Facts About Oyster

Belonging to the mollusks family, oysters are sea dwelling animal that live in a shell. They attach themselves to the rocks and coral reefs in the sea and are generally found in large groups. Depending upon the habitat, oysters can be found in different color from white, green and brown. This sea animal mainly has three major organs - respiratory, reproductive and digestive. An interesting information about the oysters is that they have the ability to survive and adapt to poor water conditions. If washed ashore during a low tide period, the shell helps them to survive outside water, till the time it remains closed and the liquid inside is clean. This liquid tapped inside them provides air and food to oysters. Unlike the predominant belief, the shape of oyster’s shell is irregular as a result of getting attached to other objects. In the adulthood, oysters get permanently attached to a hard surface. The mature shape and size of an oyster depends on the type of bottom to which it is attached. To get some more interesting and amazing information about oysters, read through the following lines.

Facts About Oyster

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Mollusca

Class: Bivalvia

Order: Ostreoida

Family: Mollusk

Subfamily: Ostreidea

Genus: Ostrea

Species: Invertebrates

Group Name: Colony, Bed or Reef

Length: 8-36 cm

Weight: 5-8 ounces

Lifespan: 20 years

Diet: Carnivorous

Habitat: Sheltered silt, san, sheltered rocky shores.

Age of Sexual Maturity: 1 year

Gestation Period: 7-10 days

Number of Offspring: Over a million eggs

Interesting & Amazing Information On Oysters

Oysters were cultivated long before the Christian era and have been an important food since the Neolithic period.
The Chinese were the first to raise oysters in artificial ponds. They used the crushed shells for medicinal purpose.
Oysters have a three chambered heart, colorless blood and a pair of kidneys.
Oysters are bisexual. They are born as males producing sperm, then switch on to egg producing females and later again switch back to being a male.
The female oysters can release around 1 million eggs over one spawning season.
The eggs produced during the female stage of oysters are stored in the gills and mantle cavity, which gets fertilized by sperm drawn in from the surrounding waters. The eggs are incubated within the oysters for 7-10 days, before being expelled.
One cannot distinguish between a male and a female oyster by examining their shells. Though oysters have different sexes, they can change their sex, one or more times, during their life span. Gonads are the organs responsible for producing eggs and sperm. These organs are made up of sex cells and surround their digestive organs.
Almost all oysters can secrete pearls, but not all are valuable. The pearl oysters come from different family to the edible oysters. Oysters produce pearl when grains of sand or other irritant gets trapped inside. These irritant materials are coated with nacre, a combination of calcium and protein, repeatedly by oysters to reduce their irritation. The nacre released by oysters convert these sand particles into pearl.
Just like a fish, oysters use both gills and mantle for breathing. The mantle of the oyster is lined with many small, thin-walled blood vessels which extract oxygen from water and expel carbon dioxide. The small three-chambered heart, under the adductor muscle, pumps colorless blood to all parts of the body, thereby supplying oxygen.
Oysters are a rich source of vitamin A, B, B2, B3, C and D. Six oysters a day meet the daily intake of iron, copper, iodine, magnesium, calcium, zinc, manganese and phosphorous.

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