I have always assumed the answer to that question lies in the different chemical make up of different lagoons. Even the biologists on the inside of the Tahitian pearl game don't know what gives pearls their colors exactly.
There are many reasons for the color variations within atholls Josh. They are both environmental and genetical. Many genetic studies were done in the 1990's on the populations of black-lips (a researcher by last name Menzies or Benzies was quite active) and he said that each atholl was actually harboring different sub-populations that could -eventually- become different sub-species of the Pinctada margaritifera.
He propossed a possible explanation for high black-lip mortalities in the 1980's: Genetic Pollution, due to the relocation of populations of oysters from one atholl to another.
Welp, that answers my question as to whether or not Josh could bring rainbow-lips to his house to play with his cuties and possibly increase his pearl base.
I am so tickled you two finally got to meet, share war stories, and be good buds. Would have loved to have been a fly on those walls.
Doug, welcome back! You have been missed. Glad you and your family are safe and sound.
Browns: Hmmmmm, so can brown Tahitians be differentiated between treated and untreated on sight by lack of overtone? Now that y'all mention it, I've never seen a chocolate with overtone unless it is a freshwater.
Hi Douglas and Knotty,
Yup, good to have Douglas back.
That makes sense about the different lagoons harboring different subspecies therefore explaining different color tendencies. Very cool. It doesn't make sense to me though that introducing a slightly different species would weaken a strain. I would expect the opposite, that it would strengthen it. I would expect the die offs to be due to the introduction of new diseases from the new occupants, no?
Knotty, I would expect someone like Jeremy to be able to answer your question about differentiating treated and untreated chocolate Tahitians. He has experience with both, me with just one.
It did not make it to the Low Countries either. I see occasionally brown Tahitians in the shopwindows but have never seen there chocolade FWs. Neither saw people wearing them.