and/or overfishing- but I have a feeling you will find that they are in your backyard or very nearby.

In this country the university system has many invertabrate specialists and many specialists in just mussels. I bet you have some university scientists in your area that know quite a bit about mussels and where they grow.

[Caitlin]

a qwinkidinki

but I saw this mussel in an online mussels of the world article. LINK
Afronaia Haas, 1962 - Africa

Afronaia framesi (Connolly, 1925)
FMNH 114661. Sabie River, South Africa.
Type Species: Indonaia framesi Connolly, 1925 [ = Afronaia framesi (Connolly, 1925) ]
Original Citation:
Literature Cited Number of Currently Recognized Taxa (5)

[Katherine]

Thanks for your responses.
I have contacted a biologist at one of Universities here to get his advice on local species.
He agrees that it is going to be near impossible to get permission to bring an exotic species into the country.

I will keep you posted on my findings.